Coolhaven Performance at freibesetzt July 16, 2005

The ever-present shortage of space for artists to practise and perform their work (and an unusual lifestyle) without having to make material profit is one of the major engines behind the creation of many freespaces. Through the process, they often have to become experienced cultural organisers, government bureacracy hackers or housing-mafia infiltrators employing their talents of improvisation on many fronts. The three man music-performance-visual artists ensemble Coolhaven embody this phenomenon in persona. At freibesetzt, they will address the universal freespace question in a collaborative performance.

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Coolhaven is a band based on the principle of diabetics. Their music is inspired by the disturbance of balance between centrifugal and centripetal energies. The first and last thing Coolhaven has is some kind of concept or idea about how the noises they make should sound. They think the idea of making ‘good’ music is kind of obsolete. There could be improvisation (utterly and totally composed) involved, or badly played dutch tribal polka blues. It’s the moment that counts, not fame or respect from future generations of cd-listeners. Their first record sounded like some kind of lo-fi techno ambient country and western and in the beginning of 2003 they released their first feature album; “Blue Moustache” , inspired by electronic music, bullshit generators and flying trapeze’s. At this moment, their interests lays more in the exploitation-genre field. They are doing a project called ‘Strömblock Phantasieën’ with German lyrics by David Hasselhof and visuals by Martijn Van Boven.

The members
Hajo Doorn - He sometimes played with Veryan Weston, and in the notorious group “The Lost Lovers” and Dull Schicksal. He’s some kind of director at WORM, and his writing alter ego is called “Raoul Goudvis”.
Lukas Simonis - Sometimes calls himself ‘musician’. Played amongst others in Dull Schicksal, AA Kismet, Trespassers W. Also works at WORM where he has a ‘free’ role. Just Like in the Bible.
Peter Fengler - His other group is called ‘Shake Spier’ And besides that he’s a visual artist. And besides that he still has a nice body. And besides that he has a club called “The Player” in the former red-light district of Rotterdam. But they do art there nowadays.
Johan De Koeyer (aka. as culthero ‘Donkey hare Joe’) is their technical slave. Doing the visuals, taking care of the sound and doing their dirty laundry.

But what do they actually sound like live ? Let's say it’s a mixture of electronics, sampling, loops and delays, live-video and self made films, free improvised compositions, folksy bits with acoustic instruments, strange little songs, performing (blowing your nose in front of an audience, etc.) ‘sprechgesang’, surreal tearjerking stories and even some clicks & cuts.

Activities from 1999 ’til approximately now

COOLHAVEN LINKS:

coolhaven site
lots of mp3s
a review in german
WORM
de player