ZuDir

Hi... I'm an Amsterdam based underground soundartist , and have been so for the past 20 years. I have always focused on creating in solitude and independence - living a self-chosen life in " shadows and beyond ". Don't know why.

For some years now my main project is :

Gunnthrain : ( dark ) ambientesque otherwordly surreal experimental atmospheric psychedelic post-rocky and / or neo-folky aural experiences.

Gunnthrain's influences range from Joy Division to Biosphere, from The Velvet Underground to Cocteau Twins, from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to Brian Eno, from Underworld to Mathias Grassow, from Erik Satie to Thomas Köner, from Harold Budd to Pink Floyd, and all over again.

In fact along ( and silently ) through the mist of time I created my own 'genre' and I now call it : magnificent desolation. In March 2007 Gunnthrain's Eternal Life was chosen as Best Song Miscellaneous 2006 over at iacmusic.com. Due to severe server-problems which couldn't handle my 320 kbps / 12 minutes files I had to leave there : I still feel sorry and always will. It was one of the best ( music ) communities I ever stumbled upon. And so I started out at soundclick.com with zero plays and zero sales again...



As I cann't cope with creativity in the most general meaning of the word I do a lot of side-projects. These are some of them ( on line ) :

He Who Speaks In Silence : when I was a young kid I used to sit a lot at the side of the road in front of our farm - silence can be really overwhelming.

Ecce Homo Pietoso : Ecce Homo Pietoso disintegrates then rebuilds ( most of the time ) human voice material only and is greatly inspired by the work of the Anglo-Irish painter Francis Bacon ( 1909-1992 ). His art is famous for its often bold, grotesque and nightmarish imagery. May I add: compassion...? Compassion for humanity...?

and Seelenruhe : coming down from an atmosphere drenched in wind, rain and solitude. Another one of several projects I'm currently working on. During the first 21 years of my life I grew up on the ' countryside ' and for one reason or another it is the ( haunting ) sound of the ( northern ) wind I remember most. That's what Seelenruhe is all about : it feels like a homecoming, and yes... some desolation involved... Song / soundsources range from found sounds, fieldrecordings and the wind itself to actually anything.

However - it all started as a joke... : some 20 years ago I was just another Orbison/Springsteen clone...

Finally - from the foggy shores of Gunnthrain one of the most outstanding poems in history, a sort of a signature actually ( no, I'm not that old... ) ! :

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas ( 1914 - 1953 )

The Dylan Thomas Official Homepage