Sykheljende Lûden, by Oceanic & Greetje Bijma

Sykheljende Lûden

by Oceanic & Greetje Bijma

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Full Digital Discography

6

releases

Get all 6 yeyeh • ninih releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Sykheljende Lûden, Tune IN, Dwang, SARIANI LP [yeyeh004], Swallow A Party LP [yeyeh003], and Waves LP [yeyeh002]. , and , .

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1.	Away From Home 04:26	buy track
2.	Sykhelje 01:07	buy track
3.	Golden Skinne 04:09	buy track
4.	Waegen Vallen 04:28	buy track
5.	Dripket 01:08	buy track
6.	Syzygy 05:30	buy track
7.	Protterduns (Part I) 01:15	buy track
8.	Protterduns (Part II) 06:04	buy track
9.	Veuhel 01:30	buy track
10.	Hynders 04:29	buy track
11.	V&A 03:20	buy track
12.	Peace in Mind 03:50	buy track

about

Since yeyeh brought them together in 2019 to record their first collaborative album, Swallow a Party, Oceanic and Greetje Bijma have become firm friends. The connection they first felt in the studio has led not only to the regular exchange of musical ideas and song sketches, but also lengthy conversations about life and art.

One of the strongest connections that helped shape their growing creative partnership is not musical, but personal. Both grew up in coastal communities at different ends of the Netherlands and the sensory impact of living close to the North Sea and Wadden Sea, respectively, made a long-lasting impression.

This connection gave them an idea: why not use the Wadden Sea, an intertidal zone of the North Sea situated between the Frisian Islands and the Dutch Coast, as a thematic inspiration for their next album. Oceanic and Bijma exchanged memories of wonderous wetlands, the salty smell of sea air, seemingly never-ending tidal mudflats, the distinctive calls of rare seabirds, and the look and feel of local flora and fauna.

When they gathered in Studio Het Rode in Roderwolde for three days of improvised recordings based on existing ideas, Oceanic and Bijma set out to create music, through a mixture of voice and electronics, inspired by the mental sounds and images that appeared when they thought about the Wadden Sea’s celebrated landscapes. Extended improvisations were recorded, before Oceanic edited them down and they collaborated shaped the finished versions with added texture and structure.

The resultant album, Sykheljende Lûden (Frisian for “breathing sounds”), wears its central inspiration lightly, with many of Bijma’s startling and expressive vocalisations and Oceanic musical motifs subtly hinting at tidal flows, bird calls, and the comforting feeling of home that the environment stirs in both artists. It is not ‘landscape music’ in the strictest sense of the term, but rather music partially inspired by their personal psycho-geographies and nostalgic memories of their former coastal homes.

Sykheljende Lûden is frequently both majestic and mesmerising, with Bijma showcasing the full dynamism and expressiveness of her vocal range and Oceanic conjuring electronic sounds, rhythms and textures that combine his long-stated love of both club music and emotive experimentalism. From the bubbly bliss of opener ‘Away From Home’, to the ambient-operatic moodiness of closing cut ‘Peace In Mind’, via the soft-spun sweetness of ‘Golden Sun Skin’, spaced-out minimalism of ‘Dripket’ and the rhythmic creepiness of ‘Veugel’, Sykheljende Lûden is a unified artistic vision that owes as much to the duo’s coastal roots as it does to their evolving creative partnership.

credits

released October 25, 2024

releases October 25, 2024

Composed by - Greetje Bijma & Oceanic
Produced by - Oceanic
Vocals – Greetje Bijma
Painting - Greetje Bijma
Photography - Marieke de Graeff
Artwork - nol.one
Liner notes - Matt Anniss
Mastering - Rashad Becker