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PocketCasts Koen Holtkamp: Modular Plucks, Drums, and Horns After Dark
Koen Holtkamp set aside the loops of his work with Mountains, spent a year and a half coaxing plucked strings from his modular synth, and gave every player on ‘Nightlife’ a space of their own.
This week we’re putting The Tonearm’s needle on composer Koen Holtkamp. For years, Koen worked as half of the duo Mountains. His new solo record, Nightlife, took shape in late at night sessions at his home in New York’s Hudson Valley .
We talk about stepping away from the methods that defined his work Mountains, why he rebuilds his modular system for every project and still won’t call himself a synth player, and why finishing an album is harder than making the sounds.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Koen Holtkamp’s “Slow Fox Run,” “Northern Flicker,” and “Dream On,” from Nightlife, and Codona’s “Colemanwonder”)
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Dig Deeper
Artist and Album:
- Follow Koen Holtkamp on Instagram
- Purchase Nightlife from Bandcamp or Qobuz and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
Mountains:
The Players:
Musical References:
- Codona, Don Cherry, Collin Walcott, and Naná Vasconcelos (ECM)
- Joanna Brouk, Hearing Music (Numero Group)
From The Tonearm:
- Josh Mason, Better Punk Through Circuitry
- Josh Mason: Punk and Circuitry, Zippered Together (The Tonearm Podcast)
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- Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com
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