Bio

Jos Smolders (1960) was raised in a relatively remote village in the south of the Netherlands. He is self-taught. Reading every book available in the small hometown library Smolders developed an interest in art and literature. Which lead to various exercises in those creative fields. An inquisitive mind and insatiable drive to explore the sonic world led Smolders towards music outside of the traditional realm.

In 1980 he settled in Delft to study architecture at the technical university. Experimentation with sound, which had started tentatively in his mid-teens, now had an almost continuous place in his activities. In 1986 he started the electronic improvisation collective THU20 with Roel Meelkop and others. Smolders also started writing down his ideas on music and reviews for Vital, a magazine that had been started by Frans De Waard[1]. There have always been multiple things going on in Smolders’ life. Solo music, music for and with other artists, writing interviews and reviews, performing, producing. Since 2012 he added to that list mastering of music and, as a consequence of his love of classical electronic music, the restoration of old tape music.

The music of Jos Smolders is always on the border of abstraction and narration. An important influence in his artistic development was a confrontation with the early works of Willem De Kooning whose work in the 1950s was both abstract ánd concrete. With Smolders’ music concrete, everyday sounds meld into intricate and abstract layers of sound. Zooming in and out, exploring the techniques for crossing the borders the listener is drawn into the journey just as much as the composer. Sometimes it’s harsh though not for long because things are constantly evolving like a river of also constantly changing matter. The works sometimes can be experienced as landscapes are objects, at other times they are quite moving and the listener is carried away with the narrative of sound.

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[1] A facsimile edition can be ordered at https://www.kormplastics.nl/vital-the-complete-collection-1987-1995/