elephant songs

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Elephant Songs is a band with an always changing line-up: new musicians join drummer Robbert van Hulzen every time he stops somewhere interesting on his way from Chennai (South India) to Amsterdam (Holland) on a vintage Enfield motorcycle loaded with drums. Fourteen countries, 15,000 kilometres, who knows how many months. See also the full calendar below – and check back regularly or subscribe as new dates are added often.
Of each meeting, a track is published on nocount.org; after arriving in Europe, a full album will be released.

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Date City Venue
19 February 2012 8:00pm fireflies, elephant songs in bangalore
amit heri – guitar
maarten visser – saxophones
keith peters – bass
robbert van hulzen – drums
18 February 2012 7:00pm plantation house, elephant songs in bangalore
Address: leela palace
maarten visser – saxophone
keith peters – bass
robbert van hulzen – drums
10 February 2012 8:30pm b-flat, elephant songs in bangalore
maarten visser – saxophone
keith peters – bass
robbert van hulzen – drums

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Musicians gather round an elephant. Touching it.
They all feel different parts of the elephant – the head feels like a pot, the tip of the tail could be a brush. The back a mortar, the trunk a plough. They’re all partly in the right, and together they compose the elephant. If their parts add up to an elephant, that is. Could be a bulldozer. A dead rabbit. A christmas tree, or an Enfield 350 cc motorcycle from 1979.
Elephant Songs is the optimistic inversion of the old story of the blind men and the elephant. Everyone experiences music differently, but as improvising musicianis we can always create a piece of music together, whatever we call it and wherever we come from. Each fresh combination of musicians plays music that is the result of a few days of working together, playing tunes from Robbert’s elephant songbook and pieces brought by the other members-of-the-moment. The music plays with odd metre rock grooves, filmic melodies, South Indian rhythm games, homespun harmonies, and an imperceptable balance between composition and improvisation.


the bike

Fourteen countries, 15,000 kilometres on a 1979 350 cc Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle. From Madras and the deep south via India’s west coast up to Amritsar, crossing into Pakistan at the Wagah border. After Lahore, Quetta, and the somewhat nervousness-inspiring Baluchistan desert, I’ll cross into Iran, and ride up into Armenia and Georgia after passing through Kerman, fairy-tale Isfahan, and Tehran. At the Sarpi border into Turkey, following the northern coast. After Istanbul I’ll ride northwest in Europe: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, and into the low lands.
I’ll bring my drums and a list of musicians on the way. I’d like to play with with two or three musicians at the time, in a previously not existing combination. We’ll all bring something to work with, and come up with music together. Perform – in someone’s living room or on a brightly-lit stage – and record it.
After each session I’ll post a track on my blog nocount.org , and I’ll use the recordings to make an album after the trip is over. More sound and text and image can be found on my blog.
Of course all musicians have their own version of music. Music is not the universal language, it’s a phenomenon like music: it’s everywhere, and wildly different from place to place. But since it’s sound rather than words, we can meet and use our own idioms while working together. I think that when we share our musics, we all create parts that together form the elephant. While our perspectives may differ, the elephant is the combined effort of all the parts. Sometimes we may not know in advance, or even while we’re creating it, what exactly our elephant looks like, or if it even is an elephant. But you’ll find a song there.

Music has taken Dutch drummer Robbert van Hulzen many places (Indonesia, the US, Palestine, Canada, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain etc), but he has a special relationship with India, which he’s been visiting for the past fifteen years, learning about South Indian music and playing with various groups and musicians from the fusion scene and the classical world, including Keith Peters, Maarten Visser, Misko M’ba, BK Chandramouli, Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma, and Manjula Nagesh and organises his own projects. In Amsterdam, he works with mathpunk band Lola Montez, dancer Michael Jahoda, contemporary gamelan ensemble Gending, and many others, and writes and produces music for film and theatre.

Robbert introduces Elephant Songs on Yugiyudan Yugiyungal on 3 February 2012 at 10 pm on Jaya TV (replay on 7 Feb at 6:30 pm).

One Comment

  1. Deborah Klump
    Posted 6 February 2012 at 4:37 pm | Permalink

    Robbert, what a great idea and awesome project!! I am interested in what kind of ecclectic Elephant form you will turn after this trip and experience. Also: will you really have the opportunity to meet capable and willing musicians on every stop on the road?
    Have a lot of fun and drive safely. Good luck.
    Deborah

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