Luke Cohlen

Dutch music. Not usually a word combination that conjures up the wildest expectations. But dig a little deeper and you’ll be in for many surprises. From ambient, rhythmic workouts to poetic synthwave, the Dutch musical landscape has produced many strange sounds that had flown under the radar. While it’s in our nature to avert nationalistic tendencies on a broader societal level, for now I suggest we go full Dutch and embrace our nationality with pride. No cheese, windmills and other clichés this time. Enter Dutch Sounds From Beyond – Part 2.

Some 16 years ago, a jazz drummer and ethnomusicology student was so taken by the broad Ghanaian musical vibration he experienced during his scholarship that it would eventually set him on an extraordinary path – away from academics and towards cassette culture. Luke Cohlen sat down with Brian Shimkovitz, better known as Awesome Tapes From Africa, the blog-turned-label that has been putting out quality reissues from cassette to vinyl since 2011.

Dutch music. Not usually a word combination that conjures up the wildest expectations. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll be in for many surprises. From ambient, rhythmic workouts to poetic synthwave, the Dutch musical landscape has produced many strange sounds that had flown under the radar. When SSFB published a piece on the tribal excursions of composer Jasper van ‘t Hof recently, the Dutch name that greeted us had similarly caught us off guard. While it’s in our nature to avert nationalistic tendencies on a broader societal level, for now I suggest we go full Dutch and embrace our nationality with pride. No cheese, windmills and other clichés this time. Enter Dutch Sounds From Beyond.

Berlin late seventies. In a divided city characterized by political tumult there was a massive resurgence of young creatives, rebels, forward thinkers – a lively community that left its influence on music and art in all its forms for ages to come.