Mark Haanstra & Oene van Geel

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Mark Haanstra and Oene van Geel share a musical history of more than twenty years.
Traversing eclectic musical genres – jazz to classical, Indian to pop music – has led them to a surprisingly original idiom. Equipped with only a viola and a bass guitar, they have achieved an equally surprising contrast, with what is essentially the smallest ‘band’ possible.

Photo: Veenstra Visueel

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According to Mark Haanstra and Oene van Geel, ‘Shapes Of Time’ is an attempt to aurally translate a search for suspension and focus in a world led by fragmentation and urgency. Taking these things into account, they felt the need to create music that takes its time to breathe. At an exhibition of the visual artist Udo Prinsen, they got inspired by his long exposure photography of Spitsbergen. “This pointed us in the right direction for this new endeavor: an album in which our music, not only in terms of aesthetics but composition and development as well, would be inexorably linked with Udo’s poetic images.”

Mark Haanstra – bassguitar and contrabass;
Oene van Geel – viola and voice;
Raphael Vanoli – guitar and effects.

Mark Haanstra & Oene van Geel

Image

Mark Haanstra and Oene van Geel share a musical history of more than twenty years.
Traversing eclectic musical genres – jazz to classical, Indian to pop music – has led them to a surprisingly original idiom. Equipped with only a viola and a bass guitar, they have achieved an equally surprising contrast, with what is essentially the smallest ‘band’ possible.

According to Mark Haanstra and Oene van Geel, ‘Shapes Of Time’ is an attempt to aurally translate a search for suspension and focus in a world led by fragmentation and urgency. Taking these things into account, they felt the need to create music that takes its time to breathe. At an exhibition of the visual artist Udo Prinsen, they got inspired by his long exposure photography of Spitsbergen. “This pointed us in the right direction for this new endeavor: an album in which our music, not only in terms of aesthetics but composition and development as well, would be inexorably linked with Udo’s poetic images.”

Mark Haanstra – bassguitar and contrabass;
Oene van Geel – viola and voice;
Raphael Vanoli – guitar and effects.