It may seem that Dutch artist Jan Hovers is spreading himself thin by doing visual arts, podcasts and music, but if anything it enables to give him a bird's eye when he takes on a new project. To call his second solo Switch album eclectic, would be a huge understatement. He calls it a road trip set to music, with various stops and chance meetings along the way. The latter enabled him to set up a conversation with long deceased heroes like Marlene Dietrich and Lotte Lenya - he pulled their voices he from his collection of 78 rpm records.
With short spoken word and field recorded interludes called En route - Henk Hofstede reads a bit of Nescio's Dichtertje (his band The Nits had a hit with a song named after the writer) in one of them - the tracks are tied together to create a musical maze, with Hovers acting as a pied piper directing his singers and fellow musicians in a gentle but firm way. Melodic pop and vaudeville are having a friendly tug of war.
With songs in both Dutch and English, he keeps it close to home on the one hand, but he might be dreaming of branching out to the rest of the world as well. He should not have worried, as the music translates his feelings and emotions quite well, not giving a fuck about language barriers. And his go-to lyricist Petra Gaffke has the rare gift to write poetry that is deceptively simple.
When Hovers released his first album Climb in 2022, he was still feeling his way around. With the tension of becoming a solo artist out of the way, Switch became an album on which his confidence has grown significantly. It makes one curious where he will go next, but it will be something special for sure.
Switch is a self-released album (CD, digital). Buy it from his website.
Tracks:- En route #1 - Lost without a compass
- Invisible friend
- En route #2 - Ford in the road
- Scattered lives (featuring Petra Gaffke)
- En route #3 - Het gestolen kindje
- Hoppla! (featuring Hanna Prins, Marlene Dietrich en Lotte Lenya)
- En route #4 - Mélancolique
- Blijven wil ik niet (Comment te dire adieu)
- Young Piet Mondrian exploring his village
- En route #5 - R.I.P.
- Curtains (featuring Tessa Boomkamp)
- En route #6 - Ik wou dat het mooi weer was
- When day comes to an end - 2024 version (featuring Petra Gaffke)
- En route #7 - There was a young boy from Limerick
- Way on the other side (featuring Marcel van der Linden)
- En route #8 - Lijn 2, Museumkwartier (featuring Henk Hofstede)
- Er zijn dan van die dingen (Requiem for dad)
- Ik weet het ook niet
- The Phantom Strikes Again *
- This Is Just a Song *
- Climb *
- Time Alone *
* CD only bonus tracks, previously released on his debut album Climb
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