Label : Köhn
Jürgen De Blonde (Born in Eeklo, 1975) is a self-taught musician and composer. He’s been an active musician since the age of 12 when he started playing around with a small casio keyboard. From that time onward he’s been fascinated by electronic music and creating his own sounds and music. Not having an academic background, De Blonde’s interest in music has always been eclectic, allowing influences from a wide range of styles and sounds. Early influences were Jean Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, Klaus Schulze, Kraftwerk, Vangelis, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden and mainstream pop music. Around the age of 16 De Blonde changed schools and became a pupil at SASK in Brugge where he was exposed to the world and practices of art and got to know a wide range of alternative music through fellow students and the music show 120 Minutes on MTV. There he got exposed to many new influences like Sonic Youth, Robert Wyatt, Spaceman 3, the whole wave of Shoegazing bands (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, Boo Radleys ...) and all in all more guitar music, but also Aphex Twin, Autechre ... Meanwhile De Blonde played in a number of bands ranging from jazz to noise rock.
De Blonde expanded his instrumentarium with electric and acoustic guitars, samplers, beat boxes, four track recorder and whatever he got his hands on that could produce sound. He started making songs and sound experiments which he compiled onto tapes. Eventually this resulted in a number of modest releases on small tape labels.
By the mid-nineties he rediscovered the love for electronic music through experimental acts such as Oval, Germ, Microstoria and post-rock acts like Tortoise and Trans Am. He started making his own electronic compositions and this resulted in his first cd album in 1998 on KRAAK under the name “Köhn”. A second album followed in 1999, with a growing number of live shows across Europe and also in being asked by Sonic Youth to open their show at the Ancienne Belgique as a result. Meanwhile De Blonde had also joined de portables releasing a number of albums with that band and playing numerous live shows.
His music has since then been used for shortfilms, compilation albums and installations. He has also frequently been asked to compose new music for film projects.
In 2001 he released his eponymous double album “Koen” on Kraak, regarded by many as a masterpiece in independent electronic music. It was this album that also introduced him to André Gingras for whom he became a regular collaborator, making scores for a.o. The Lindenmeyer System, Hypertopia, Anatomica 1, Idoru,... and thus becoming a regular composer for contemporary dance. Other choreographers he has worked for are Sylain Emard and Arno Schuitemaker.
Currently, De Blonde is working part-time for an educational arts organisation, called Aifoon. Their work focuses on the world of sound, exploring the communicative and poetic possibilities of everyday sounds. Through workshops, events, collaborations and installations they research the many aspects of sound and how these can be used in educational and pedagogical contexts. Besides that, he’s maintaining his musical activities as a musician, composer and sound designer. In 2009 KRAAK released his Köhn comeback lp “We need more space in the cosmos”, on which he grasped back to his early synthesizer heroes.
CD-version!
After his exploration of the kosmische territory, Köhn reprogrammed his his brain to dive into another early synth passion of his: minimalism. Drawing inspiration from great masters such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley, De Blonde recorded four late night ‘variations on a theme’. These are pure transcendental improvisations, meditations on minimal patterns and shifting arpeggios.
After his exploration of the kosmische territory, Köhn reprogrammed his his brain to dive into another early synth passion of his: minimalism. Drawing inspiration from great masters such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley, De Blonde recorded four late night ‘variations on a theme’. These are pure transcendental improvisations, meditations on minimal patterns and shifting arpeggios. Random Patterns lays bare and celebrates Köhn’s limitations a s a keyboard player, exploiting the deep core of instant composition. All four tracks show a dynamic relationship between observation, evaluation, action, reaction, acceptance and attempt, provoking sudden moments of musical insight or even feelings of genuine inner tranquility. Random Patterns is a wonderful piece of synth music that is completely disconnected from recent revivalists and painstakingly focussed on the personal bond between man and his instrument.
After his exploration of the kosmische territory, Köhn reprogrammed his his brain to dive into another early synth passion of his: minimalism. Drawing inspiration from great masters such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley, De Blonde recorded four late night ‘variations on a theme’. These are pure transcendental improvisations, meditations on minimal patterns and shifting arpeggios. Random Patterns lays bare and celebrates Köhn’s limitations a s a keyboard player, exploiting the deep core of instant composition. All four tracks show a dynamic relationship between observation, evaluation, action, reaction, acceptance and attempt, provoking sudden moments of musical insight or even feelings of genuine inner tranquility. Random Patterns is a wonderful piece of synth music that is completely disconnected from recent revivalists and painstakingly focussed on the personal bond between man and his instrument.
After his exploration of the kosmische territory, Köhn reprogrammed his his brain to dive into another early synth passion of his: minimalism. Drawing inspiration from great masters such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley, De Blonde recorded four late night ‘variations on a theme’. These are pure transcendental improvisations, meditations on minimal patterns and shifting arpeggios. Random Patterns lays bare and celebrates Köhn’s limitations a s a keyboard player, exploiting the deep core of instant composition. All four tracks show a dynamic relationship between observation, evaluation, action, reaction, acceptance and attempt, provoking sudden moments of musical insight or even feelings of genuine inner tranquility. Random Patterns is a wonderful piece of synth music that is completely disconnected from recent revivalists and painstakingly focussed on the personal bond between man and his instrument.
K032
2cd
Sold Out/Not available
Very much anticipated worldwide, and a long while since his previous full album it finally was and is clear that the third album would been something of a classic.
Meanwhile he released records/contributions on Tomlab, Bip-Hop, Darla, and Mixer to state only a few. But nothing of all this stand in real proportions to the immense impact of this double album. 130 minutes of pure ecstacy for brain, feet and boiling emotions. Taking up anything you can find in musical history and transforming it into which can only be described as Köhn. Going of raping glitch. Initiating electronica fans to contempory classical movement, introducing pure popriffs in a completely fucked up surrounding, incorporating the 80’s revival into something which will last forever. Taking the term drone into a structured masterpiece, and reconstructing the term ‘twisted beats’ it is clear that everyone can and should be amused, thrilled. It takes you a full two hour of this planet into a world where you wander where you are when the final seconds are vanishing. Time will tell, but this is the ‘Loveless’ of this first decade.
K014
cd
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Köhn is the electronica-bedroom-project from Jürgen De Blonde.
His first music was basic guitarpop, but, without throwing his guitar out completely, he discovered the possibilities of a sampler. A first cd was released on (K-RAA-K)3, filled with a lot of weird skippings and bleeps. Foreign press hyped the guy so much it resulted in a several concerts through Europe and a request support act for Sonic Youth in Brussels. And indeed, Köhn is one of the few electronic acts which is really enjoyable and refreshing to see performing. Jurgen De Blonde is still involved in a dozen other projects/bands and he also made some remixes but Kohn has always been his main project, so we kinda trusted it. Now the second album is finished. It took him a long time but we think it was worth the waiting. His live-concerts annouced it already: a big step forward has been taken from his debut cd. The new album is more mature and warm. He experiments with beats and melodies like he is born to do nothing other then that. Strange sonorities keep you allerted and make you want to check your hifi-system. A couple of guitars and vocals break down the barriers between electronix and songs. Skippings and scratches result in zigzag melodies. His soundlibrary won\‘t sound familiar but if you listen closely, you\‘ll discover real popmusic. Where electronic bands like Oval, Noto, Farmers Manual mainly focus on pure sound, Köhn explores that field into structured soundclashing and real songs. So, you’ll have some kind of dancetracks, ambientsounds deconstructed by Musique Concrete and Pavement.
K007
cd
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Debut cd of Jürgen De Blonde’s extreme electronics project.
“All I see is light” is the second release in our brand new cassette series. This c40 captures one of Köhn’s true cosmic healing sessions at the legendary house show venue ‘At Anthony’s’ in Ghent.
In this set we hear De Blonde’s weirder side, combining his love for late 70s kraut in more abstract terms with the old school Köhn vibe. Think bizarre repetitive leads, eighties string work, oscillation paradises and other maneuvers in the dark. For those who liked “We need more space in the cosmos”, here he takes his nouveau brain sound even one step further.
The comeback we were all waiting for! Ever since his “Bruce Willis” album (Western Vinyl, 2003) Jürgen De Blonde mainly focussed on music for dance and theatre productions. Untill recently when he relived his old synthesizer festish.
The comeback we were all waiting for! Ever since his “Bruce Willis” album (Western Vinyl, 2003) Jürgen De Blonde mainly focussed on music for dance and theatre productions. Untill recently when he relived his old synthesizer festish. This finally resulted in “We Need More Space In The Cosmos”, an ode to lost hero’s such as Klaus Schulze and Jean-Michel Jarre. The album recalls eighties electronics, i.e. an era when kraut rock culminated into new space ages and cosmic television soundtracks. But still the Köhn trademarks pop up from the very first second. His unique approach to music that made him differ from the likes of Aphex Twin and Oval in the nineties, now shows the man as a Cosmic Courier of the 21st century. Comes in a limited edition sleeve from the Yves Jeanson Geometrical Abstraction Art Collection.
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