SAGTEVLEI
ALEX VAN HEERDEN & DEREK GRIPPER
CATALOGUE
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juxtaposing the insanely fast cape klopse' rhythms against that of a string quartet. double bass, trumpet, accordion & vocal retake on a wealth of folk history all but ignored. TRACKS: recorded
live at beach road studios by reynaud venter on 2 february 2002
as part of the wonder gigs series held in conjunction with the
sabc and afribeat.com alex
van heerden - vocals, accordion, khoisan mouthbow & trumpet with
this
project began in January 2002 when I joined alex at sagtevlei,
a small farm on the outskirts of the boland town of tulbach. what
followed was a month-long exchange of ideas and music, centred
around our shared desire to create an uncompromisingly understated
music, a trance-like introspection. alex had recently returned
from sweden where he had been "seduced" by the fragility
of scandinavian electronica. my own interests were focused on
the 'glitches', scratches and harmonics in the sound of the viola
and the "just intonation" implied therein. during the
weeks at sagtevlei our compositional process became a means to
introduce each other to our respective musical worlds. for me,
listening to old recordings and spending the evenings listening
to alex's accordian was like hearing the music of the cape for
the first time: the wealth of melodies and rhythms that have grown
out of musical life in the cape returned to me through the spirit
of one remarkably individual musician. my own experience of this
music became a search for new ways of presenting this history
in a musical landscape born out of the geographic one in which
we worked and lived. our daily meetings, under the trees, in the
kitchen, by the fireside, were tentative and contemplative. the
music on sagtevlei was born of these meetings, which, rather than
being purely musical exchanges were ones of appreciation and excitement
at the scope of the possibilities presented to us. sagtevlei remains
as a memory and quiet celebration of this particular time and
place. list of thanks: iain and struan of afribeat, madoda and the SABC, brydon, kerryn, fiona, reynaud, ross, magnus, charlotta, kate, lex, derrick, ant (for the cedarberg) and okkie. PRESS
QUOTES: |
cd: sagtevlei
this dynamic duo fearlessly crosses the boundaries between avant-garde and popular music, using 'vastrap' the ethnic dance music of the rural afrikaans-speakers as a starting point. the first serious collaboration between van heerden (trumpet, vocals, accordion, khoisan mouthbow) and gripper (guitar, viola) was the recording of the live album 'sagtevlei', where they expanded their sound to include a string quartet. at present they perform as a duo and are working on material for a second string album. their music draws on both original material and traditional folksongs, which they weave together into a landscape both ecstatic and meditative, beautiful and challenging, a new insight into south africa and its music. they are also collaborating with swedish producer/musician, magnus bank on a project entitled 'hemisfar'
alex van heerden - grew up in port elizabeth, a coastal town in south africa. as a teenager, he played trumpet in his school marching band in order to avoid compulsory military training and was soon playing jazz in the local townships. after school he played briefly with 'goema' luminary, mac mckenzie and the genuines before moving to cape town in 1994 to join the hilton schilder quintet. one year later he started playing with 'cape jazz' icon, robbie jansen, with whom he performs to this day. he spent two years as a member of the winston mankunku quintet, during which time he began to explore the music of his own culture. he purchased an accordion, and started spending long periods of time in the rural areas of the cape, playing in pentecostal churches and with afrikaans folk musicians. the result of these journeys was the formation in 1998 of gramadoelas, the first group to explore 'vastrap', the largely marginalized music of the rural afrikaans people, in a contemporary context. gramadoelas, fronted by van heerden, gave many inspiring and energetic performances, bridging the traditional cultural gap by being successful on both the jazz and the alternative music scenes. after a number of television appearances, and the release of a cd, van Heerden became interested in the possibilities of electronic music, and in 2001 he found himself in stockholm, collaborating with producers such as hakan lidbo, klas baggstrom, jonatan axelsson et al. after his return to south africa, he collaborated with local arranger/violist/guitarist derek gripper on the live album 'sagtevlei', placing vastrap in a contemporary avant-garde setting. he travelled to hong kong, representing vastrap in the 'all-stars' sextet, 'the goema captains of cape town', before returning to stockholm to collaborate with swedish musician/producer, magnus bank in a project called 'hemisfar', exploring vastrap within a contemporary scandinavian aesthetic. the rest of the time he lives in south africa on a farm in the remote 'kouebokkeveld', composing and playing music with the locals and leading a district 6 museum-funded research project into the music and folklore of the area.
alex on the afribeat site
derek gripper grew up in cape town, receiving a masters degree in music from the university of cape town. during a three-year research period gripper studied contemporary microtonal harmonic theory, exploring further resources of the harmonic series in new compositional techniques, notations and instrument designs. during this period he made a study of the theory of carnatic percussion during numerous visits to chennai, india. as a classical guitarist gripper has been the winner of two national guitar competitions, participated in numerous guitar festivals in europe, been selected to perform on a programme of young guitarists at the 9th classical guitar festival of great britain and taught at the uct college of music. most recently gripper has been exploring the music of the afrikaans-speaking western cape with alex van heerden. the pair's first serious collaboration, 'sagtevlei', is a cd of collaborative compositions for string quartet, trumpet, voice and accordion, inspired by the unique music and landscape of the western cape. it is in this area and its music that gripper has found a creative foundation for his previous work. finding the allure of his own culture stronger than any other, he has committed to developing a contemporary south african sound. gripper has now released his solo 8 string guitar album ‘blomdoorns’, having also just finished recording with stockholm-based electro/acoustic outfit hemisfar.
derek on the afribeat site
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01 enkeleen ek is legio full details buy online |
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02 alex van heerden & derek gripper sagtevlei full details buy online |
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03 brendon bussy diesel geiger full details buy online |
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04 benguela sui full details buy online |
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05 derek gripper blomdoorns full details buy online |
ARTISTS |
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alex
van heerden |
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CONTACT
ross campbell
iliketea@iafrica.com
cape town
south africa
distributed
in south africa by
kurse music distribution
contact alastair
tel: 021 424 1959 alastair@kursemusic.co.za