Rutger Zuydervelt/Machinefabriek

Maybe there is something in the water, but I think a lot of great music comes from Holland! Last time,  I also talked about some Dutch artists and this time I am going to do it again. Most of you probably heard about Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek, the least I can say is that he's prolific! 

Every once in a while, I discover something 'music-wise', that completely blows me away and getting to know Machinefabriek  is one those times that left me speechless. On one of my Bandcamp-search sessions, I typed in 'fieldrecording' and the first album that popped up was 'Macrocosms' by Banabila and Machinefabriek. I liked the cover, so I bought the album and that was the beginning of my MF-addiction and my Banabila-addiction (more about him later).

Macrocosms

Reading some more about both artists, I decided to buy 'Live at IKLECTIK' from MF. It is not one of my favorite MF albums and as a first purchase, it almost scared me away... but it didn't and I wanted to hear more from Mr.Zuydervelt! After that purchase, I guess I bought around 30 more of his albums, in a very short period of time and I still continue to do so(though less fanatic). I think Mr.Zuydervelt was impressed to, because he send me a  thank you mail (same like you Hal).

Live at IKLECTIK

One of the things I like about MF, is that sometimes he brings out pieces of music, that he made before he was famous and so, you can hear where he's coming from. I know that a lot of artists would not put such things on the internet, but MF is not ashamed to do so. For that(amongst other things), he deserves respect! Talking about every album that MF  made is impossible, that would be a very long resume! But, it might be interesting for people who never heard about him, to give some album titles, so they can go explore...

Also, all (or most) of the artwork on his albums are made by Rutger himself. If I am correct, he is a graphic-designer and it shows.

As I said, he's very prolific and he worked together with many great artists... Celer, Jaap Blonk, Minus Pilots, Stephen Vitiello, Steve Roden, Peter Broderick, Gareth Davis, Andrea Belfi, Dag Rosenqvist, ... to just name a few! He's also a member of Piiptsjilling... a band that mostly does improvisations while Jan Kleefstra recites poems in Frisian dialect (a Dutch dialect)... a must have in any collection!

Rutger Zuydervelt website
Machinefabriek at Bandcamp

That's it for now, I do hope that anybody who is not familiar with Rutger's work, gives him a listen! I think he makes some of the most original music! Drones, micronoises, dance, theatre, television, ... he's done it all and I am positive that he will keep on surprising me in the future!

Minuten