Solid Ground

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2022-02-22

Label: Not On Label

The cover painting ‘Les Bordures‘ was painted by Lukas Smits.
The words on I Can See A Woman Crying are based on the video installation of the same name by Rineke Dijkstra.

On Solid Ground, half of the songs are inspired by Dutch female artists who excel in painting, photo, video and sculpture:

- Alida Pott is an ode to the artist from Groningen who died too early, whose oeuvre was only rediscovered in the last decade.
- Raquel Sing Us A Song is inspired by the painting We Don’t Sleep As We Parade All Through The Night by Raquel van Haver.
- Hare is inspired by the figurine Hare on a trunk by Carolein Smit.
- No Particular Reason celebrates the funeral horses photographed by Charlotte Dumas at the Arlington American Cemetery, in the Anima series.
- I Can See A Woman Crying is inspired by the video installation of the same name that Rineke Dijkstra made in Tate Liverpool. Dijkstra filmed a school class viewing and commenting on the painting The Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso. The lines of the song consist of sentences that allow the children to let their imaginations run wild. The video – and the song – is a celebration of human fantasy, curiosity and camaraderie.

Four songs are part of that other tradition The Dutch stands out for, namely social and political engagement:

- Just like This Is Welfare in 1983 and Money in 2016, the opening track Fairytales mocks the shameless neoliberalism and greed that just won’t budge, despite the accumulation of laissez-faire originated crises.
- Solid Ground, the title track, was written after the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Out of amazement at the ease with which so many people can be incited with the craziest conspiracy theories. Time to return to solid ground!
- One Fine Day In Heaven is a genuine rock song that lyrically elaborates on Randy Newman’s God’s Song. During a meeting in heaven, god and his (or her, or them) angels bemoan the lack of respect in the sublunary for their Good Works.
- What’s Your Problem Dear is an upbeat song that pokes fun at overly pushy employers, right-wing populists, Mark Zuckerberg, radio DJs and… the band itself. Musically the song refers to Latin, semi-African choirs and funk.

And then, six years after Father, featured on the album Four (2016), there is another very personal song on Solid Ground: a song that singer Hans Croon wrote about his daughter Djuna. There’s My Firstborn Talking was written after he watched her give an online lecture about black holes, merging stars and the beginning of the universe.

released February 22, 2022