Arjan Witte - Dub Holland - The best of Arjan Witte 1994-2024

Arjan Witte is a poetic force of nature, a genius thinker, a unique cosmic musician, a totally passionate anti-preacher - an absolute phenomenon. Like all phenomena, he eludes easy definitions. He crossed over to music as a poet before it was hip. He was already making spoken word before the term existed. He is as much an heir to Oswald Spengler as to Simon Vinkenoog, he is as much a musician as a sonic astronaut. He is a thundering performer and a shy child in one, as hopeful as he is mercilessly critical. Arjan Witte is the most vital and cosmic beat poet the Netherlands has ever had.

For far too long his work led an existence in the shelter of old volumes of literary magazines, publications in second-hand shops and bootlegs in the collections of friends and acquaintances. Until the poet made a comeback, very fittingly not in the fund of a literary publisher, but at Excelsior Recordings, with the collection Psych-O-besitas . The success of this made a sharply chosen selection from his collected work inevitable. Everything that was still findable, supplemented with unpublished and completely new work, was considered.

Here is the bulk of his poetry. It's about time.

Ingmar Heytze