The North Sea String Quartet is one of the most versatile string quartets of the Netherlands. Combining their own compositions with improvisation, their music could be defined as a mixture of jazz, classical and world music.
These are strings that will make you move!
"With ‘Splunge,’ NSSQ makes a full-fledged album debut of their own, full of surprising compositions and remarkable improvisations. […] A true and unique discovery!"
Bernard Lefèvre
Jazzhalo (BE)
"Splunge is a bold, innovative album that redefines the boundaries of the string quartet while also keeping an eye on groove and swing. This is how contemporary music can and should sound, which fearlessly opens up to the range of contemporary musical reality without forgetting its own roots."
Stefan Pieper
Orchestergraben (DE)
"What makes the multifaceted Splunge unified are the improvisations that run as a thread through the album. These are virtuoso and demonstrate knowledge of a broad musical idiom: from modern jazz to Argentine tango. What the quartet especially excels at is its sense of rhythm and timing. In pieces like Roller and Mojito, the group grooves exceptionally well – no string quartet imitates them."
Dennis Weijers
De Volkskrant (NL)
"If you want to know what it would have sounded like if three legends had come together for a jam session – Miles Davis, Philip Glass and Beethoven – you shouldn’t miss “Splunge”, the new album by the North Sea String Quartet. Spiced up with a good portion of their own ideas, it is an experimental listening experience with an astonishment factor."
Jürgen Pathy
klassik-begeistert.de (DE)
NEWS
Album release: Electric Amazigh
We have got some great news: today we officially announce that our album Electric Amazigh will be released on Bandcamp 16 September through our Bandcamp page. And, even better, as of today it is available for preorder viathis link! A physical copy of the album will be available at €15 (excl shipping), digital downloads at €10. If you get it through preorder, you will get a €2 discount and an extra track in advance!
Electric Amazigh is a collaboration with guitarist Javier Infante (Canary Islands) that we recorded last summer in the famous Studio 2 of the MCO in Hilversum. It features music by Infante and our own Pablo Rodríguez, inspired by North African, Sephardic and Canarian folk music.
To get you warmed up, we are sending you one of the tracks from the album: Danza del Bereber. Mysterious but groovy!
A new face & Electric Amazigh update
Dear music lover,
Hopefully you are doing alright in these strange times, where live music has become a rare commodity. Now that the vaccination campaign is getting up to speed, we can slowly start looking forward to the reopening of society. And boy, do we long for that! In this newsletter we will look back on the past few months with a smile and tear, and tell you a bit of what is coming up.
A new face
Last summer Karin decided to quit as a member of the North Sea String Quartet. The concerts were getting harder to combine with her work in Berlin, on which she would love to keep her focus. Als co-founder, Karin has undeniably left her mark on the development of the quartet. We will greatly miss her swinging style and imaginative solos and surely also her sweet personality. We wish her the best of luck in her German career and will of course keep on following her closely!
After a period of searching and trying out, we have found a worthy replacement in the person of George Dumitriu! George is a remarkably versatile musician. He has studied classical violin in Romania and the Netherlands, but also jazz guitar in the Netherlands and the United States. Playing concerts around the globe and appearing as a guest teacher at several conservatories, he
has built an impressive resume. On top of that, he is a very gifted composer and arranger. We are therefore very happy to welcome him in the ranks!
During the pandemic
The past months have been more quiet than usual, but thanks to the Balkonscènes funding from Fonds Podiumkunsten we have been able to play a few very nice concerts. For instance, on each of the three locations of the ETZ hospital in Tilburg and Waalwijk, we have performed for care staff and patients. Also, together with Stichting Maatschappelijke Opvang Midden-Brabants Traverse, we are looking for a way to play a concert for homeless people. It is very special being enabled this way to give a morale booster to people struggling.
Electric Amazigh
As we have mentioned in our previous newsletter, last summer we recorded our first album together with guitarist Javier Infante in the famous Studio 2 of the MCO in Hilversum. It is going to be a beautiful record with pieces written by Infante and our very own Pablo Rodríguez, inspired by North African, Sephardic and Canarian folk music. The release is planned for *…release date…* and the final result is getting closer. We are delighted to already share this little bit with you:
We hope to see you again soon, safe and sound!
Summer News
Hello everyone!
We’re back to share some news with you!
Academy of Improvising Strings
We are looking back on a successful first edition of the Academy of Improvising Strings last May, with 27 string players from all over the world. It was quite something organizing this, together with Tim Kliphuis, for the first time, and we are very excited it has been such a creative and positive weekend with jams and workshops throughout. We hope to have given a new impulse to (beginning and advanced) improvisors and teachers to incorporate improvisation in their work.
What a great weekend!
The 2020 edition is in the making, dates to be announced soon, so if you are interested in signing up, please keep an eye on the website: www.improvisingstrings.com
The summer kicked off in Germany, with the three day Festival Rudolstadt, Germany’s biggest world music festival with about 90.000 visitors every year. What a groovy, friendly festival with a variety of bands and artists. Besides our scheduled concerts – where we got to inaugurate the town’s renovated concert hall – we had fun busking on the streets for so many folk music lovers.
Mario Forte
Mario Forte at Zbigniew Seifert Jazz Violin Competition
After that, we left to southern France to play with Mario Forte, a New York based violinist and composer and winner of last year’s Seifert Competition. Apart from his own creative projects in jazz and contemporary improvised music, he works alongside greats such as John Zorn and Richard Bona. Together we took the time to explore new ways of approaching our repertoire and developing artistic direction, as well as working on groove and energy. This resulted in three experimental concerts where literally anything could happen. It has been an intense and fruitful experience for all of us and we are happy and grateful to Mario for working with us.
Lilian Vieira
With Lilian Vieira at Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Another exciting collaboration you might have already noticed, is the one with singer Lílian Vieira, which came to fruition in two sold out shows in the Concertgebouw last week. If you missed it, make sure you follow us on our social channels, where we are releasing several video clips with her. This is our take on ‘O Pato’, by João Gilberto. and below, Nuvem Negra by Djavan.
If you want to see this project live: September 21st we play in the September Me Festival in Amersfoort. There is a very interesting line-up for the string quartet addicts among us, because also the wonderful Ragazze Quartet and Matangi Quartet will be playing there.
Upcoming
We are taking time to compose and arrange new music at the moment, which will be recorded later this year. Exciting concerts are coming up, at one of which we will perform an exciting version of Bach’s third Brandenburg Concerto with string orchestra. Be sure to keep an eye on our agenda! In the meantime, if you have any ideas, suggestions, places to play or if you want to support us in any way, let us know.
Have a beautiful autumn!
Academy of Improvising Strings & Vlog
Last January we went back to the Canary Islands with violist/singer Roland Satterwhite (USA). In the fall of 2018, our EP ‘Songs for flying’ (available here) was recorded in Berlin and fortunately, it didn’t take too long for us to play together again. It didn’t go unnoticed either: all of our concerts on Gran Canaria and La Palma were sold out! Check our vlog, made by Yanna, for a look behind the scenes.
In a few months, we’ll kick off our first(!) edition of the Academy of Improvising Strings. Together with Tim Kliphuis, each member of the quartet will be organising two days of non-stop workshops at various levels, including jam sessions and an inspirational tutors’ concert. We’ll be working on improvisation, timing, phrasing, sound, expressions, playing technique and, if you’re a teacher yourself, how to incorporate improvisation in your teaching practice. Depending on your interest and level, you can spend more time on specific subjects with one or more teachers.
Save the date: March 28 UUnited Muziekfestival will take place in Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht. For this edition, the North Sea String Quartet will be collaborating with women’s choir Medusa. The programme is still a surprise, but think of glaciers, barren snowfields and mountain echo’s, and you get the idea. Yanna’s composition ‘Snow Suite’ (also on our EP Feldwerk) will be performed in a version for string quartet and women’s choir for the first time. Tickets are available here.
One of our tightest tunes that we ever released, composed by our talented violinist, George Dumitriu! We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the wonderful audience that surrounded us and filled the atmosphere with their incredible energy.
Recorded at Batavierhuis on May 13, 2023 Special thanks to all the Batavierhuis crew.
Camera and editing by Felipe Pipi. 2nd Camera by Tijmen de Vries Sound mixing by Pablo Rodríguez.
A danceable triptych entirely inspired by drum ‘n bass and EDM. Here, Pablo Rodríguez uses an electronic ‘stompbox’ to mimic the sound of a bass drum. Effects such as ‘delay’ and ‘distortion’ are mimicked acoustically. A wide range of innovative percussive techniques are unleashed on the string instruments, and there is plenty of room for improvisation.
Recorded at Batavierhuis on May 13, 2023 Special thanks to all the Batavierhuis crew.
Camera and editing by Felipe Pipi. 2nd Camera by Tijmen de Vries Sound mixing by Pablo Rodríguez.
You can call it chamber jazz, but the members of the North Sea String Quartet will be the last ones to try and limit their work by mere stylistic descriptions. As improvising string players active in the Dutch music scene, they are influenced by classical, world and folk music. Four creative minds combining their full potential and diverse musical backgrounds, creating a unique sound, and having a lot of fun in doing so.
You can call it chamber jazz, but the members of the North Sea String Quartet will be the last ones to try and limit their work by mere stylistic descriptions. As improvising string players active in the Dutch music scene, they are influenced by classical, world and folk music. Four creative minds combining their full potential and diverse musical backgrounds, creating a unique sound, and having a lot of fun in doing so.
