Having hung his hat in the past on collaborative projects such as The Paper Ensemble, SOON and Silverbones, Jochem van Tol’s new project T’iju T’iju answers a long-held hypothesis: what would happen if he were to experiment with sound and music on his own? The answer lies partly in its moniker, named after the Bolivian word for grasshopper, an animal the Amsterdam-based composer and artist feels a peculiar spiritual connection to.

“T'iju T'iju became a kind of nickname for me. Somehow I’ve always come across grasshoppers in my life, which is really funny. Whether it is on my car’s steering wheel or on a motorboat or in my house on top of my bed. So I’ve come to believe the grasshopper is an animal that has mysteriously bonded with me. It’s something I like to fantasize about. T'iju T'iju became a kind of nickname for me instead of Jochem. At the same time, the pronouncement of the word is a kind of onomatopoeia for grasshoppers; the name itself sounds like something that could fit in my sound world.”

T’iju T’iju’s debut EP 'the dragon is still alive' – a joint release by Esc.rec. and MOLK Records – was written and recorded by Van Tol during a retreat in Spain. The two tracks, “Blue Birds” and “New Grass”, (a nod to Talk Talk’s seminal final LP Laughing Stock) were shaped by manipulating organic sounds with an assembly of synth modules and tape manipulations. Van Tol took on a tactile approach that felt novel and adventurous to him. In the past, he had completed works that were meant to be performed or vice versa, performances that were meant to put to rest on a recording.

These recordings are more candid and personal, homing in on the moments themselves, music made with no audience in mind. “This EP is composed, but also pieces in which you yourself are surprised by a sound. “New Grass” has a clarinet in it… I mean, I can't really play the clarinet, but that’s always been one of my dreams. So what if I can’t play the clarinet? I am very happy with those three clarinet notes I did play on the track. That's why I consider T’iju T’iju a present I’m giving to myself, instead of looking for someone else’s approval.”

'the dragon is still alive' is the first of a series of releases in which Van Tol chases down his own curiosity through sound, without the weight of laboring over the results. Just because T’iju T’iju is a solo endeavor, doesn’t mean the music can’t attach to and interact with other disciplines. Case in point, the next chapter for the project involves a soundtrack of a film. The music is a snapshot of sounds acting like characters driven by impulse and curiosity, much like a natural ecosystem, unraveling without second guessing itself.

“In nature, there are things that happen without raising any questions. And because this EP is the first starting point of a series, I'm curious to see how that will reflect in a few years. Suppose it becomes three or four albums, which thread will I discover?”

--

LINER NOTES

It’s quite miraculous that the dragon is still alive contains the first recordings Jochem van Tol has done by his lonesome, given that he has a body of work that dates all the way back to 2007. If there is one common denominator in Jochem’s work, it is that it always has a giddy ‘what’s next?’-energy to it, each note bending in anticipation to the next. Usually, he has done that in a reciprocal environment with like-minded musical peers. Even in more song-oriented groups like SOON and Silverbones, you never felt the music was cast-iron in its composition, and more like a pile of leaves that could be swept away any minute by a gust of wind.

Jochem’s work with the renowned The Paper Ensemble has shown audiences that music is always simmering beneath sounds of everyday life, like a phantom appendage waiting to be revealed. T’iju T’iju, meanwhile, explores the relationship between sound and time in a more playful way. It’s significant to note that in many of his bands, Jochem performs the drums, which I reckon has played a part in him avidly debunking the act of keeping time; the myriad ways humankind has developed all kinds of metrics to capture our perception of it.

It feels playful to name the project after his spirit animal, the grasshopper, a creature who keeps time instinctively without being aware of time’s existence. Though the dragon is still alive consists of just two tracks, the music itself feels non-linear, like a fully realized environment to endlessly explore and get lost in. It’s a place where modern electronic sounds can descend into the primordial, and organic melodies rouse into blissful sentience. The possibilities are, indeed, endless.

– Jasper Willems