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Ensemble: Co de Kloet & Menno Kalmann
Main Title: Hardcore Ambience
Executive Producer: Steve Vai
Medium: very good CD
Label: Favored Nations
Catalogue Number: FN2570-2
Order Info: www.favorednations.com
Titles:
1. RENDEZ-VOUS
2. CALCULATED RISK
3. DISTANT CITY SOUNDS
4. DRY PAINT
5. VOICES FROM THE PAST
6. H.C.A.
7. A LITTLE LOUDER
8. FREEDOM OF SPEECH
9. SOUP ON SUNDAYS
10. THE WOLF & PETER
Info:
Release date:9/4/2006
The adventurous Dutch musical team of Co de Kloet and Menno Kalmann has been creating ethereal, atmospheric compositions together since becoming friends in high school. As a veteran producer for Dutch Public Radio NPS, de Kloet has worked with an amazing collection of the world’s finest musicians: Brian Eno, Frank Zappa, Todd Rundgren, Captain Beefheart, Laurie Anderson, and Steve Vai, among countless others. His production work developed into artistic friendship with Frank Zappa, who introduced him to Steve Vai, Zappa’s guitarist for many years. In time, de Kloet and Vai developed a professional camaraderie that ultimately led to Vai’s Favored Nations label to distribute Hardcore Ambience.
While de Kloet tends to serve as the duo’s creative catalyst, Menno Kalmann’s multi-instrumental diversity gives the group a limitless palette of colorful textures to paint across a broad sonic canvas with both sweeping strokes and precise detail. Handling an array of keyboards, banjo, saz, and added sound manipulation, Kalmann shapes the ensemble’s acoustic adventures.
The intentionally oxymoronic title is not a coincidence, but a mission statement for the project’s ingenious fusion of seemingly different elements: lush yet intimate atmospheres, carefully crafted compositions with completely improvised passages, and live studio performances alongside grand productions. Recorded in a wide range of settings: from the intimacy of a living room to the grandness of a church or the pastoral setting of a wilderness. The different recording locations help capture the cinematic storytelling for each piece.
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