Niek invited me to make the witchiest of soundtracks and I invited Sophie Prins for a day to feed me with some vocal work. I'm probably skipping over a lot of things but for now, that's how we came to Sabbath. I'll post some sections of the soundtrack below to give an impression, this piece has been an absolute joy to work on.

Eef invited me to work with her as a composer at the DOX Club programme. We worked together for three months for two days a week with twenty (semi-)prof's to create a short work to be presented at the 'Club Specials'. The piece was very well received and even got booked after at Korzo and Lowlands.

Dance & Concept

Noa Tielens invited me to help her score the soundtrack for "Het Portret" a performance by LeBelle. For this show about family I scored some ambient pieces, two songs and did the montage. The show played once in the Rabozaal in ITA in the scenography of the ITA ensemble and it was a lot of fun.

Choreography

Together with Dalton Jansen I developed the soundtrack of JAH! in multiple stages. The piece is a personal reflection of the choreographer on fatherhood and uses the Rastafari religion and culture as a setting for this performance.

Atropos is the project with the most ambitious scope I have taken so far. For the final production I had created about two and a half hours of score of which we used one and a half. It featured four distinct story/timelines, a musical duet about working in a tractor factory and a lot of ambience music. I boiled down about thirty musical que's to a sixteen track album that I published on Spotify.

For "Dat Wat Ontembaar Is" I collaborated with Melisa Diktas to build the score for her own solo work. For the soundtrack I sampled Melisa's Dahul drum and vocals into a battle anthem. She provided me with a sample that she took while on a ferry which I used as the root note for the composition (pretty well audible in part one presented below).

There were some strings attached to Mees and Maxime in No Strings Attached. They asked me to compose a soundtrack for their bungee dance duet. For the composition I tried to mimic the elasticity of their bungees through the articulation of the sound.

MENSJA collective commissioned me to make the background music of their first full length performance. 

You're Not the Only One is the first work I made with Evelien Jansen at Korzo for Any Body, Every Body (damn those are some long titles). Eef's piece revolved around connection and care. We had quite an elaborate development and research for the music of the piece which I also published in 2024 as 'negatieve ruimten'. 

Ouverture

For Vier x Vier with Theater a/d Rijn Cheroney Pelupessy was invited to create a short piece to feature in an evening alongside three other pieces developed at the same production house. She commissioned me to make gamelan-inspired music within my own signature with quite a short development period.

I got to work with Hani Andary on 'Aandacht' quite briefly on this project. I put together a collection of music that I had made before and weaved those pieces together with one custom piece of music that I made for aandacht specifically.

After Keturunan (2022) Cheroney Pelupessy asked me to compose some additional music for her duet with Jefta Tanate and tifa drum player Jermaine Rumahlaiselan. The piece consisted of three musical arcs, opening with a Tahuri played live by Jermaine, followed by a 10 minute score by me. The middle arc was covered by live drums from Jermaine and Jefta followed by a "finale" that I composed.

Exp Inc.  contacted me to score an escape room for them. The escape room was a virtual experience held at a conference about cyber security. I composed three long, winding tracks on my synths for this commission.

After a failed attempt to negotiate a license for Insides, originally commissioned for Gerleen Balstra's "Hanging out to Dry". Dalton asked me to make a sibling to that piece of music I wrote half a decade ago with the monetary budget of two days work. When I came in the work was practically finished, it just needed a piece of music. The dance consisted of repetitive movements in a singular formation so I felt like the music needed to have some deviations that always pulled back to the steady triplet core that it has.

After Liefde en Dan (2021) Anne asked me to work again with her on a research that led up to High two years later. I might do a bit of a longer report on this piece some other time, you can find the full soundtrack on my Spotify page.

I was commissioned by Alessio Reedijk to do the vocal recording, sound design and music of this short film that was made for the promotion of DAS Arts institute.Even though the film is called research (for obvious reasons), the role I played in the development didn't take that much research. I got together with Shelley to record the voice over together with Flip and Alessio. We might have had this inspirational drone running in the background at that time.Mostly it was me just using the tools I already had gathered up to this point to develop the soundtrack of this film. The folly was a bit more subtle at some point (and also a first for me) but I think it does come out natural and unnatural at the points where it is intended.I will probably never have this amount of control over the audio in a short film again, but I'm really happy with the final mix of the project. 

A year after our work on Mitt Jag Heidi invited me over to Skanes Dansteater to compose for a Trio she was going to develop for Jing, Tiemen and Dario. We didn't start start this process with a narrative in mind. Some themes passed the revue but the first spark was inflation and deflation. The breath of the bellows of an accordeon.

Spreken Zonder Woorden is an intimate piece made by Anne Suurendonk within the "AYA op de Huid" concept. Long story short, it was made to be performed in classes. It is a dance-theatre performance about the ripple effects of having parents who fled to the Netherlands. Marco's parents are originally from Bosnia and Thu's are from Vietnam.

Run Quiet is a piece about domestic violence. It is a charged, heavy subject that takes a lot of patience and care to safely translate into a theatre piece. It is based on Dalton's personal experience and accounts from domestic abuse victims he has talked to. Due to the delicate theme and intimacy this has been a very complex piece to compose properly and to do it justice. This portfolio entry is a bit more elaborate than the others and I hope it's an interesting peek into one of my processes.  

Joseph Simon asked me to write a new score for his piece Breakingscapes. It is quite a straight forward piece, mostly about dancers moving in space with specific breaking techniques. It's like an entire performance that revolves around the 'Pretzel'. 

Cheroney Pelupessy contacted me to assist Karindra Perrier with the composition for her piece Keturunan. A piece about diaspora, the cultural heritage of the Indonesian and Maluku people that moved to the Netherlands decades ago.

Bitterzoet is a documentary I did the sound design and composition for. It's a documentary with archival footage and interviews with students from the Jazz- Musical- Urban- Contemporary Dance department at the Amsterdam Academy of the Arts. The department was forced to shut down because, according to the education minister who decided this at that time, there were too many similar bachelor's of dance in the Netherlands. So just like the contemporary department in the same school JMD had to be shut down. This film is like a final hurrah and farewell for the education and it's legacy.

During the pandemic I was commissioned to compose Mitt Jag at Regionteater Vast for Heidi Vierthaler. It's a piece about identity and accepting yourself for who you are made for young audiences. Because of the Corona travel restrictions and my own personal health problems I ad to make the composition remotely which came with it's own set of challenges and revelations.

Liefde en Dan is a dance- theatre piece by Anne Suurendonk. For this work I performed live as a musician and performer together with four dancers. The narrative of the production is based on stories in love and what it takes to make it last. There is no one-size fits all approach to this theme and it proved to be quite complex to draw a cohesive line throughout the hour-long performance. Everyone has their own individual story and their own discoveries to make. In a lot of youth theatre there is some food for thought to be had after the fact. However, this piece turned into more of an abstract exposition of anecdotes which is more open ended.

After some years of mixing, recording and producing my own recordings I was commissioned to practice my techniques on a work other then my own. Dashboard is a theatre production by DIEHELEDING for which I functioned as vocal engineer and mix-/mastering engineer. Turning the creativity of the collective into a professional sounding recording.

I was invited by Emma Evelein to participate in her Rooftop session curated by ISH. For one evening during the spring of 2021 we created a short film on the roof of a parking garage attached to the RAI convention center in Amsterdam. Emma was inspired by the work I made previously for Dalton titled "Afstand" and requested me to rework this for her concept. Since the original work was made with samples from Sophie Prins I decided to invite her to the session to improvise together with me.

Symphony of 2020 was a continuation of Symphony of Now. Due to the pandemic we had to continue the process without the help of our colleagues from Uganda. The piece revolved around the concept of a normal night out before corona. Why do we party? Is it to take drugs? Is it to get together and have fun? What happens when you are not having fun? These and many other questions we tried to answer in this ambitious piece. In the end only performed shortly during the Afrovibes festival of 2020.

The murder on George Floyd took hold of the world while Dalton Jansen was tasked to make a quartet for Conny Jansen in Rotterdam. The piece revolved around those events. The music reflected the gravity of the situation. Deep, grotesque and relentless. It was an evolution from the piece originally comissioned for "One of Each". This soundtrack later reached it's final stage during the making of "Attack" with added vocals by Sophie Prins and an even more rythmically driven approach.

An intricate collaboration with Casper van der Putte and Artbeat Amsterdam. A piece about recurring events, ripples in time and reflection. For this big stage production I was tasked to make a soundtrack for choreography as well as surround audio for drama. A completely programmed Ableton set was the result of many hours of labor and delays by the corona pandemic. The end result was a renowned immersive dance-theatre experience.

Made in collaboration with the students of the teacher's department 4 in Amsterdam. The students paired up to each make their own segment eventually composed together by Anne Suurendonk. It eventually led to a 20 minute dance film made by CJ Perez a collage of styles and flavors. A final goodbye to being a student together. 

Corona struck so approaches were affected. For this year's piece made by Heidi Vierthaler she commissioned three students to write a song for a short dance film. Senne, Ricky and Rose came up with Closer an acoustic guitar song the revolved around words and phrases from the class. Heidi commissioned me to edit the music into a more electronic jacket. I morphed and shaped the voices to turn it into a suitable soundtrack for contemporary dance.

Bloedband was the first full lenght performance I made in collaboration with choreographer Anne Suurendonk. A piece about what it is like to be siblings in different phases of life. What started as a dance centric piece at the Zeeland Nazomerfestival ended up being something completely different. It was during this piece that I started writing songs to form a narrative within the abstraction of dance. I wrote songs reminiscing about the past and about trying to separate yourself from your siblings legacy. In the end finding what it truely means to be related and to be growing up together.

A collaboration between Artbeat Amsterdam and Batalo East supported by DOX. In this piece Faizal Mostrixx and me collaborated on a live club dance experience. Bringing together the two worlds of the western scene and the Ugandan scene. Mixing the east-african influences with western techno. We performed as a part of Afrovibes festival.

Made in collaboration with Melvin Fraenk and Anne Suurendonk Influx was at that time the most ambitious piece I created. The story of the piece became what the process was for me. Revolving around fixation, being sucked into a creative flow without any control of self. Three weeks of sleep deprivation and obsession later Influx was born. A rollercoaster that left me asking "how did I get here?". If I'm completely honest I still don't quite understand what went down in my studio those days. In retrospect it was a turning point in my career as a composer where I really started to get a grasp on concept and being able to translate that into music. Giving it all you got until there is nothing left.

Or "La Plage" as I fondly remember it. Was a piece made for a forum by Feadan Mccall. A piece about freedom and nature. Mostly driven by repetitive patterns and rhythms I found a sound that connected to the ocean. The human whale cry. Performed on the beach and taped by CJ it came out as an ethereal statement to liberation.

The most recent iteration on the Double. A piece about friendship but also about wanting to be different. Can I find out who I am when there is someone so close to me? A tumultuous process led to a piece of music that just wasn't up to par with what was needed for the piece. After some consideration Dalton Jansen asked me to remix To the Edge 3 for this performance. Reluctantly I tried and it came out alight. The composition originally planned for this piece eventually was used for "Do We Feel?".  

The last of the To the Edge trilogy. A trio that brings the saga to the conclusion. This time in better shape then ever I was more prepared for the work ahead. Utilizing an old soviet synth and letting that resonate through an amp in my recordings. This was probably one of tha fastest pieces I made. Going through some hardship myself during the time it was just something that needed to get out of my system. Performing to the edge from the edge. Closure at last.

After growing his company ambition Dalton Jansen took on a new challenge with the Talent Program. A piece choreographed by one of his colleagues Gihan Koster. Instead of providing established dancers with work the work was made with dancers still in education to step up the ladder and learn the tools of the trade. It resulted in a funky freaky piece that was presented during the Dalton Jansen Choreography evening in Theater Rotterdam.

A piece about dragging and pushing. This work with Heidi Vierthaler was a challenging creation. After a few years of making for the third year students of the Urban Contemporary department in Amsterdam there are some recurring patterns. In this phase of education the students are always exhausted and wanting to move on. This piece is that one last step out the door. One more before it all unravels.

As a continuation of the work MME Artbeat Amsterdam was requested to reprise and adapt the performance for a different format. Combined with actors and additional dancers we live-composed a 4 hour performance on the day we remember the fallen of war in the Netherlands. During this 4 hour session I would improvise pieces and que fresh music on the spot as the show would go on. A lot of discoveries were made a lot of lessons learned in the end, the show always goes on.

After a year long hiatus a new piece with Gerleen Balstra. Passing on is a journey through time and space in composition. Coloring in elements with music and guiding the audience into an unknown world. From the most distorted to classical sounds everything finds it's place in the end. The sparse, clean is always in tension with the dense muddy. An ode to the classics a moment to grieve, a moment to live.

Artbeat Amsterdam was commissioned by MyChannels to make dance for a commercial to find new paperboys. After a successful demo I got to do the music for the commercial. It turned out to be a rap/r&b inspired song to capture the urban atmosphere of being a paperboy. The lyrics and rap are completely focused around putting papers in mailboxes. As catchy as possible whilst still keeping some form of underground musical integrity. It was a long and challenging process but it turned out great and unique. Almost more like a short film then a commercial.

In collaboration with Artbeat Amsterdam and DOX this piece was made. The embodiment of the Music Movement Sessions in an interactive theater piece. A leap into the deep as I was part of the piece as live music performer. It started out as just dance, as it is, a bit of a party. It turned out as something more. A celebration of life in a world of death. We made a deep connection with the piece and the emotions that it conveyed on the audience. A broad spectrum of ecstasy, misery and everything in between. MME was a trip, with many different destinations.

Artbeat Amsterdam has been organizing Music Movement Sessions since 2017. This session was commissioned by Angela Davis through SNDO. A one time mind bending live dance experience for anyone. In collaboration with choreographer Melvin Fraenk we danced for 6 hours with the attendees. An impromptu live improvisation session for us both. All that remains are the recordings of that day and the memory.

A research piece turned film by Feaden Mcall and Sophie Prins. I was commissioned to make a piece that was light and ethereal. What followed was a process with a lot of bends and turns that eventually made it's way into film. Inspired by birds an floating and a different approach to vocals led to this piece.