It was the ninth of October in the year 1999. I was visiting the lovely Belgian town of Brugge with my girlfriend because of the first Cling Film Festival. Several bands started with the letter 'K' that evening, but I suspect that to be a complete coincidence. As always at festivals, not everything can be to everybody's taste, so during one of the lesser exciting acts, I walked around a bit and went through the record bins in the second area. I came to talk with a prominent elderly lady, and she told me she wasn't there because of the music, but her son played, and she wanted to witness it. And, of course - I recognize it from my mother - even if your spawn's art isn't your thing, mothers are proud, and I could feel this pride in how she talked about her son. After all, I met him many times when buying my records in the Staalplaat basement. It was Frans' mom.
Brugge was my first engagement with Kapotte Muziek, and it still is an enigma to me. It holds the midst between micro tonalities, Fluxus, field recordings (sometimes made on the spot), minimal noise, improvisational soundscapes and anything you can think of. It "is". And yes, it's also broken. Kapotte Muziek is a few people on stage (mostly Frans de Waard, Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop) handling lots of stuff which generates sounds. And that concert, I don't think I understood what it was about. I mean, I doubt if I know what it is about now. But there is a more important question: Does it matter?
About "Live at Klubb Kanin". The year is 1997, and Peter, Frans and Roel went to Norway to perform in the newly founded - by Lasse Marhaug and Tore Boe - Klubb Kanin. And at the 20th anniversary, Peter and Frans went there again to perform a second time. This tape holds both recordings, which were only treated in a way the recordings would fit a tape properly, so no additional recordings or sounds, just sonic treatment like production and rearranging some parts. Sound-wise, the 1997 recordings come close to what I remember from Brugge, the same minimalism and microscopic sonic landscape. 2017 has the same compositional features as 1997, and I wonder if fragility is the keyword I was looking for. Sounds used are more pleasing to my ear (noises, oscillators), but that's a matter of taste. Composition-wise, both recordings explore the fragility of minimalism but with different sounds.
In my opinion: This is a release that beautifully documents the growth of a collective. And without any doubt, mom would still be proud.
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