Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) + Mariska Baars - eau (2019)

Mariska Baars and Rutger Zuydervelt go way back. And although they regularly work together in the quartet Piiptsjilling, their last effort as a duo stems from 2008, the album ‘Drawn’ (on Foxy Digitalis/Morc).

But now ‘eau’ is here. ‘eau’ (pronounced “oh”) means ‘water’ in French, and that’s how it sounds; like gently rocking waves of sound, or like a babbling sonic stream of fractured audio debris. It also sounds a bit like the equivalent of sunlight dancing on the ripples of a lake’s surface.

‘eau’ is not really a song, or a composition. Well, technically it is, but it functions more like an atmosphere that fills the space. Just let it play (on repeat…) and let the sounds hang in the room - let them co-excist with any other sound that’s there. Open a window if you wish! Or, experience the trip on headphones, let these soft tones, gentle voices, buzzes and crackles tickle the inside of your skull.

‘eau’ was mastered by the one and only Stephan Mathieu, who made this carefully crafted audio patchwork shine even more.