KinK by WAAN

WAAN represents the musical marriage of seasoned saxophonist Bart Wirtz and keyboard wiz Emiel van Rijthoven. As a pair of self-confessed tech nerds hailing from The Netherlands, their bromance was a slow burning one, but nevertheless their eventual collaboration fulfilled a dream that they’d both held close since first working together back in 2010.

KinK is the first single to be taken from the duo’s forthcoming debut album Echo Echo. The piece sprung to life during one of Bart and Emiel’s final recording sessions for the album, whilst working with session musicians Kasper Kalf (double bass), Jimmi Hueting (drums) as well as Oscar de Jong and Lucas Meijers who contributed to percussion. The recording started with a simple line on a Maestro Effect, using a tape echo, and what you hear is a very natural and easy Dr John voodoo style groove that came from the first two takes. The pair then took what they had of this very instinctive performance to Emiel’s studio and added harmonics, synth sounds, samples and a very percussive distorted clavinet to the groove. The key to this evocative and wondrous piece of music was to create percussive sounds from harmonic instruments and conjure up something otherworldly.

With influences as disparate as Floating Points, BadBadNotGood and Eddie Harris, Echo Echo is far more complex than just being a dance music influenced jazz record. Co-producer Oscar de Jong, of Kraak & Smaak fame, encouraged the pair to play freely as part of a jazz group and then add the electronic elements. As a result the album owes as much to Duke Ellington and Lalo Schiffrin as it does NERD and The Eurythmics!

WAAN represents the musical marriage of seasoned saxophonist Bart Wirtz and keyboard wiz Emiel van Rijthoven. As a pair of self-confessed tech nerds hailing from The Netherlands, their bromance was a slow burning one, but nevertheless their eventual collaboration fulfilled a dream that they’d both held close since first working together back in 2010.