01. + Jeroen Diepenmaat
02. + Berlinde Deman
03. + Mara Winter
04. + Monika Bugajny
05. + soccer Committee
06. + Stian Larsen
07.
+ Colin Webster
08. + Ruisvogel
09. + Thijs Troch
10. + Frans de Waard
11. + Graham Dunning
12. + Mike Shiflet
13. + Jeremy Young
14. + René Aquarius
15. + Roel Meelkop
16. + Stephen Cornford
17. + Phil Maguire
18. + Zyggurat
19. + Howard Stelzer
20. + Vasilis Liolios
21. + Danny Saul
22. + Dialect
23. + Tim Catlin
24. + Dirk Serries
25. + Gareth Davis
26. + Fani Konstantinidou
27. + Tom Ward
28. + Leafcutter John
29. + Shira Legmann
30. + Johnny Chang
31. + Fredrik Rasten
32. + Areliz Ramos
33. + Michael Francis Duch
34. + 't Geruis
35. + Christine Ott
36. + Otto Kokke
37. + Simon Goff
38. + Peter Broderick
39. + Anne Bakker
40. + Aaron Martin
41. + Ameel Brecht
42. + Sylvain Chauveau
43. + Jean D.L.
44. + Joana Gama
45. + Wouter van Veldhoven
46. + Nina Hitz
47. + Romke Kleefstra
48. + Leo Chadburn
49. + Eva-Maria Houben
50. + Michel Banabila
51. + Giovanni Di Domenico
52. + Naomi Sato
cd/dl/stream, February 2022
Pre-order available here
The plan for + arose from being a young parent, and dealing with the combination of working on music at the same time. Focusing on long-form music proofed challenging. So I came up with the idea to work on super short tracks that each could be made within a short span of time, and to do this with ‘a few’ collaborators. This concept worked out brilliantly (especially because of the enthousiastic responses from the artists I invited to join), and in no time the project grew a lot bigger than anticipated.
So, + is a selection of no less than 52 short pieces, each with a different collaborator. The variety is huge, with jazz cats, electronica wizards, classical players, and more. To name a few: Anne-Maria Houben, Dialect, Leafcutter John, Giovanni Di Domenico, Sylvian Chauveau, Christine Ott, Fredrik Rasten, etc. etc. etc.
Each contributor was asked to send a one-minute recording. No other guide lines were given (because I love surprises). These submissions were then treated/reworked into the audio miniatures you’ll find on the album. And it’s safe to say that these tracks are all over the place, stylistically
Next step was to sequence everything into a more or less coherent album. It’s up to the listener to decide if that mission was accomplished. But it surely is an intruiging trip.
Reviews
The Wire
Theories of musical form seldom, if ever, address the day to day demands of parenthood, but the responsibilities of childcare played a key role in determining the structure of this new release from Dutch sound artist Rutger zuydervelt, aka Machinefabriek. Finding himself unable to devote his energies to the development of longford composition, he made the pragmatic decision to invite a range of collaborators to send him minute-long recordings, which he could then process and rework. The resultant ministries, 52 in all, are gathered on the succinctly named +.
This resourceful project draws together a selection of contributors with strikingly diverse musical backgrounds and current interests. Yet it hangs together convincingly overall, making a virtue of its fragmentary nature and disparate character. As his prolific discography empathically shows, Zuydervelt has an extensive experience of collaborative ventures. He has a well-honed capacity to shape and coordinate materials without sacrificing their difference and distinctiveness. He knows how to mix ingredients with sensitivity, piecing together a bigger picture that carries his personal stamp, lightly yet tellingly.
On the opening track Zuydervelt engages with the sound of music boxes, as manipulated by Jeroen Diepenmaar. During the closing minute, he adds his own dramatic gloss to the reedy piping of Naomi Sato's sho. In between, an invigorating array of sound sources includes the strangulated tones of Stian Larsen's electric guitar and the amplified tines of Graham Dunning's feather phone. There's Gareth Davis' bass clarinet, Christine Ott's Ondes Martinot, Mara Winter's medieval bass flute, Eva-Maria Houben't piano, Giovanni Di Domenico's Fender Rhodes and Ameel Brecht's baroque lute. Leafcutter John recorded scrap metal parts; Jeremy Young opted for sine waves and radio; Leo Chadburn's speaking voice muses on landscape and weather.
The list goes on, and on repeated listening Machinefabriek's crafty assemblage continues to offer frequent surprises and small delights.
A Closer Listen
There are two ways to listen to this set below: as 52 individual tracks or as a 55-minute mix. Each has its own distinct pleasures. The album celebrates the art of creation, as Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt) invited dozens of friends to submit a minute of music for him to shape, putting the album in the company of Second Language’s classic Minute Papillon and Virgin Babylon’s sublime One Minute Older. Due to its tonal variety, + shares with those releases the element of surprise; one never knows what may be coming next. The difference is that all of the tracks are shaped by a single composer; Zuydervelt’s addition of beats and textures guides disparate sources to a single stream (pun intended). The title carries multiple interpretations, from the most obvious (Machinefabriek + guest artist) to the personal (Rutger + child), as the artist recently became a parent (congratulations!). The short tracks reflect the time constraints of parenting, as any recording must be done between feedings!
The mix begins with the winding of a music box, suggesting a nursery. One wonders if Jeroen Diepenmaat had the new arrival in mind when sending Rutger two such boxes. Then things turn somber, but with a project such as this, one knows they will remain somber for only a minute at a time. A selection that ends in a lull may be followed by a surge, a classical piece by a rocker. The sequencing must have been challenging, but fun: a 52-piece puzzle for Dad to construct. soccer Committee’s piece comes across as a lullaby, until the drums kick in. Colin Webster rustles like a restless child, but segues well into Ruisvogel. The album has entered its abstract phase.
We are awash in familiar names: Jeremy Young, Tim Catlin, Leafcutter John, Christine Ott, Peter Broderick, Aaron Martin. But the names are less important than the combination, the leaves less important than the tree. ersonalities disappear in the mix; Zyggurat and Danny Saul receive club beats, Ott drum ‘n’ bass. Each is a pleasant surprise. The album reflects the blend of nature and nurture in a child’s upbringing; the contributors provide the nature, Zuydervelt the nurture.
Leafcutter John plays scrap metal; Areliz Ramos plays cups. Others contribute medieval bass flute, featherphone, ukulele and shō. One can hear a reflection of childhood in the contributors, asked for only a minute of their time, an invitation to be creative, to use traditional instruments, found sounds or field recordings, a tabula rasa of sound. As they accumulate, these works begin to weave a wondrous tapestry of personalities, 52 ways in which a child might go, a deck of cards, only the edge of a world of possibilities. As such, they also reflect a parent’s dreams and imaginings when they consider the future of their child. + suggests partnership, creativity, growth. With a circle of friends so large, this new child already has a great head start
Vital Weekly
I have a confession to make, and it's a big one... Hold on to your chairs or whatever you're sitting on... Ready? I own and or know hardly any music by Machinefabriek. So, there it is. The secret is out. I don't know why, I don't know how, because let's face it, somebody with such a high output, frequent live appearances, gazillion collaborations, etc. You would think our paths would have crossed at some point, but... Nope. And while listening to this soon-to-be-released album '+', I don't know why because there are some mighty fine sounds to be found on this.
'+' is a 52-track album with 52 collaborations between Rutger and others. To copy-paste the list is useless - just go to Bandcamp and read them all there - but to pick out a few: soccer Committee, Dirk Serries, Gareth Davis, Fani Konstantinidou, Leafcutter John and Christine Ott. Names are frequently seen in the field of experimental music and sounds.
The concept of the album is as simple as it is complex. Each artist was asked to provide a 1-minute sound of any kind, That was the only limitation, and there were no further guidelines as to what the sound should be or contain. So with the above names as examples, you can imagine the variety of sounds that were sent in. From drum loops and ambience to machine sounds and field recordings; A cornucopia. The reason for creating the short tracks is the simple part. New dad Rutger needed short tracks to work on between caring for the baby. The difficult part is to be original 52 times and make sure all different tracks can be found on 'the same album', and this is something that actually surprised me a lot because, even with the enormous dynamics in the input of sound sources, Rutger managed to create an album with extreme uniformity.
One test is left for me, but I'm saving that for another moment. Will the uniformity remain if you put this album on 'random shuffle'. Or was the order of the tracks carefully chosen to create a flow where the dynamics were as they are now. Because if so, this is not one
album, but this is many albums at once, and another dimension has been created. Well done dad!
Ambientblog
While on the subject of an artist’s network: it sometimes seems that there are only a few artists in the electronic/experimental/improv scene that Machinefabriek / Rutger Zuydervelt has nót worked with. His immense discography (Discogs lists no less than 219 albums as Machinefabriek and 52 under his own name) features many collaborations, sometimes with a lot of people on the same release (most notable of these perhaps being 2021’s With Drums, and 2014’s Stay Tuned).
+ (Plus) refers to all the friends featured on this latest release: no less than 52 (!) to be exact… Rutger invited all of them to send him a short track, a musical idea not longer than one minute. The length was the only directive given for this: “because I love surprises”. He then treated or reworked the submission, adding his own fingerprint to the result. And finally, the last step was ‘to sequence everything into a more or less coherent album’.
That ‘coherent’ leaves some room for discussion, I guess… ‘The variety is huge, with jazz cats, electronica wizards, classical players, and more.‘
The diverse and often unclassifiable work of Zuydervelt in combination with artists coming from such diverse backgrounds is rather unpredictable and covers a wide range of experimental styles. But Zuydervelt has carefully arranged the sequence, for example by ordering them by their main instrument. Anyway, it’s coherent enough when you’re familiar with Machinefabriek’s diverse output.
As Rutger states himself: ‘it’s safe to say that these tracks are all over the place, stylistically. But it surely is an intriguing trip.'.
Moors Magazine
Machinefabriek is de artiestennaam van Rutger Zuydervelt. Hij heeft als componist en elektronicatovenaar al heel wat indrukwekkende albums op zijn naam staan, die je allemaal op zijn Bandcamp-pagina kunt vinden (even een terzijde over Bandcamp – koop zoveel mogelijk je muziek via dit kanaal, je kunt er zowel digitaal als voor fysieke albums terecht, en de artiesten verdienen er zelf dan tenminste ook echt wat aan).
Een tijd geleden maakte Zuydervelt een machtig mooi album dat With Drums heette, en waarvoor hij een groot aantal drummers en percussionisten uitnodigde hem een kort fragment te sturen, een kleine roffel of riff, waarmee hij dan aan de slag ging. Dat leverde een album dat op ik nog steeds regelmatig draai.
Nu herhaalt hij datzelfde procedé, alleen heeft hij nu een groot aantal andere musici uitgenodigd waar hij al eerder mee samenwerkte – die stuurden allemaal een kort geluidsfragment naar hem op, en daar ging Zuydervelt mee aan de slag – hij ging manipuleren, knippen, geluiden toevoegen en alle stukken aan elkaar voegen tot één grote compositie van bijna een uur.
We hebben het dan over uiteenlopende gitaristen, toetsenisten, elektronicatovenaars, blazers in alle soorten en maten, strijkers, enzovoorts. Het resultaat is verbluffend, want het is op een merkwaardige manier geen collage van diverse korte stukken geworden, maar dankzij de ingrepen van Machinefabriek, en zijn compositorische talenten, één machtig mooie compositie met een groot aantal hoogtepunten.
De fragmenten die ik je hier laat horen komen onder meer van een paar virtuozen die ik al een tijdje volg hier, en die je inmiddels wellicht kent, als Michel Banabila en Dirk Serries, maar zij zijn slechts twee van de tweeënvijftig muzikale gesprekspartners van Rutger Zuydervelt op dit volstrekt unieke album.
Subjectivisten
De samenwerkingsverbanden van Machinefabriek leveren ook keer op keer spannend materiaal op. Dat is nu wederom het geval op de cd +. Zuydervelt werkt hierop met maar liefst 52 artiesten vanuit de hele wereld samen (zie de Bandcamp-pagina voor alle namen). Het idee is ontstaan toen hij als jonge ouder toch tegelijkertijd muziek wilde maken. Rutger kwam toen op het idee om aan superkorte tracks te werken, die hij in korte tijd kon maken; al heb ik het idee dat hij altijd weinig tijd nodig heeft voor het maken van veel en kwalitatief hoogwaardige muziek. Enfin, hij heeft hiervoor vele artiesten uitgenodigd om een bijdrage van één minuut aan te leveren, hetgeen de enige beperking was. De 52 inzendingen heeft hij herwerkt dan wel voorzien van extra inbreng. Dat heeft tevens 52 tracks opgeleverd, die samen bijna 55 minuten duren. Het is echt compleet uiteenlopend wat je voor je kiezen krijgt, van elektro-akoestische muziek, drones en IDM tot jazz en avant-garde. Toch heb je nooit het idee heen een weer geslingerd te worden, aangezien Rutger er een organisch en coherent geheel van heeft weten te smeden. Allemaal verschillende atomen, die een bont molecuul vormen of een ketting met verschillende schakels. Het is hoe dan ook een geweldig meeslepend, steeds verrassend en meesterlijk album geworden.
