Jameszoo, the alias of Mitchel van Dinther, will return to Brainfeeder with a new album, Blind.
Blind, a 12-track record, is imbued with the same spirit of adventure as the Dutchman’s previous work on the Los Angeles label, including 2016’s Fool, and it once again explores the fringes of jazz and electronica.
The recordings were shaped by van Dinther’s studio sessions at Willem Twee Studios, the specialist analogue studio in Den Bosch. He started out by asking himself an important question: “In music and other arts there is a heavy emphasis on the artist,” he says. “Is it possible to create something that bypasses this? A project that forces active objective listening?”
He began by trying to bypass himself as the protagonist, by remotely recording musicians and collaborators reshaping his initial ideas, morphing the music as if repainting a portrait again and again. He also recorded all sorts of motorised instruments to attempt to embody this idea. For example, the Disklavier (motorised piano) which allowed for precision and the execution of passages unplayable by the human hand. “It really helped me aesthetically detach from the human aspect,” he says. “The Disklavier started to embody the music’s characteristics.”
Across the album, van Dinther is supported by a cast of “exceptionally talented” friends who share his “passion for improvisation and invention,” including his long-term writing partner Niels Broos, Swedish bassist Petter Eldh, and drummers Richard Spaven and Julian Sartorius, all of whom contributed to Fool.
Fool, a blend of jazz and off-kilter electronics, featured cameos from Brazilian composer Arthur Verocai and pianist Steve Kuhn, in addition to Thundercat.
The artwork for the project is by the celebrated Dutch artist Philip Akkerman, a dear friend of van Dinther.
Tracklisting
01. “song”
02. Bugatti (étude)
03. Alejandro
04. Imps
05. Egg Modern
06. music for bat caves
07. How do i shape-shift?
08. Big Game
09. For drummers (and guitarists)
10. Philip
11. Hommage à qui
12. My kingdom for a horse
Blind LP is scheduled for March 11 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Bugatti (étude)” in full below and pre-order here.
