Strictly Confidential

GERD

Gerd are Rotterdam based Gert-Jan Bijl and Paulo Delgado. Occasionally teaming up with friends like DJ Pathless, Frans Friedrich, Fred Verschoor and Peter Ernest, they have garnered international acclaim for their sophisticated productions and remixes. ‘Perspectives’ is their highly anticipated third album and is also their most accomplished to date. Featuring guest vocalists such as Guida de Palma, Marilyn David, Dee Ferguson, Natalie Gardiner, Vanessa Freeman and Twana Rhodes, ‘Perspectives’ is a stunning fusion of funk, nu-jazz, leftfield, acoustic, electronica and broken beats laced with plenty of soul.
Gerd is Holland’s most prolific producer of leftfield dance music such as broken beats, nu-soul, hip hop and nu-jazz. Along with the keyboard skills of Delgado, Gert released the ‘High, Wide and Wonderful!’ album in 2001 and a collection of Gerd remixes titled ‘Modified’ in 2003 which featured their interpretations of the likes of Koop, Jaam, Zuco 103 and Heavenly Social amongst others.
His solo productions as Gerd, including the exceptional and exquisite ‘This Touch Is Greater Than Moods’ (1997), connect with liquid ambience, tech-jazz, funk and soft romance, sometimes sounding like a less spaced-out Deep Space Network or Detroit’s more abstract listening-orientated excursions. Along with his Sensurreal production partner, Dirk-Jan Hanegraaff, he’s also responsible for a range of well acclaimed projects for several highly respected record companies around the world.
Now in 2006, Gerd has released his third studio album ‘Perspectives’. Flowing with soulful nu-jazz, breaks, beats, salsa rhythms, melody and stunning guest vocals - from the opening joy of ‘Elementz’ to the melancholic closing of ‘Deep Moon’ - this is one album that keeps beautiful music firmly in ‘Perspective’.
www.myspace.com/gerdmusic

JEFF  BODART

Jeff Bodart was already successfull in the eighties with bands like Spasmes, Aphrodisiax and especially Les Gangsters d’Amour. After the break-up of this last band, the Belgian singer/songwriter adopted a new identity. He put on Tintin-pants, a slipover and a cap, and placed himself in the rich tradition of the French chanson. This resulted in 1994 in his breakthrough single ‘Du vélo sans les mains’ (‘Cycling without hands’), and an album with the same name. Together with Olivier Bodson and Pierre Gillet he began touring Belgium and France.
In 1997 Bodart released his second album ‘Histoires Universelles’ (with guest appearances by Kent and Benoît Poelvoorde). He kept his strong emphasis on lyrics, but the music had a more pop feel to it, with even some jazz or swing influences. A tender mix of emotions, styles and penetrating melodies. Playing ‘Les Francofolies de Spa’, he is joined on stage by Philippe Lafontaine and Axelle Red.
Jeff Bodart signed a new record deal in 2001 and he released his third album ‘Ca ne me suffit plus’. The sound of this album is more mature, courtesy of Jean-Marie Aerts (TC Matic) who also brings in rock elements. 2003 brought his fourth album ‘T’es rien ou t’es quelqu’un’, on which he continues his way adding melancholy and irony. At the moment Jeff Bodart is recording his next album in Brussels.
www.jeffbodart.net

HECTOR ZAZOU

Hector Zazou invites four outstanding instrumentalists from India and Uzbekistan to step into a virtual hall of mirrors, in which sound is reflected from one note to another: an aural equivalent of a famous scene in Orson Welles’ The Lady From Shanghai.
Twenty-five years after laying the foundations for Afro-electronic fusion, and after many other groundbreaking albums, the ever-innovative hector Zazou offers a fresh take on classical Asian music, in which the musicians’ inspired performances are enhanced by his subtle reprocessing of the original sonic elements.
Notes and resonances create waves which drive the instrumentalists to dive from the surface into the very heart of the sound, explains Zazou. The use of sound processing and reflections thus interacts with the way the musicians play, and reinforces the spiritual aspect of the music, just as church acoustics do with Gregorian chant.
Through its use of these reflection systems, In The House Of Mirrors might also be viewed as a discreet homage to the music produced in the 70’s by the likes of Terry Riley and Fripp & Eno, translated for the first time into a classical Asian environment.
www.myspace.com/hectorzazou

HUGO

Hugo’s first album ‘La Formule’ came out in the late ‘90s, along with a couple of singles which had been serious radio hits. By combining his perfect songsmith craft with his true talent as a story-teller, his sweet melodies with his barbed lyrics, Hugo offers us a very peculiar and delectable brew.
The title of his second album ‘La nuit des balançoires’ translates as 'The Night Of The Seesaws'. Hugo sings his sentimental and cruel tales with an angelic voice, in a happy or detached tone. He knows how to write real songs, with all the necessary elements: captivating verses, big choruses, enchanted yet spiky melodies, lovely vocal harmonies which betray his love for some great moments in the history of pop & folk (here, refrain from naming the obvious Beach Boys, Neil Young, Kinks... or the less-than-obvious Sufjan Stevens, Handsome Family, Pernice Brothers...).  The whole is wrapped up in inventive arrangements, ranging from limpid to quirky, and was subtly mixed by the great Yann Arnaud (Air's recording engineer, who also works with Cibelle, Syd Matters, Cocosuma and many others).

MEIRA ASHER

After the release of the albums 'Dissected' (1997) and 'Spears into Hooks' (1999) Meira Asher's talent for unconventional music became clear. Her songs tackle a number of issues that few artists dare to approach, especially in the Middle-East: incest, AIDS, torture during the Intifada, feminine sexuality. Her profound and savage lyrics (in Hebrew, Arabic & English) are offset against more serene fragments inspired by great erotic or philosophical texts.
But not only her lyrics and themes are irregular. The fact that she went to Ghana and Ivory Coast to study dance and percussion has influenced her music profoundly. She also learned Dhrupad vocal techniques and tabla playing with master musicians in North India.
Whereas her first album was mainly based on vocals, electronics and percussion, the second album comes into the form of a electronic opera. The sound of ‘Spears Into Hooks’ is absolutely unique, and it hits the listener hard in the stomach. Numerous layers of textures and innovative, bold sound-processing were used throughout the album in order to create dramatic aural images which speak directly to the subconscious and reinforce the more verbal aspect of Meira's message.
www.myspace.com/meiraasher

SUSAN DEYHIM

Born and raised in Teheran (Iran), Sussan Deyhim now lives in New York. She has been navigating between traditional music, electronics and avant-garde art. She has collaborated with Peter Gabriel, Bill Laswell, Jah Wobble, Bobby McFerrin, Adrian Sherwood, with cyber-guru Jaron Lanier and many more.
Although practically all the sounds are performed by acoustic instruments and voices, Sussan’s innovative arrangement and production have shaped her first solo-album ‘Madman of God’ into a very modern soundscape. The album which came out in 2000 is Sussan Deyhim’s unique personal reading of divine love poems by Rumi, Saadi and other Persian Sufi masters, set to a mixture of traditional Persian music and delicate electronics, her extraordinary vocals being the central focus.
On ‘Shy Angels' (2002) the ‘Madman of God’-album is being remixed by Bill Laswell. The result is magnificent and provides a continuous listening experience, featuring new performances by musicians including Karsh Kale, renowned Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain and others.
www.myspace.com/sussandeyhim

SPEEDY J

Speedy J, a.k.a. Jochem Paap, is a cantankerous type. Always shifting the boundaries, forever questioning the norm, this Rotterdam producer has for over a decade now produced some of the most startling electronic music to be recorded in the last ten years.
He was initially lauded as a technocrat extraordinaire and quickly established a reputation as the enfant terrible of the electronic scene bringing brutal, strangely human, caustic beats into his music that defied convention and introduced new lexicons into the techno dictionary. Speedy J has constantly been switching between the dancefloor and the experiment since he started deejaying in the early eighties. Due to his superfast scratchtechnique Jochem Paap soon received his nickname Speedy J.
His first album ‘Ginger’ was released in 1993 on his own BMU label, after his worldwide hit three years before with the single ‘Pullover’. On ‘Ginger’ he confronted the soulful Detroit sound with the European minamal technosound. In between doing mostly remixes, Speedy J shocks the technoworld in 1997 with his comeback single ‘Ni Go Snix’ and the album ‘Public Energy N° 1’. His songs sound a lot more industrial (think Aphex Twin). He gets recognition, not only as a producer, but also as a pioneer in electronic music. Following this succes, he plays the album live all over Europe, including the Glastonbury festival.
His third album ‘A Schocking Hobby’ (2000) is even more experimental, with broken beats alternating soundscapes. The 2002 album ‘Loudboxer’ remains experimental, but is more danceable. Through the album Speedy J evoluates from his experimental sound to his earlier multilayered dancefloor techno. In 2004 he starts collaborating with another techno-veteran Chris Liebing. The result is ‘Metalism’ (2005), a well-balanced mix between dancefloor techno and ambient.
www.myspace.com/jochempaap

STEVE STOLL

Steve Stoll has never played by the rulebook. Serving in the American army during the Gulf War, or the job of percussionist for industrial label WaxTrax, are not the usual techno credentials. Yet with his shaven head and frenetic intense outpouring of ideas Steve Stoll is every inch the techno svengali he is rapidly becoming.
Born and raised in New York, the music of Stoll is a reflection of the city in which he grew up. With its penchant for disco culture and the recent leanings of artists from the five boroughs such as Joey Beltram and Damon Wild towards a hard-edged minimal style, the cultural surrounds of New York have certainly shaped Stoll.
Previously recording under his own moniker for a number of labels including his own Proper Records, Stoll has recently handed over the exclusive rights to Nova Mute for the Stoll brand name. Stoll has not strayed from his trademark style of hard-edged techno tracks aimed squarely at the dance floor. He has crafted a collection of tracks that subtly mutate from simple rhythm patterns into gigantic walls of polyrhythmic fury laced with enough funk to get a dance floor going, yet it is the simplicity and economy of Stoll's efforts that amaze, as shown for example on his 1998 album 'The Blunted Boy Wonder'. Stoll is able to direct a track and create a sense of urgency with the minimal of fuss and effort. Forget the wall of sound when you can have as much effect with a single brick.
Stoll maintained this recognisable style on the albums ‘Supernatural’ (1999) and ‘Was Here’ (2004). In 2005 he provided music for the soundtrack of the French-Belgian movie ‘Bunker Paradise’, directed by Stefan Liberski.