4 dec 2011: ACSH18 (Dick Raaijmakers special..) @ Havenkwartier (Deventer)
A special ACSH about Dick Raaijmakers, honored to be asked to play for this occasion :)
18 dec 2011: The Happening @ Tivoli (Utrecht)
The Happening is an interesting afternoon-thingy in Utrecht. This time with some “all-day-breakfast”-food and a lovely exposition by Roos Wijnen and Ellen Evers. I’ll be doing 3 short headphone concerts.
my latest EP “schetsjes” is officially sold-out. it had some sketches on it which I thought I had lost (because of a hard-disk failure) but found while searching trough my tape archives..
..but no worries for those of you that want it but didn’t get it. because the (previously lost) sketches are being completed by some very friendly musicians!
I guess it’s the way I function, I lose things and then try to find them again..
Wouter van Veldhoven is a musician that gets most creative when he loses things. Could be anything; the house keys, his shoes or even his hard drive. Don’t ask why, don’t think about it too much; it’s a habit. But the most important things he never loses are, his wife, their dog or his friends. Wouter van Veldhoven and his lost and found. (Musical project coming up in winter/spring of 2012)
Today I got the first track (completed by Greg Haines) and I’m really really pleased with the result :)
Can’t wait to get the other ones (by Wim Maesschalk (wixel/bloedrood), Machinefabriek, Homemade Empire, Michael Tanner, Mark Versteegen and Willem van Veldhoven)
Here it is, my new ep “schetsjes”
It’s basically a selection of sketchy melodic meanderings made between 2008 and 2011 that I found while working through my tape-archive. So you can expect some wobbly tapy melodies played by home build instruments and loads of crackles and hiss.
The EP comes in 6 flavors all with a different bunch of drawings in a handcrafted booklet,
I think this might be as lo-fi as it gets. As you can see I don’t have a cutting machine and I can’t really cut straight with scissors .. hmm… so let’s say they are all “unique”
I’ve made only 26, so it might be sold out quite fast.
Since my regular site is acting a bit weird I’m also going to post some of my other music-related things here now, so here I go. You’ll be able to see me and my instruments on these occasions:
Oct 13th Croxhapox, Gent.
The lovely Felicia Atkinson will be playing then as well.
—-
Oct 14th Nuit Slaapwel, Rennes
Another slaapwel records evening. Greg Haines, Simon Scott and I will be making music until everybody falls asleep.
—-
Oct 15th Seb’s place, Bruxelles
A cozy house-show. Details will follow
I even made a little mini-tour-mini-EP which is actually my first release in three years! It will be available before and after the shows.
Hope to see you there :)
After some busy days working, performing and recording I decided to start building some instruments again…
…these are the beginning stages of my new prototype mini-piano. Invented a new hammer so I can build the whole thing myself (instead of relying on prefab toy-piano’s). I hope to finish this (and another project) tomorrow… (fingers crossed)
Last week I got my first order: A carpenter and design academy graduate wanted to give one of my violins to a befriended violin-player/choir-conductor that just graduated from the conservatoire of music. Yay!! Wait.. what?! Carpenter, design academy, tertiary music school? So this violin has to be build and designed to perfection and at the same time sound good as well! I decided to design a 2-stringed table-top violin (one you have to play in a way similar to a lap-steel guitar or a zither (except for the fact that you play with a bow, obviously)) in the form of a sturdy A-frame. Since the costumer can actually play violin (fret-less, that is) there is no need for any frets, which makes the thing a tad more stylish, I think. The violin is build out of re-used materials: the frame wood came from an old door and a junked cabinet, the strings came from from a toy-zither and the leftover of a broken guitar string. Of course the cigar-box is another one from my cigar-smoking friend who I will visit shortly with my new zither and this violin. Can’t wait to hear what they’ll say :)
Here it is! The first instrument made from one of my “new” cigar-boxes: a cigar-box zither. I’m really pleased with the result! It’s sounding quite clear and there’s also some overtones/resonating things going on, yay!
the sounds: http://soundcloud.com/wouter-van-veldhoven/cigar-box-zither
Last week I was searching for some wooden cigar-boxes to use as the basis for some new instruments. After some time I found that an elderly couple had a bunch of boxes and wanted to give them away for nothing. I gave them a call and they told me I could come over in an hour or so. When I got to the place I was not only introduced to over thirty new cigar boxes (see pictures), but also had some time to meet the chain-smoking cigar lover and his wife. Both were 86 years old and certainly among the nicest people I’ve ever met. He just got back from an appointment with his cardiologist (this might be related to him smoking over 60 cigars a week, but was reluctant to give up his daily pleasures) and she told me about the first time she went to the opera. It actually was only last week that she went to the opera, for the first time in her entire life. Who said you can’t explore new things when you’re 86? Wonderful!! I also found the way the man wasn’t planning on changing his daily routine really romantic (even though it was rather unhealthy). After inquiring what on earth I was going to do with all these boxes I explained them a bit about what I make and do. The couple was rather surprised and insisted that I would come by again when I finished my first instrument.
Anyway, I couldn’t even have thought of a better way to get material to build some new instruments, and I can’t wait to see what they think about the contraptions I make :)
I got very John Cagey and prepared my stringed toy piano with springs and screws. As a result it will sounded like this. Hurray!
I was very enthusiastic about the sounds it created, therefor the sample is quite long, with me just repetitively pressing the keys with the sounds I liked best.. hmm
Maybe it isn’t really musically pleasing to you (and certainly not for my neighbors, my ever present involuntary audience). But I thought it was ear-candy !
here are the sounds of my box-guitar :)
I’m not really an accomplished guitar player, but you might get an idea what it can sound like
