Dorpsjuweel 2008: Sounds of The Netherlands

In between installing our Library & Librarian, we try to keep agoin'on our Digital Audio Archive project: recording the sounds of the cities, countries & people we meet. We just met [again] the wonderful Ruigoord community [Amsterdam] in the Netherlands, and have been helping run Ruigoord Radio. We're not sure if there is live a stream up yet, so we've whacked up some of the audio we've been recording [see links to stream below] via The Internet Archive, so you can listen to it almost as soon as we have done gone recorded it! Enjoy!

"The artists enclave Ruigoord has now been flourishing as a cultural freeport for exactly 35 years. For so many years there has been a big summer festival on the fields surrounding the village inspired by the Amsterdam Balloon Company, the Landjuweel. But now around Ruigoord the march of industry draws ever closer and it’s time to give a new twist to the festival. So we have a whole new concept in mind: the Landjuweel comes to the village! This year the Juweel (meeting) will take place in the heart of the village and that in itself is an alchemical transformation."



Ken Parsons and [some of] the Bucket Boys [stream], recorded live on Saturday afternoon, 16th August 2008 at Dorpsjuweel Festival, Ruigoord, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Taking a Walk Around the Sounds of the Site [stream]: Saturday afternoon at Dorpsjuweel, Ruigoord, 16 August 2008.

The Low Budgetarians [stream]: reggae dub live set, Saturday evening at Dorpsjuweel, Ruigoord, 16 August 2008.

The Bucket Boys [stream]: live set & mini-interview, Saturday afternoon at Dorpsjuweel, Ruigoord, 16 August 2008.

The Library returns to Amsterdam [proper] and re-opens next week: as long as we survive the festival weekend intact [it's already midnight and we've still gotta lotta recording to go!]

We are awake. And attached to a recording device. Still.

The Librarian is staggering at the moment. But she has been able to nab 26 minutes of a man playing banjo in the Groovy Movie tent, so even though it’s been a night of, well, obviously, bogs, but also dancing Dutch people (dangerous when trying to record reggae live, especially when they accidentally spill whiskey down the back of your already skanky trousers) and the constant search for electricity, the bonus is that everyone has left the radio tent at the moment, so we can both go live on air and talk to ourselves and use the Wi-fi to update the blog while no-one is looking. Or listening. Or whatever. Everyone outside the radio tent seems to be fairly oblivious of well, quite a lot, at the moment, apart from neon glow sticks, chai and the nearest drum beat. We are going to try and upload some audio at the ridiculous hour of 4.55 AM . Here goes:

Poet Julius Joker provides us with an appropriate soundclip

Mud. Solar power. Radio. Rock on!

. . . well. We have made it through the last 2 and a half days, and survived the floods, which have covered the Ruigoord site in mud, mud, and er, mud. Oh, and an ice cream van which drove up, parked in a bog and started serving. We brought our toothbrush, some pre-made cous cous, and of course, the poetry library. What more do we need? Nothing. We have already signed up 7 new members, most of whom, we have to admit, were fellow Radio DJs like us, hangin’ out in the Radio Ruigoord tent. But hey, who cares. It was wet outside and our librarian is precious about her books. So we had a private Poetry Library installation inside, in the warm, next to the mixing desk. Our trusty librarian cum sound editor cum DJ has already done 2 shows, one special ‘Europe ConVerses’ programme, where we showcased some of the best sound clips and poetry we have recorded over the last ten weeks of the poetry blog, podcast and library tour. We then also did a special report from the site, which we will try and upload right here now. However, bear in mind we are still sitting in the radio tent with solar powered electricity for the laptop, wifi, and stream, which has a tendency to disappear at any point . . . but we shall have a go. Enjoy!

Awesome. Wi-fi uploaded audio from a tent in Ruigoord, Amsterdam, recorded live at Ruigoord August 11th 2006 by DJ Babybarb

These are the dudes who are making this sound

The Spiritual Jam people DJ Babybarb recorded at 2am on Aug 11th, this is them when we met the next day, doing another mini session for us . . .

And this is how the electricity is powered. Pedal power!

On site at Ruigoord

Ruigoord tee pees. Good to sleep in when it doesn’t flood

On site at Ruigoord2

The squeaky cloudbus

Ice cream in all weathers

A flamenco dancing poet

It’s a Journeyman. He was chopping wood for the stove, inbetween playing his Jamaica reggae radio show. . .

Ever seen a mobile solar-powered cinema. No? Here you go . . .

A Dutch poet on stage on Friday night in the bar tent

A Ruigoord boat. Handy in this weather

We lost electricity. Then we found it again. . .

. . . and we are still live on air here, 3 hours later. This is because everyone left the radio tent except for DJ Babybarb. SO we had to keep the show on the road. Even though we needed the toilet really badly, and had no lighter for our cigarettes. We still had fun. We played some poems, some audio clips from the tour and also some Sunday Music. . . we are still playing stuff now as we post. Probably we will wake up tomorrow and still be here next to the mixing desk. . . we shall see. Tune in to find out!

Wow we are in a tent yurt . . .

. . . yes. An hour or so ago we left Amsterdam on the bus and made our way with one poetry library in a rucksack and a laptop with our MP3 audio files on our back. And here we are. In the Radio Ruigoord tent, live on the internet . . . and about to go LIVE on air as well as internet radio with our poetry and music show. Tune in to our show here. It is really is here. We just checked. I think we are about to go on air in about 10 minutes (Dutch time 6pm that would make it)

DJ Babybarb in action on her laptop in the Radio Ruigoord tent right now!

The Radio Ruigoord mixing desk

The Radio Ruigoord tent

Our sign . . .

Landjuweel festival itself, taken from the side of the radio tent on August 10th 6pm

Amsterdam arrival

So. Tuesday night we left Barcelona. Wednesday morning we woke up in Paris. Wednesday afternoon we arrived Amsterdam. And we are now about to go and catch a bus to Ruigoord (half hour from city centre) and try and find the Radio tent and a person called Silvia, so that A. we can get in to the Festival and B. we can sleep somewhere tonight. Tomorrow we are going to sign up some more Dutch library members - Barry and Anja had a private poetry library installation in their house last night, and signed up, so we are currently on two. Amsterdam has some catching up to do as we didn’t manage to set up the library when we were here the first time back at the beginning of June, so our librarian is ready to roll out the library stamps and get some wrist action in to up the ante in the membership stakes. At some point in the next 48 hours we aim to have installed the library amongst 4000 people at Landjuweel Festival, and also done a poetry and sound clips show on Radio Ruigoord. We just need to find the bus station right now, and perhaps some breakfast. Which will definitely not be cous cous. Or cheese sandwiches. We hope. You can click on the Radio link in the sidebar on the Ruigoord website to listen in to our show. And once again, we are writing from some internet cafe with the less than useful ability to log on to the internet, and not be allowed to upload a thing. So picture and audio updates will have to wait. Landjuweel Festival has no electricity whatsoever this year, so unless we find an internet tent with solar power (we wouldn’t be surprised with the Dutch though) we will post all this as soon as we find...anywhere! In the meantime folks, we have library members to seek out . . .