Bewilder
Bewilder - Dear Island
Regular price
€8.00
Sale price
€15.00
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Bewilder refers to the word 'wilderness', a state that singer Maurits Westerik was in about two years ago. He had mountains of ideas and stacks of songs. Friends to whom he showed them immediately suggested that they work on it as a band. The band left for Excelsior's country house on Vlieland, where the band first recorded demos with producer Henk Jonkers (Hallo Venray) and later worked on a full album. Bewilder the band. Dear Island the record.
Dear Island is full of unexpected twists, you never know in advance how it will end. That also fits well with the Twin Peaks tic that all band members share, and that is expressed musically in the sometimes softly sloping synthesizer parts of Arjen de Bock. As if soundtrack composer Angelo Badalamenti is peeking over his shoulder. The other band members, drummer Bram Hakkens, bassist Jeroen Overman and guitarist Arjan Kamphuis add the elements of swing and rock to the intriguing tension arc.
Bewilder songs are of a groovy, captivating indie style. For the country-like She Keeps on Talking they take a quiet dune path. The songs never end the way they started. 'They are as ominous as the first sip of your favourite cocktail. It feels familiar, but it just ends a little differently,' Westerik explains. 'To date, we have not done 1 show the same.' It always remains exciting. And if not, producer Jonkers makes sure of that. For the folky, magnificent ballad So It Goes he sends Westerik out of the studio to sing the song in another room in order to avoid eye contact with the band. That audibly creates extra excitement. Once, on the track Tied Up, he even plays the bass. The regular bassist can't be bothered, because at that moment he doesn't know it well enough. In order to be able to play it, you have to know how it will end, and you never know that with Bewilder. Things like that!
Bewilder's music can also be captured beautifully in images. In 2014, the track Safe, built on a funky guitar riff, was already released to the public as powerful background music for a short documentary about sustainable transport by sea to the Into The Great Wide Open festival on Vlieland. In March 2015, the atmospheric video for So It Goes suddenly appeared, followed by a video shot by Westerik himself for Carry On, Carry On in June 2015.
Past performance does indeed offer a guarantee for the future. Especially if that prospect lies in Bewilder, a new band with familiar faces. They have already made many miles separately in recent years. But okay, let's look ahead. Dear Island was released on Excelsior Recordings on August 28 and Bewilder christened the album, appropriately enough, Into The Great Wide Open on Vlieland. Dear Island entered high in the Album Top 100, even at number 1 in the Vinyl Top 50. Bewilder is also played a lot on Radio 2 and 3FM and the album receives particularly good reviews. We conclude with Gijsbert Kamer of Volkskrant: 'It has been a long time since such a strong, varied rock album as Dear Island was released in the Netherlands.'
Dear Island is full of unexpected twists, you never know in advance how it will end. That also fits well with the Twin Peaks tic that all band members share, and that is expressed musically in the sometimes softly sloping synthesizer parts of Arjen de Bock. As if soundtrack composer Angelo Badalamenti is peeking over his shoulder. The other band members, drummer Bram Hakkens, bassist Jeroen Overman and guitarist Arjan Kamphuis add the elements of swing and rock to the intriguing tension arc.
Bewilder songs are of a groovy, captivating indie style. For the country-like She Keeps on Talking they take a quiet dune path. The songs never end the way they started. 'They are as ominous as the first sip of your favourite cocktail. It feels familiar, but it just ends a little differently,' Westerik explains. 'To date, we have not done 1 show the same.' It always remains exciting. And if not, producer Jonkers makes sure of that. For the folky, magnificent ballad So It Goes he sends Westerik out of the studio to sing the song in another room in order to avoid eye contact with the band. That audibly creates extra excitement. Once, on the track Tied Up, he even plays the bass. The regular bassist can't be bothered, because at that moment he doesn't know it well enough. In order to be able to play it, you have to know how it will end, and you never know that with Bewilder. Things like that!
Bewilder's music can also be captured beautifully in images. In 2014, the track Safe, built on a funky guitar riff, was already released to the public as powerful background music for a short documentary about sustainable transport by sea to the Into The Great Wide Open festival on Vlieland. In March 2015, the atmospheric video for So It Goes suddenly appeared, followed by a video shot by Westerik himself for Carry On, Carry On in June 2015.
Past performance does indeed offer a guarantee for the future. Especially if that prospect lies in Bewilder, a new band with familiar faces. They have already made many miles separately in recent years. But okay, let's look ahead. Dear Island was released on Excelsior Recordings on August 28 and Bewilder christened the album, appropriately enough, Into The Great Wide Open on Vlieland. Dear Island entered high in the Album Top 100, even at number 1 in the Vinyl Top 50. Bewilder is also played a lot on Radio 2 and 3FM and the album receives particularly good reviews. We conclude with Gijsbert Kamer of Volkskrant: 'It has been a long time since such a strong, varied rock album as Dear Island was released in the Netherlands.'