Frans de Waard - Vijf Profielen (A26)

In November 2005 Frans de Waard spend a week recording and composing on location in the small Dutch town Vlissingen, near the cost. The Marine shipyard is located in the centre of that town, but activities are moved and the whole area gets new direction in years to come. As part of an exhibition '[Mijn] Domein', three musicians were asked to reflect on this transition. Frans de Waard was last and recorded the remaining activities in this building where so called 'profiles' are made used in shipbuilding. In the piece things move from hectic and busy (in the first profile) to emptyness (in the fifth profile), although it's one piece. Using mainly recordings made on site of elevators, metal cutting and room ambience, this piece is a strong work of field recordings with minor electronic processing.


Frans de Waard is best known for his work with a wide variety of projects, such Kapotte Muziek, Beequeen, Goem, Freiband and many more, all in the field of experimental music and sound art since 1984. Since then he runs his own Korm Plastics, had a brief involvement in Staalplaat and since 1986 has a magazine called Vital, since 1995 known as Vital Weekly. 'Vijf Profielen' is however the first full length Cd under his own name.  Housed in the usual Alluvial Recordings plastic wallet, cover was printed at Knust in Nijmegen and design is by Roger_NBH.

There is a sort of companion piece to this one available here.  It is a live performance of the piece which was realized in early 2007 in Washington DC.  Frans released it as a 3"CDr on his own MOLL label.  You can also purchase it bundled with this CD at a reduced price here.



REVIEWS



Vital Weekly 572, Netherlands, April 2007 (Magnus Schaefer)

Frans de Waard is a busy man, not only publishing Vital Weekly, but above all engaged in a lot of projects such as Beequeen, Freiband, Shifts, Goem and Kapotte Muziek. Occasionally he also releases material under his own name and this signals that the work is based on field recordings. In the case of 'Vijf Profielen', the basic sounds were recorded at the 'Zware Plaatwerkerij' in Vlissingen/The Netherlands. This is a building where so called 'profiles' - elements used in shipbuilding - were made, but which is not used as such anymore, as the area where it is located, is currently undergoing substantial change. 'Vijf Profielen' was originally conceived as a part of an exhibition called 'Mijn Domein' in Vlissingen, for which artists were asked to reflect that transition. Although there is just one long track on the CD, it is clearly divided into five distinct parts. This makes sense, since it emphasizes the unity of the whole, while making the individual parts actually function as profiles, similar to a series of different shots of the same location in a film. The music is neither cinematic in the sense of conjuring up images, though, nor is it a documentation on the site of the recording, but it rather captures the qualities of the original recordings of the rumble and clatter of large machinery in a suggestive way, transforming the original sounds into carefully abstracted drones. The work demonstrates a fine sense for the aesthetic possibilities of sounds found at a given location. It opens with unprocessed recordings of mechanic sounds, which show that the source material is highly interesting by itself. As the piece progresses it gets more and abstract, moving through minimalist fields of opaque sound, that are mostly subdued, but gain a powerful presence at times. In the final 'profile' the sound recedes almost totally and a fine, dark drone, just above the threshold of audibility closes the CD. Considering the contrast to the opening passage, the transformation of the material throughout the piece and the origin of the basic sounds, this is a great ending - a definite last point on the one hand, but on the other hand also like an emptiness, that reverberates in your memory while the location where the sounds originated doesn't exist anymore.



The Sound Projector, Germany, May 2007 (Ed Benndorf)

Frans de Waard pulls the Vijf Profielen CD (ALLUVIAL RECORDINGS A26) out of his body like so much frogspawn. This is a single track of field recordings made in a building as part of an art commission, and probably reprocessed into low-key rumblings. The disc allegedly contains two 'glitches' which 'don't appear on the regular version'. Well, there's a cryptic utterance from this lanky Dutch meister, who's now past the stage of 'prolific' and has so many releases and projects to his name that he's fast becoming a feature of the landscape. However, that's easier to achieve in Holland than some other parts of the world.



Tranzistor.gr, Greece, June 2007 (Nicolas Malevitis)

'... we are at 'kokori' for a drink, various friends around, adam asks michael and me whether 'chrysallis' would be interested in expanding its activities in the city of ptolemaida that he moves back again regarding gig set ups, etc. 'we're in' we say no matter that 'chrysallis' is a project that deals solely w/ the city of xanthi kai is part of pakethra acitivities but don't worry we have many more disguises we can use be it editions_zero, the greek branch of elgaland - vargaland or whatever. all the atmosphere and the drinks but also the remembrance of last year's 3day festival w/ goem, freiband, cities of desolation, furukawa at the old tobacco factories of the city but also the amazing set of kapotte muziek in the hall of the city's folk museum make us feel that flow in our heads the sounds of 'vijf profielen' of frans de waard that was recently released on alluvial.. field recordings in an abandoned building in the little dutch town of vlissingen that were also done in the harbour and around the city and were used for an installation here are very well crafted as a sound carpet that travels you other times in more subsonic or other in more intense sounds of fuckin' amazing electroacoustics which as a catapult leaves you aghast w/ its freshness and maturity. i must admit that it must one of the most beautiful cds frans has given us for sometime and it's worth to seek it and allow yourself to get lost in its magic...



Progress Report, UK, August 2007 (Hassni Malik)

In 2005 Frans was asked by the organizers of the 'Mijn Domein’ exhibition in Vlissengen, Netherlands, to make a sound piece to mark the closing down of the local shipyard. He amassed a collection of field recordings that encompassed the sounds and the silences of that location. On the cover (an almost Touch-like design by Roger NBH) you can see the inside of the place, it looks like one giant hangar. The eerie little clinks and whispers Frans picked up form a vivid image of what it must have felt like to stand alone within that hangar. The album forms a reworking of that exhibition piece. Frans is known for his sensitive ear, allowing him to balance and position sounds carefully to the point that it forms a 3D quality. Repeated play allows a discovering of new sounds, new positions and an attentiveness even to apparent silence. The album plays as one continuous assembly but has definite sections that forms movements.
From what sounds like chains and the humming of lift shafts, to the distant flutter of wind through a gap in the wall, it’s an evocative and oddly moving piece, rather like flicking through an old photo album and capturing memories of things you had once forgotten. That ghostly sense is both strong and sensitively presented here, particularly emphasised by the final lingering silence. The cd is clearly one of Frans’ finer moments.