Music — jochem van tol

T’iju T’iju

Liner Notes

It’s quite miraculous that the dragon is still alive contains the first recordings Jochem van Tol has done by his lonesome, given that he has a body of work that dates all the way back to 2007. If there is one common denominator in Jochem’s work, it is that it always has a giddy ‘what’s next?’ - energy to it, each note bending in anticipation to the next. Usually, he has done that in a reciprocal environment with like-minded musical peers. Even in more song-oriented groups like SOON and Silverbones, you never felt the music was cast-iron in its composition, and more like a pile of leaves that could be swept away any minute by a gust of wind.

Jochem’s work with the renowned The Paper Ensemble has shown audiences that music is always simmering beneath sounds of everyday life, like a phantom appendage waiting to be revealed. T’iju T’iju, meanwhile, explores the relationship between sound and time in a more playful way. It’s significant to note that in many of his bands, Jochem performs the drums, which I reckon has played a part in him avidly debunking the act of keeping time; the myriad ways humankind has developed all kinds of metrics to capture our perception of it.

It feels playful to name the project after his spirit animal, the grasshopper, a creature who keeps time instinctively without being aware of time’s existence. Though the dragon is still alive consists of just two tracks, the music itself feels non-linear, like a fully realized environment to endlessly explore and get lost in. It’s a place where modern electronic sounds can descend into the primordial, and organic melodies rouse into blissful sentience. The possibilities are, indeed, endless.

– Jasper Willems

Portrait by
Isolde Woudstra