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Roelant Hollander

Biography

I started playing violin at the age of 6 (1982) but lost interest about 5 years later, replacing the violin with my first saxophone in 1990 after a few years without. In 1994 I discovered software sequencers and started writing music using PC and synthesizer with Steinberg’s Cubase.

Between 1998 and 2000 I studied at the Jazz department of the Constantijn Huygens Music Academy (Nowadays named Artez) in Zwolle, The Netherlands (teachers: Rolf Delfos & Allard Buwalda). During my study I played with many different groups and artists and started a Jazz-Hop/Nu-Jazz project called "HSS" (later renamed to “DJazz”) together with DJ Phaze (Olivier Schreuder). In 2000 I stopped playing saxophone (due to serious health problems) and stopped studying.

I Emigrated to Bulgaria in 2001. The first 3 years in Bulgaria I did not play on my saxophones at all but continued writing music and creating beats. The first time I performed with saxophone again (after this "sax-sabbatical" of nearly 3 years) was with Ethno-Fusion band “Lot Lorien” from Varna in 2003. From 2005-2008 I was member of the “Desi-re Project” with DJ Ivo-But-Not, Desy (vocalist Phuture Shock), and Charlie Gotchev (guitarist).

In January 2007 Dimitar Kalinov (a.k.a. Violent Public Disorders / VPD) and I founded the first Bulgarian union/collective of (underground) beat creators (composers of electronic music) named Trip-BeatMiks. The main purposes: collaborations on projects and boosting the underground scene in Varna as much as possible. This union does not exist anymore at present time. Around the same time the Nu-Jazz group DJazz was revived with DJ Emotion, DJ Ivo-But-Not and Charlie Gotchev in the line-up.

In 2009 I started assisting sound engineer Ivan "Tochka" Boyadzhiev at Studio 21, learning to become a sound/studio engineer using Pro Tools HD9. In my spare time I worked on some old and new tracks for "DJazz" (with DJ Emotion, DJ Jijo, Miroslav Petkov (trumpetist) and Ivan Boyadzhiev engineer and co-producer). Tochka and I also formed the Electronic Production Duo "Sober & Sober" and made a couple of remixes.

In 2012 JazzProfilactika became the focus of my attention, building up original material to perform with. I joined the Blue Brother formation as well.

In 2013 I started teaching saxophone at "Music School Bekar" in Varna and a new project "UFON!X" (an experimental Ambient project with a touch of Jazz or "Jazzbient") started, featuring Neyko Bodurov (trumpet), Moodix (programming, sampling, FX) and VJ Synth (real-time visuals & mapping).