Under The Surface: Joost Lijbaart, Sanne Rambags, Bram Stadhouders

Under The Surface
Joost Lijbaart, Sanne Rambags, Bram Stadhouders
100 Pages
Self Published
2024

Why wait for your 10th anniversary to release a handsome, hardbound coffee-table book replete with stunning photos and illustrations charting your band's trajectory, when you can do so on your 9th? Then again, Under The Surface, the Dutch improvising trio of Joost Lijbaart (drums/percussion), Bram Stadhouders (electronics/guitars) and Sanne Rambags (vocals), has always done things a little differently. The book's striking cover alone suggests that this is not your typical biography. These 100 pages are as much an artistic statement as the trio's music.

Of course, Under The Surface's story is all there in these 100 pages but it is relayed in the form of journal extracts and notes. Sometimes confessional in their naked honesty, these interjections give an insight into the philosophy behind the music and the band's touring life—the doubts, fears and stresses on the one hand, the endless sense of discovery, joy and love on the other.

A little background: Under The Surface came together in 2015 when the Dutch talent-development foundation Beaux Jazz offered the then 22-year-old Rambags, an extraordinary singer and poet, a creative opportunity. Little could she have known when she hooked up with Lijbaart and Stadhouders that the three were about to embark on a voyage that would take them around the globe over the next decade.

Under The Surface's eponymous debut (Challenge Records, 2017), a beguiling, chamberesque balance between form and open—ended improvisation introduced a band of rare intuition and sensitivity. This was followed by Trinity (Challenge Records, 2019), a live recording that built on the trio's foundations with the judicious use of electronic soundscaping. Miin Triuwa (Challenge Records, 2022)—which garnered a rare 5-star accolade from this reviewer—followed a fresh and daring path, its more through-composed aesthetic (spiced by improvisation) featuring Rambags' poetry/lyrics delivered in Old Dutch.

Tours have taken Under The Surface throughout Europe, to the four corners of Asia, to west and central Africa and across the Americas. Along the way Lijbaart, Rambags and Stadhouders have played in a bewildering variety of venues, from major festival stages to living rooms, from theatres to Buddhist temples and from clubs to rooftops.

In concert, Under The Surface departs from a Zen-like silence, embracing minimalism but growing the music to ecstatic heights. In their improvised dialogues you are as likely to hear chord progressions and rhythms from Africa as you are the whisp of a melody from central Asia. Ethereal wordless song can give way to primal release, or to poetry extolling nature. Tumbling guitar lines, subtle electronics and Lijbaart's forest of percussive elements are all part of its unique—and evolving—avant—folk, chamber-meets-progressive world.

But back to the book: high-quality photos (color and black-and-white) capture Under The Surface on their travels, depicting the musicians on stage and exploring their environs. Tour itineraries and concert posters underline just how far the trio has journeyed.

However, what sets this book apart from typical band biographies are the contributions by artist Mark Wilkinson. Renowned for his artwork on the cult comic Judge Dread as well as iconic album covers for Marillion, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and The Darkness, Wilkinson's images—photos and sculptures—capture the spirit of nature, the feeling of mystery and the spiritualism that fires Under The Surface's music.

Additional images—monoprints, mixed media, collage, drawings, paintings, sculptures and photos—by ten other artists further emphasize the importance of nature, art and the environment in Under The Surface's musical philosophy.

The book comes with a CD—a 50-minute live recording that captures the trio's fascinating improvisational language in 2020. It is as good a starting point as any for those hitherto unfamiliar with Under The Surface's music.

To coincide with the book release, a 22-minute film (see YouTube video below) artfully shot by David Lam and Hannah Thompson of ON Studios follows Under The Surface on a retreat in southern Ireland where the three musicians explain what inspires their music. Rambags notes the limitations of words in this regard, but what is abundantly clear is the deep bond the three share, their questing spirits and the preciousness of life itself.

"I think the connection between the three of us is so strong it's super clear why we are doing it," reflects Lijbaart. "Maybe music, I would say, is to remind me or other people to the sort of essence of life. But maybe I could also say it is about love and about caring. You know, it's about love."

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