The members of Bettie Serveert are alt-rock survivors. They have been performing in various incarnations since 1986, and they released critically acclaimed debut album Palomine in 1992. Joining the core lineup of vocalist/guitarist Carol van Dyk, guitarist Peter Visser and bassist Herman Bunskoeke on new album Pharmacy Of Love (Second Motion) is drummer Joppe Molenaar (of fellow Dutch band Voicst). The group recorded the LP in relative isolation in Waimes, Belgium, in order to better concentrate on honing its sound, and the result is a mix of the classic Bettie Serveert vibe with new modern-rock flourishes. Van Dyk, Visser and Bunskoeke will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with van Dyk.
Peter: Yuri Landman is a builder and designer (and inventor) of electrical instruments. His company is called Hypercustom. We’ve been to a workshop where Yuri showed his instruments and where he explained what he is doing. He was fascinated by certain sounds he heard on a Sonic Youth album, so he played a bit of that album. It was the sound of Thurston or Lee strumming the strings behind the bridge of an electric guitar. So that’s a sound that cannot be qualified as a “chord” or classified tone; it’s an overtone. As a scientist, Yuri tried to find out how you can calculate the pitch of those tones and how to manipulate them. So he came up with instruments on which you can tune your overtones! From the building of those instruments, Yuri developed into a musicologists, where he concentrated on micro-tonality and came up with a consonance theory based on physical laws. Fascinating stuff! He is also a comic-book writer/drawer, for which he got a prize in 1998.
Video after the jump.
