Photo: Isolde Woudstra
Since 2007, Dutch composer, musician and interdisciplinary artist Jochem van Tol (1983) has ventures into offbeat, unbeaten paths between sound and performance, applying bygone or neglected arts and crafts in creative, pioneering ways. Most notably longtime project The Paper Ensemble, which he founded alongside Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti; a holistic study in the musical proponents in everyday objects and materials, deep listening, and acoustics. Using custom-made paper sculptures in their performances, constantly evolving dialogue where ordinary sounds become sentient characters.
As an alumnus of the The Hague Conservatory Interfaculty for Image & Sound, Van Tol’s work is as much a playground for extensive research as the act of creating. Since 2007, he has performed and exhibited extensively abroad, especially in Japan alongside artists such as Yoko Ono, Mamoru, John Cage, Yukio Fujimoto, Francis Alys, Germaine Kruip, Toshi Ichiyanagi and Ken’ichi Nakagawa. Additionally, Van Tol has participated in various projects, residencies and bands at festivals such as Rewire, Lowlands, Tokyo’s Experimental Art&Sound Festival, Meltdown Festival and Le Guess Who?.
Van Tol’s projects often embody an exercise in patience, using both old and new techniques to explore all the possibilities, with an enthusiasm and passion for discarded and outdated things – materials that require attention and study to unlock their full sonic potential.
Since starting his artistic journey, Van Tol has participated in many collaborative projects, including notable audiovisual productions with Schweigman & de Veenfabriek during his stint with now-defunct artist collective o k a p i. He performed in experimental rock outfits like Silverbones, the band he formed with Ferragutti, and two-piece outfit SOON with guitarist Liú Mottes (Blue Crime, Alienbaby Collective). The latter two projects operated in a more fringe pop idiom, yet harnessed Van Tol’s playful insistence to allow sound to have its own agency, with soundscapes, improvisational skirmishes and cinematic suspense to carry the music to unexpected places.
Van Tol’s most recent project T’iju T’iju marks the first time he creates and composes music by and for himself. It was named after his spirit animal, the grasshopper, a creature who keeps time instinctively without being aware of time’s existence. Debut EP 1: the dragon is still alive consists of just two tracks, yet the music itself feels non-linear, like a fully realized environment to endlessly explore and get lost in. A place where modern electronic sounds can descend into the primordial, and organic melodies rouse into blissful sentience.
For details on all of Jochem van Tol’s projects so far, click here.
Text: Jasper Willems
About his artist-run-platform Molk Factory: click here
Molk Factory is an artist collective based in Amsterdam, with a studio in Plantage Dok. Our main focus lies on the broad world of sound. We are composers, musicians, sound artists and flirt constantly with interdisciplinary concepts. We love to host concerts, multimedia events, collaborate with likeminded folks, release music and build community.
Our aim is to create a space for listening, experimenting, gathering and sharing.
With our many years of experience we have developed the expertise and skills to produce our own work. We compose, arrange, perform, record albums, make registrations of concerts and rehearsals. We find of great importance to build an audiovisual archive, not only for us but for our local networks.
We are Frank Rosaly, Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti, Jochem van Tol and Rosa Ronsdorf.
Han Bennink at a Molk Factory Studio Concert. Photo: Isolde Woudstra
