Alquin (April 2010)
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Topic: Alquin (April 2010)
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Alquin (April 2010)
Date Posted: April 24 2010 at 03:50
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ALQUIN were an innovative Dutch band who released four studio albums during the early to mid-70's, their first two being of particular interest to progsters. With a mixture of rock, jazz and classical music, they show elements of SOFT MACHINE, CARAVAN, PINK FLOYD, CURVED AIR with tinges of ROXY MUSIC. The band split up in 1977 following line-up changes and differences in musical direction - some of its members went on to form a new wave/punk band called The METEORS. (biography by Lise (HIBOU), CANADA) I caught up with Ferdinand Bakker for an interview with and about Alquin Please give me your (long or brief) thoughts and lowdowns on.......
The music could have developed any direction Lot's of different styles "I wish I could" and "You always can change" are the only songs we played again after our reunion We feel Marks gives a good view on the time period it's made in It's a bit "hippie", naive in a good way
A statement With a lot of bands the second album always seems to set the standard It's a very solid album You can hear the band has developed a lot of stage experience Dereck Lawrence (Deep Purple) as a producer and the respectful recording ambiance in England were very inspiring for us We felt we were taken seriously "The Dance" and "The Mountain Queen" have bin on our set list for a long time On the latest Sailors and Sinners tour we combined The Dance and Mr Barnum (half of the Dance was performed on violin) Maybe the most complete album We found our final set up with lead singer Michel van Dijk The combination of rocky oriented songs with rich and intelligent arrangements are still the ingredients of Alquin in 2010 "Wheelchair Groupie" became the cult hit ,mainly because it had the right (single) length "Revolution's Eve" and "New Guinea Sunrise" are highlights we kept on playing ever since Personally I think this is the most complete and consisting album we did.
You feel times are changing Some darker songs "High Rockin" and "Take any road" already announced what was gonna come The title had a bit of cynical touch to it The American Tour had been canceled on the very last moment A new A&R manager at RCA (US) just decided to reorganize things the momentum was gone as far as going to the States The recording session was very intense With Vic Smith we dived into making a very good sounding album Again a longer track "One More Night" with lots of colours and musical routes Central Station Hustle was a very personal statement of Michel LA Rendez Vous has this nostalgic touch , that later came back in songs like Notebook 
For me it's a good registration, not to good sounding though compared to  and One More Night from 2003 the live DVD/album we recorded after our reunion Here you can see / hear exactly what Alquin is all about Interaction and joy , where age doesn't count
It seems like we just picked it up where we left it on Best kept secret Our first attempt to right something new for Alquin was Sweet Surrender, the bonus track on the live album "One More Night The chemistry was still there Of course the way of working quit different The songs were to a great amount prepared in my own studio (The Park Studio) Then we toke the material to the band and played the songs live for a while This in order to get the Alquin sound, which can only be produced by its own members It felt like making our first album again Also we were very interested how the audience and music press would react. Because of the good reactions reviews as well as live performing we decided to go for another one: Sailors and Sinners Half of the production cost were payed up front by the fans (sponsors) They could sign in on our website Personally I think this might be the best album we ever made Its very rich has a lot of depth in lyrics and music, Alquin is fully alive again We combine our hunger for new material with the maturity everyone has by so many years of musical experience.  There is a lot of compilation albums and 2 for 1 Alquin albums. Is there any you recommend and/or want to warn us against ? I would now recommend The Ultimate Collection (Universal)and the remastered versions from Esoteric Records Alquin broke up in 1977 and reformed in 1995. What were you doing during these years ? I made 3 albums with this band Hunger , produced by Connie Planck (Ultravox, Holger Czuckay, DAF) is still one of my favourites Then I started producing and writing stuff for theatre In 1988 I started The Park Studio with Kim Haworth (also Meteor member) in Amsterdam We made one album with a our new band Red Cinder for EMI After we focused more on commercial activities like TV/radio ads and sound design . composing for films Why did you decide to reform again ? Michel, living in Amsterdam, sometimes visited the studio I asked him for a project (Let's stick together) in Delft Job was also performing in those sessions After a short reunion tour set up by a young fan who never saw us playing live we felt the chemistry was still strong This led to the One More Night (typicly Job)-tour and registration which again led to "Sweet surrender" which led to .... What is your experiences with the music industry and did you make any money from your albums ? The music industry hardly exist anymore for bands like us Its all games and marketing Although some A&R managers would love to invest in good music the returns on investments are not enough due to copying and download practice "Sailors and Sinners " has been downloaded about 20.000 times You
started out as a band who blended the sounds from Caravan, Soft
Machines, Roxy Music and Pink Floyd. Then you changed to a more hard
rock band. Why this change in style ? Our roots
and definitely Michel's where also to be found in America (Beach
Boys,Byrds,Dylan,Otis Reading,CSN&Y Little Feat,/Motown,R&B) So the change , I personally think its more an evolution , was not towards pure hard rock. We are way to divers to give it that label Of course with Michel we tended to had for more songs than pure instrumental tracks How would you describe today's music from Alquin and what is your current status ? like I stated before: The combination of rocky oriented songs with rich and intelligent arrangments are still the ingredients of Alquin in 2010 We don't have to conquer the world anymore but we certainly can give the audience something to experience and enjoy maybe we can also inspire younger musicians with our passion Just to wrap this interview up; do you have any regrets in your music career ? may I should have contacted my old buddies earlier , so we even would have made some more interesting work What is your five alltime favourite albums ? Sgt Peppers Lonely Heartsclub Band Anything you want to add to this interview ?  Thanx to Ferdinand Bakker for this interview. The Alquin PA page is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1333 - and their home page is http://www.alquin.org/ -
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Replies:
Posted By: Finnforest
Date Posted: April 24 2010 at 12:17
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Thanks Torodd and Mr. Bakker. I love that debut album!! |
Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: April 24 2010 at 16:31
| I have loved Marks and Mountain Queen for a long time-did not know of recent goings on until just now-your early music, for me, has always represented why i find continental European rock music so much more rewarding than North American -surprised to read that you had so many American musical roots and influences-still, i would pick listening to Alquin or Solution any day over Chicago or Blood, Sweat and Tears! |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: April 25 2010 at 16:27
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Good to read that they are still active. Their 70's albums were great indeed (Mountain Queen is one of my all-time favourites and IMHO the #1 masterpiece of Dutch prog).
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Posted By: gr8dane
Date Posted: April 25 2010 at 18:48
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Thanx for the interview,and thanx to Alquin for some excellent music. ------------- Shake & bake. |