OCD051 : Augusteyns - Badenhorst - Thielemans - Pawlowski / De god van ongeveer

 

Cover art by Jürgen Augusteyns

OCD051 : Augusteyns - Badenhorst - Thielemans - Pawlowski / De god van ongeveer

Jürgen Augusteyns (°Ghent, 1972) is a Belgian guitarist/composer coming from a pop and rock background and not being happy by the limitations he encountered, he chose to carve his own path.

Inspired by guitarists such as Loren Connors, Noël Akchoté en Brandon Seabrook but also musicians and bands by the likes of Glenn Branca, Oren Ambarchi, Hella en US Maple, to name a few, he is constantly searching to refine and redefine his own voice and music.
Either when improvising or composing, contingencies play a major role in his work.

On “De god van ongeveer” EP:
"Just like “Auch ich in Arkadien”, my first solo release, this record started with solo improvised guitar parts. Soon I realised I found the blueprints of the global arrangements and structures of the first two songs of this record.
Joachim and Eric both were quite an obvious choice for me to invite as collaborators, Joachim played on my first EP and both Eric and I were planning a duo-release but then Covid suddenly happened and we had to postpone.
Joachim Badenhorst is foremost known as a renowned jazz musician, but he really is so much more, it was ultimately his trademark Flemish vocals and scattered lyrics, trademark of his Zero Years Kid project that I was after for “Droom, droom, droom” and “Vinger bij vinger”.
Eric Thielemans is a genre-bending percussionist with a classically trained ear. He has worked his way via jazz drumming and free improvisation towards his own realms in music and performance.
For “Vinger bij vinger” I needed a relatively straightforward drum part for the loud section, but also a much more open, almost lyrical approach for the quiet section.
Knowing I can blindly trust them with anything, both got carte blanche.
Unfortunately, due to the lockdown happening at that time we were limited to a virtual collaboration, sending files over and back again to each other.
“Droom, droom, droom” was finished quite easily, but I wasn’t happy with how “Vinger bij vinger” turned out, which eventually led me to cutting the song up and having it start with the heavy section instead of the quiet one.
By the time both songs with Joachim’s vocals were almost done, I decided on continuing the album in Dutch.
I knew Mauro had worked with lyrics in our native tongue, so that, added with his unmistakable recognizable surrealism proved exactly what was needed.
I had that pop song with quite a Pet Shop Boys vibe to it, which I kept turning back to, but as it was it didn’t really fit in with both other tracks. Still I proposed that one, not knowing how it eventually would turn out. After Mauro’s haunting vocals were recorded, I still was unsure about the vibe. All was there, all was into place, but still it didn’t work.
That was, until I decided to mute all instruments and play along the vocal lines with a drone synth, and that’s how “De god van ongeveer” took it’s definitive form..
“Binair gedicht” also started with an improvised guitar part on which I added Mellotron, Casio and more glitch guitars. For the vocals, I sampled my own voice (one - zero) and played a binary transformation of a poem on a keyboard. Initially this song was to be a hidden/bonus track, but eventually I decided to include it as a full fledged one."

Gang of four!

Teaser 1:

Jürgen Augusteyns - guitars, keys, Moog/CT5/Stamme(n) operator, vocals 
Joachim Badenhorst - vocals, clarinet 
Eric Thielemans - drums 
Mauro Pawlowski - vocals 

Arranged, mixed, recorded and edited by Jürgen Augusteyns except 
vocals and clarinet on Droom, droom, droom and Vinger bij vinger recorded by Joachim Badenhorst. 
Drums on Vinger bij vinger recorded by Eric Thielemans. 
Vocals on De god van ongeveer recorded by Mauro Pawlowski. 

Lyrics on Droom, droom, droom and Vinger bij vinger by Joachim Badenhorst 
Lyrics on De god van ongeveer by Mauro Pawlowski 

Mastered by Uwe Teichert at Elektropolis 
Design and photography by Jürgen Augusteyns

Physical and digital release on the 5th of March 2021.

Track listing:

1: Droom, droom, droom

2: Vinger bij vinger

3: De god van ongeveer

4: Binair gedicht

And on Bandcamp: