14 June - 30 June 2024
From a contemporary variant of traditional Indonesian music from the 20th century to a ‘date gone wrong’ between post-punk and krautrock, this year you’ll discover a wide range of music at Festival Tweetakt. The music programming is free and you can find the concerts in our festival hub at the bustling Neude square. In this article, you can read more about the different bands and artists. If you’re curious, grab our Spotify playlist and start listening right away.
De Toegift • Nusantara Beat • Blaaskaak • Terence Goodmann • Amina • Duimalot • Burght • Sergeant • Cedric Vermue • Alchi • 4Beat Knallen • Meneertjes Slodde & Vos Elmer • Anushka Chkheidze • Flevoland • PNEM • Dorpsstraat 3 • So-Fi • Reality • Sam Zwart • Woodcraft • Lennart de Neef • De Zweefclub • Zeevlinder • Kathag
The six-member band Nusantara Beat was founded by a group of musicians who feel connected to their Indonesian roots and culture. The band members pay tribute to the rich and diverse tradition of Indonesian music while also bringing their experiences from other Dutch bands, such as Jungle By Night, Pom, EUT, The Mysterons, Maple, and Surf Aid Kit, into their songs. In their music, they connect traditional Indonesian music from the 20th century with contemporary (pop) music. According to 3voor12: “funky, cheerful, psychedelic, and impeccably performed: Nusantara Beat belongs at every festival.”
Tomorrow I’ll lose everything/And sing in a dead language/About coffee, about breathing/Endlessly repeating myself/Things I never dared to be
The Dutch band De Toegift creates Dutch-language indie music with influences from jazz, exploring themes of the passage of time and nostalgia. The sea often appears in their songs as an unchanging backdrop that contrasts with the constant changes that the protagonists of their songs struggle to adapt to. De Toegift has become known as “the band that silenced noisy venues and cafes during the Popronde” and was recognized as one of the highlights of Noorderslag by 3voor12, OOR, and Het Parool.
No DJ can get you dancing as fast as Blaaskaak. This three-piece rave band, consisting of a trumpeter, a saxophonist, and a drummer, can get any venue dancing in no time. They mix covers of well-known pop songs, happy hardcore, and party hits into an exhilarating mix, where ABBA and De Staat might make an appearance.
Elmer is a rapper, producer, and the over-the-top alter ego Merel Pauw. Inspired by Peaches, Mr. Oizo, and De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, Elmer’s music combines electronic funky beats with lyrics filled with humor and self-deprecation. Originally a theater maker and actress, Merel says, “Being an actress by origin makes it even more fun. With Elmer, I want to show that there are many different people within one person. I want to be able to assume multiple identities, be hypocritical, make mistakes, and undermine myself. That’s what being human is about. It’s very interesting to explore that mechanism through music. I want to find out how theatrical hip-hop can be.” Expect raw and explicit lyrics about commitment issues, self-hatred, sex with strap-ons, and panic attacks.
According to Zeevlinder herself, her music takes you to “a space party where Lana Del Rey, Einstein, Sean Paul, Mother Teresa, and Clairo are dancing to the rhythm of falling stars and infinitely sounding waterfalls.” Under the name Zeevlinder, Isabelle Hauschildt writes and produces eclectic dream pop with sharp lyrics about themes such as self-worth, fast fashion, and the bio-industry.
Reality makes Kaseko, a popular Surinamese dance music style often played at parties. Kaseko involves lively singing and the use of various instruments, including guitars, wind instruments, drums, congo, and skraki. The band aims to bring a tropical, Caribbean dimension to the Dutch showbiz. They achieve this by playing a diverse repertoire of music in Surinamese, English, and Dutch.
In So-Fi’s autobiographical songs, you can see the suffering of life through the rose-tinted glasses of her summery drum(computer)beats, making that suffering feel a lot lighter. And if the cheerful music itself fails to make your problems disappear like magic, you can always turn to her lyrics for good life advice, such as: “Notice the small things and let yourself be amazed.”
Tweetakt presents an evening of talented bands from Utrecht on June 16th.
Amina balances between attitude and vulnerability, and between pop and hip-hop. In emotional songs, highs and lows pass by: she sings about the moments she ‘drowns,’ but also the blind trust with which she started her music career. Through the combination of personality, honesty, and wise advice, many fans now consider her as a kind of big sister. She previously performed as the opening act for Meau and Roxeanne Hazes. The powerful new singles she recently released indicate that she could very well follow in the footsteps of these well-known singers.
Terence Goodmann creates soulful pop, wrapped in an electronic sound with a touch of hip-hop. The city of Utrecht is his biggest source of inspiration: “Utrecht is an open-air museum to me. I feel at home here, it’s the city that suits me like my favorite jacket. Utrecht is therefore inseparably connected to my music.” In his artist photos, he wears glasses with colored lenses, and not just because they look good on him. He has a rosy view of life and hopes to convey his positive outlook to his audience with his joyful music.
Dancing, choreographing, acting, writing, creating theater… What can Gary Gravenbeek not do? Oh, and we almost forgot the most important thing: he can rap fantastically! He has contributed to various successful (youth) performances, including Trojan Wars at the National Theater, which won a Silver Cricket award. But his heart lies in his music. Under the name Duimalot, he creates personal hip-hop with tight and smoothly flowing rhyme, inspired by the poetry of his mother and his own struggles. Duimalot wants to touch and activate his audience. Of course, he brings his performance and dance experience to the stage.
Everyone should be able to enjoy good music, no matter how young or old you are. As a tradition, we organize a series of (family) concerts at de Neude with music that is enjoyable for all ages. These afternoons, the artists perform specifically for adults and children.
Meneertjes Slodde & Vos consists of musicians Llewy and Delly, who have performed with their hip-hop band Relax at festivals such as Pinkpop and North Sea Jazz. Under the name Meneertjes Slodde & Vos, they create theatrical hip-hop that brings joy to both children and adults. Slodde is a mischievous musician and Vos is a clever inventor. Together, they experience the most bizarre adventures. In this theatrical song show, they take you to the wacky Sound Garden, where there is a lot of dancing, everyone is a superhero, and children are in charge.
In the percussion show “Knallen” by 4Beat, rhythms and drums from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are combined into one captivating fusion. The drums are infectious, the dancers tireless, and the DJ and singers complete the performance. Whether you’re four or eighty, a fan of K3 or techno, when you hear the music of 4Beat, you immediately want to hit the dance floor.
On Sunday evening, June 25th, you will discover neoclassical and electronic ambient music on the Neude square, to listen to with attentive ears and immerse yourself in. In between the different acts, the experimental music label Mylja Records, to which the artists are affiliated, will be playing records.
Cédric Vermue is a pianist, producer, and composer of ambient and neo-classical music. On his latest album “Perpetua,” you can hear an extensive range of instruments, including horns, woodwinds, church organ, synthesizers, and a women’s choir. He will bring an extensive ensemble to Tweetakt (including classical woodwinds, piano, electronics, clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, and oboe) to convey the rich sound of his album in a live performance.
The whimsical and imaginative electronic music of Alchi is the project of Krijn Moons, where he creates music from his own subconscious imagination. With elaborate song structures and a lively, distinctive sound, he nods to various styles of electronic music without adhering to a specific genre. Alchi uses a wide range of sounds, employing unconventional instruments, synthesizers, and organic sound design to create raw and emotional instrumental music.
You will see theater, music, art, short films, and everything in between that is not easily categorized. Visual theater, performative concerts, video installations. This year, we are programming musicians who are also active in other art disciplines, blurring the boundaries between artistic disciplines.
According to the band Burght, each of their songs stems from the quest for the perfect pop song, but that search has been in vain so far. Burght doesn’t take the easy way out, and you can hear that in their meticulously crafted songs. They describe their sound as “adventurous pop music.” How does it sound? The songs are melancholic and contemplative, but they build up to intense outbursts and captivating synth parts. Band member Robbert Klein may be familiar to you as part of the performance collective Club Gewalt.
Sergeant is the avant-pop band led by composer and filmmaker Benjamin Cools and actor Ferre Marnef. For a long time, they burst onto the stage exclusively, but now they have gathered their sampled selves at the edge of pop music. The songs on the album sound like a “date gone wrong” between post-punk and krautrock, but also like the kind of indie rock that Warp briefly considered cool in the 2000s. They take you on a trip through 1970s Paris (Gainsbourg!) and the industrial Ruhr area, filled with Dadaist collages and abstract punk. Ferre Marnef is also presenting the show “ABN-AMRO punk/Anarcho punk” at Tweetakt this year.
Freaky Dancing is a Utrecht collective that organizes experimental club nights combining live music, DJ sets, performance, and visual art. On June 24, they take over de Neude with a multidisciplinary program.
With careful pulsation, the four-piece band PNEM takes you on a sonic journey along roaring highways and the howling of industrial machines. PNEM brings motor-driven, fuzz-drenched grooves to the stage. Their dreamy, electronically driven jams make you want to either dance or drift away to another reality.
Dorpsstraat 3 creates music that sounds like an approaching thunderstorm: ominous and sinister. A bad outcome always lingers in the air, whether the song is about an unspecified Great Danger or a date. So, you’re not coming for cheerful tunes, but to hear stories that intrigue and that you’ve never heard before. The band balances between post-punk and synthwave but draws inspiration from a wide selection of genres. Sometimes it seems like these influences always belonged together, sometimes they confuse you.
In his work, Utrecht-based visual artist Lennart de Neef often refers to everyday objects from public space. He distorts their recognizable appearance, creating his own universe where the objects almost feel like characters in De Neef’s fictional reality. His work has been shown at the second edition of Freaky Dancing in WAS, as well as at De School, Kunsthal Kloof, and the Central Station.
Katja Hagenbeuk finds the oddball tunes among leftfield pop, new wave, electronics, grooves, and clubby anthems in her extensive arsenal of MP3s and vast musical knowledge. It can sound as guitar-centered as the Casbah at Best Kept Secret or as eclectic as the ArmadiLLow at Lowlands. The fact that it’s going to be quirky, melodic, spanning decades, and idiosyncratic is a certainty. Sometimes you hear her together with Berg as the duo Berg & Beuk, but now she ventures solo into a musical ascent as Kathag during this Freaky Dancing special.
Kapitaal is a print studio and experimental music label that describes itself as: ‘A hangout for dirty printers and future creative gods.’ Together with Tweetakt, they have put together a program for Sunday, June 18th.
Anushka Chkheidze is an emerging Georgian electronic producer. As a child, she attended music school and sang folk songs in the youth ensemble. At the age of eleven, she started singing in a small village chapel. Her electronic music is heavily influenced by those childhood experiences.
Flevoland is, surprisingly, a 2-person boy band from Utrecht. The Flevoland landscape, with its vast polders, empty horizons, and endless vistas, is emotionally an important source of inspiration for their melancholic songs. The music tells the story of two young adults struggling through the fields of everyday life. During the show, your thoughts might drift to another place, namely Flevoland.
Kapitaal is not only bringing musicians and DJs but also their famous screen printing bike to de Neude. Bring an old t-shirt or canvas bag and pimp it up by printing colorful designs on the spot.
Musician 3.0 is the only conservatory study in the Netherlands that is not instrument, style, or genre-bound. This results in innovative multi-instrumentalists who work across genres. On Sunday, July 2nd, you can hear what that sounds like, as several students from the program will perform at Tweetakt.
Sam Zwart creates audio-visual work in which he tries to connect the music he makes with the space in which he performs. For his performance at Tweetakt, he will be accompanied by two other musicians and will work with tape loops. These are short pieces of magnetic tape (from a tape recorder or cassette) whose ends are stuck together to create a repetitive sound, a precursor to sampling.
Woodcraft is a string quintet consisting of five young instrumentalists and composers (two violinists and three cellists) with roots in classical music. Over time, their style has become a fusion that draws inspiration from jazz, folk, and classical music. The five friends have been playing together for a long time. Until recently, the quintet was called Ragazzi, and even before that, when they started playing together as twelve-year-old children, they chose the name Lang Leve de Lol (Long Live Fun). When you see them perform, you immediately notice that the joy of playing together still takes precedence in this group.
“Have you read all the poems by Van Ostaijen because you can only understand De Zweefclub if you are beaten daily by a parallelepipedum.” De Zweefclub is a quartet from Utrecht that plays soft punk, describing themselves as “raw as endive, soft as silk.” Characteristic of their songs are fast BPMs, subdued volumes, ethereal voices, and idiosyncratic, slightly absurd, and associative lyrics.
Curious about how all this music sounds? Then grab our Spotify playlist and start listening right away.
