ACHTERADEM

Sunday 20 February 2011 Nijmegen poet Frank-Anthonie van Alphen presented his latest volume of poetry Achteradem. For this series of poems, written after a trip to Thailand, Frank-Anthonie asked several musicians to provide backing to a poem of their liking. Being the first to be offered the set of poems, I look the one that I really liked; the one with the least words – even though that doesn’t sound quite right I have to admit. To these words, I made a short soundscape which worked really well with the words. The original idea was to publish Achteradem as a CD with book, but that is still in the works. As it is, Achteradem, is now a virtual publication and can be downloaded from the internet. At the presentation, at the now defunct Vasim factory in Nijmegen, Frank offered a CDR version with a handmade cover. The presentation itself was great; the concrete wall of the very dim-lit room formed a perfect setting to Frank’s reciting and backing by several musicians. As I didn’t perform myself, I suggested I made a loop out of my contribution and play that at the start of the performance as backing/intro music. It all worked very well. There were lots of photographers present (and even a few people filming the event), and here is one nice shot; here’s… Frankie!