wh^rl, by wh^rl

wh^rl

by wh^rl

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
2xLP of wh^rl's sprawling lo-fi debut. Beautiful thick gatefold sleeve, full color insert, 180 gram wax, everything all out. Limited edition of 100.

Includes unlimited streaming of wh^rl via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 4 days

Purchasable with gift card

€25 EUR or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Digisleeve version of the vinyl - same content, but a lot more compact. Beautiful matte pressing, limited edition of 100.

Includes unlimited streaming of wh^rl via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 4 days

Purchasable with gift card

€10 EUR or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€10 EUR or more

	1.	The Town's All Rich 01:31
	2.	Tell Me How You Do It 03:20
	3.	Turning Reason Into Water 04:35
	4.	Scraps 02:28
	5.	Hellfire Playground 03:59
	6.	Evil Tangerine 03:38
	7.	Skeep1 03:31
	8.	Searching Through The Ashes 04:05
	9.	Little Bird 03:55
	10.	Sisters Take A Lot 02:17
	11.	One Dead Family 03:32
	12.	Power To The Bees 02:33
	13.	Salamander 03:03
	14.	Laughter On Parade 07:42
	15.	Jubilee 05:29

about

TR061 - Tiny Room Records 2023

BIO
59-year-old Jurgen Veenstra from Groningen (Netherlands) finally makes his debut as a solo artist, using the moniker wh^rl as an outlet for his morose musings in a lo-fi setting. On his self-titled debut, Veenstra delivers 15 songs that - for the untrained listener - fall into the 'singer-songwriter' idiom, but are much broader and deeper, filled with decades of life experience and listening to all kinds of music. Each song enhabits its own lo-fi universe, here and there hinting at indie rock, folk, blues, noise, americana and ambient.

The album was conceived in a particular way. Veenstra recorded most of the basics with fellow DIY musician Ruud Slingerland (Hairy Love Gum, Dia Del Mercado) on a 4-track cassette tape recorder. Other songs were recorded on various machines in Veenstra’s gypsy wagon in the outskirts of Groningen. These recordings were sent to the brothers Stefan (Tiny Room Records, The World of Dust, Combo Qazam) and Arno (Combo Qazam, Microplaza) Breuer. They started adding layers of drums, guitars, synths and sounds, respectfully harnessing the bare recordings with both humble and abrasive contributions. Thea Visser provided her beautiful backing vocals, Rudy Lentze and Jur de Vries added the final missing pieces. Jurgen didn’t hear any of the work in progress. Eventually they all gathered together to listen to the end result. Everyone agreed on the magic that was conceived, and that is still the version you hear on this double vinyl record.

Jurgen Veenstra has been an icon in the music scene for the past decades. Whether it’s as a passionate supporter of independent music, as an organizer of shows, or as a musician in Avery Plains, Moan, Moonlizards or with Meindert Talma (providing lead vocals on Tamango, Talma’s English 2009 album). Frequently hiding behind a wall of noise, but always heartfelt and genuine. wh^rl might be more laidback, quiet and experimental, Veenstra proves he doesn’t need a loud sound to make a huge emotional impact. That makes this solo outing an essential contribution to this talented songwriter’s legacy.

credits

released November 24, 2023

Stefan Breuer did the mixing and played electric (and occasionally an acoustic) guitar (2/3/4/5/6/8/9/ll/l2/l4). He also played drums (2/5) and did some stomping on the floor (3). Some keys were added on Evil Tangerine (Korg X5), One Dead Family (Monotron), Power to the Bees (Casiotone 7Ol), Scraps (Nord choir) and Searching Through The Ashes (Casio, Mellotron...). It’s his voice on Tell Me How You Do It in the end section, and his banjo and voice on Little Bird. Stefan played the bass solely on Hellfire Playground.

Arno Breuer recorded a mixture of Casio (5/9/ll/l4), bass (2/8/14), xylophone (2/5), guitar (3/6/8/9), percussion (3/4/l4) and drums (6/ll/l2). Actually, the drums on Power To The Bees and One Dead Family were recorded for other projects and edited into these songs. Besides on Hellfire Playground, his voice can be heard on Power To The Bees, together with his daughters Imme and Alba. He also played kazoo on that one and kalimba on Hellfire Playground. And bouzouki on Scraps. He added baby piano to his personal favorites Tell Me How You Do It and Searching For The Ashes, and tried his mini gong on Laughter On Parade.

Ruud Slingerland engineered, played piano (6/9/l4) and harmonium (l5). He also co-wrote stuff (6/l4).

Jur De Vries played cello (l4).

Thea Visser sang (4/8/l5).

Rudy Lentze played dobro (3).

Jurgen Veenstra did some engineering, wrote the songs (co-wrote 6/l4), sang lead on all songs, played guitar (l/2/4/8/9/lO/ll/l2/l3), did some weird sounds and played a sampled trumpet using a keyboard (7).

Basic recordings were done at Ruud and Jurgen’s homes (using a Tascam 244 Portastudio - 4 track, on cassette, lo-fi recordings recorded using the built-in microphone of a nameless ghettoblaster or using a Macbook Pro’s built-in mic with Ableton Live), additional instruments and voices recorded at Stefan and Arno’s homes (they don’t live together) and Studio Patrick in Utrecht, using Logic and Cubase.

Floyd Atema did the mastering at Katzwijm Studios in Voorhout.

license

about

Tiny Room Records Utrecht, Netherlands

Tiny Room Records is a Dutch record label for underground artists, with a focus on experimental indie rock, lo-fi, noise, ambient, folk, slowcore, shoegaze, etc.

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