Sometimes the young folks get into the weird stuff pretty early, and I believe Stan van Dijk is the perfect example of that. It wouldn't be a wild guess to draw any stylistic similarities between his work and work of artists like Brainfeeder associates Jameszoo or Dorian Concept.
As a producer who came from trap and lo-fi hip hop, Stan started discovering a lot of music reminiscent or related to those two, including a lot of jazz, Brazilian music and modern experimental electronic music. You can catch glimpses of his creative process on his Instagram where he shares these really short video's of him working on new material or studying jazz chords. All those influences contributed to his process of creating his debut album, Caustics.
Taken off the upcoming album, Giacomo gives a great insight in what the rest of the album is gonna sound like. The track opens with slow strings, setting the mood for what‘s to come. More elements are added at a certain pace, with a shimmering saxophone being the most notable. When the track opens up, the sax work that was added before becomes a bit more frantic, the harmonic tempo set by the strings speeds up, but all of these changes are glued together by the organic-sounding drum loop. The electronic influences become clearer when the track reaches its end, escalating in a distorted and spontaneous anti-climax.
The entirety of Caustics is produced and composed by Stan, aside from the saxophones that have blessed the record. It definitely makes it feel more alive. Two different saxophonists worked on different tracks on Caustics, Brazilian sax player Adriano Canetta and Ryan Wheless. The latter can be heard on Giacomo as well.
Currently, Ryan is enrolled into Berkley, studying Electronic Music Production and Woodwind Performance. He has released some music under his own name, and some live recordings of Righteous Harmony, an improvisation band he plays in, are available online too. On Stan's record, he plays on 3 tracks: Arborio, About Five and Giacomo.
Caustics by Stan van Dijk will be released on April 15th on Heliopolis Recordings, the second release on this new record label. An event with performances by both Stan van Dijk and Guido Hoek (for more info on Guido Hoek you can read this article) is planned for the end of the month so stayed tuned.
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