A little while ago I released my new album “Vision of Contentment” with my friend Joep Beving.
I mixed the album together with Nils Frahm in his studio in Funkhaus (where mine is based as well). we used a very nice chain of 2 RE-501’s, EMT 244, his reverb chamber and some nice eq’s, his custom Neve/Telefunken desk and other gear.
Gear used for the creation are Buchla easel + Monome Grid on “Hades” , a feedback noise patch with 4 delay lines on “A Night in Reno”. A Haken Continuum on various tracks. Lots of different synths on “Vision of Contentment” and more. Mics used were AEAR88 stereo mic for the room, Josephsons C705 stereo pair on the piano. AEA R84 on cello. For the cello and piano recordings in funkhaus mics such as Neumann U47’s and various Ribbons were used.
There is (limited) Vinyl available via Bandcamp and the album can be listened here:
https://maartenvos.bandcamp.com/album/vision-of-contentment
I also add some extra pictures of the creation process and setup!
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Most of vision of contentment was written and recorded during July, 2023, after Beving and Vos unpacked their gear – recording equipment, various synths, a cello – to join the upright piano awaiting them in de berenpan, a shed hidden away in the forest outside Bilthoven, a small village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. The friends had already spent time together in Beving’s Amsterdam studio as well as Vos’ Funkhaus setup and Nils Frahm’s studio, sessions from which two further album tracks are taken, but their week in the countryside would prove particularly fruitful, if for uncomfortably poignant reasons. Out of their sometimes-sombre work emerged a universal eulogy to what the pianist calls “Finding comfort in the acceptance of the inevitable,” but the album represents far more than this. It’s also an astonishing personal tribute to Mark Brounen, their friend and manager.
Transitions are a theme on vision of contentment, not least because, by the time Beving and Vos had settled down in the woods, their friend Brounen had been fighting cancer for three years. And yet, if his imminent ‘passing over’ cast a shadow upon proceedings, it’s wasn’t exclusively a cause for sadness. “The central theme here is the ‘Blue Hour’, the twilight,”. “Transitioning from one state to the other, but also embracing the darkness.
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Label LEITER verlag
Written & produced by Joep Beving and Maarten Vos
Mixed by Nils Frahm
Mastered by Zino Mikorey
Cover image “Vision of Contentment” by Alex Coma, design by Studio Torsten Posselt
I hope you enjoy listening to this album.
