Tag Archives: music meetings

live at true brew, lahore

On Thursday 26 April, a fantastic selection of musicians from the Lahore rock and fusion scene participated in Elephant Songs. Co-produced by True Brew Studios, ProperGanda, and Aamach Productions, who are also preparing the release of some filmclips and all the audio of the evening. Here’s a [...]

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rooftop meeting and show tonight

On Sunday 15 April, I was visited by Akmal Qadri and his son Nazar Abbas and tabla player Kashif Ali Dani. We enjoyed tea and music on the pleasant rooftop of Sajjad Hussain’s Lahore Backpackers. I met Akmal and friends again yesterday, when we rehearsed for the [...]

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jamming with egor in the broadlands

While I was grumpily attempting to whack the replacement rear subframe for my bike into the right spot so that it would line up with all the appropriate holes in the frame, a short Russian with a razor-straight fringe till just above his eyes started talking to [...]

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elephant songs #1 – all star jazzband

The first official episode of Elephant Songs played in Bangalore for two weekends in February. We kicked off at the famous B-Flat in Indiranagar. The next weekend, we came back for a show at the beautiful Plantation House and at the Fireflies Music Festival. Musicians were Maarten [...]

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elephant songs #0 – surprise prologue

Madras, South India, 13 January 2012 A few days ago I had an enjoyable hour of chatting and playing on Yugi Sethu’s talkshow, in the company of friend & multi-talented singer Yogeswaran Manickam, also known as Yoga. The show is scheduled to be broadcast next Saturday, 21 [...]

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underwear gig @ studio 7, 12 august 2011

Before rushing off to the Buurtboerderij to jam on Pumporgan tunes with Dirk Bruinsma, Jasper Stadhouders, and John Dikeman, I had the honour of playing in Sharon Smith’s rock band in Studio 7, put together by the inimitable Katie Duck. El Torrero on electric bass (an object [...]

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dikeman & van der weide & van hulzen @ fat form, 6 august 2011

Breed begrip: an instant jazz trio on a rainy roof in Amsterdam Bijlmer. Enveloped by the smell of chocolate brownies, the sound of heavy summer (?) rain, and the curious attention of a varied audience, saxophonist John Dikeman, cellist Raoul van der Weide, and I, drummer Robbert [...]

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  • ELEPHANT SONGS

    Elephant Songsis a band with an always changing line-up: new musicians join drummer Robbert van Hulzen each time he stops in an interesting place 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.
    Elephant Songs is the optimistic inversion of the old story of the blind men and the elephant. Everyone experiences music differently, but 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.
    Elephant Songs often involve odd metre rock grooves, filmic melodies, South Indian rhythm games, homespun harmonies, and an imperceptable balance between composition and improvisation.
    Of each meeting, a track is published on nocount.org; after arriving in Europe, a full album will be released.