Ever since Sven Van Hees was born Gemini, May 1968 in Antwerp, Belgium he heard "colours". He always took it for granted but only recently found out it has a name: Synesthesia. A rough estimate says only one in 25 000 people born have it. It appears more frequently with women and left-handed people. Needless to say Van Hees is again off-beat, being a male and right-handed.
Strings are yellow, bass is red
It was in 1996, during a panel discussion at the "Amsterdam Dance Event", in which he got interviewed together with Detroit's Carl Craig about producing music, he realised this "perception" was not common. He explained that, since he sees every instrument as a different colour, he puts together his version of a "sonic painting". "Strings are yellow, bass is red!", and the audience thought this Belgian had to many sprouts... When he got interviewed by Belgian Humo-magazine, he went on raving about the same thing and got a letter somewhat later from a professor being involved in a study covering different forms of "Synesthesia". "That was the first time this thing got a name" thus van Hees.
Synesthesia: hearing colours
Synesthesia, the new CD by Van Hees, gives us the most intimate view inside this producer's head so far. All eleven tracks have their own "colour", painting a complete picture of a near 64 minutes in audio. This has to be his broadest album so far. It's also his first CD that includes guest performances. Synesthesia = a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color. Comes from Greek: Syn = together; Aisthesis= perception.
Vocalist Lex Empress
Two tracks, "The Sun Goes Down" and "Eneas", were written and sung by Dutch vocalist/mc Lex Empress. Sven met her first ten years ago at one of the legendary "Paradise-parties" in Café d’Anvers, Antwerp. They lost sight of each other untill early 2003 they got booked together again, and enjoyed two hours of "musical-bliss", Sven dj'ing whilst Lex was singing on top of his records. If u have ever seen these two perform, you know why viagra-stockholders are worried...
Live musicians
Belgians finest musicians, Bart "steinhardt" Van Huyck(guitar) ,Johan Vandendriessche (sax, flute), Paul Flush (Hammond, Fender Rhodes) and Peter Schneider (percussion), members of his former "Svengali Squad", add the cherry on this delicious cake. Their performances are unique, without changing the "colours" of each track. Both Steinhardt & Schneider join Sven on a regular basis, playing live-guitar and percussion on top of his dj-set. These guys won't stop before the kundalini is ready for use....
Your Lips
Also, the biggest surprise has to be the fact that Van Hees created his own music label: Your Lips. Being somewhat tangled up in a messy law-suit due to the success of his last albums, he decided it was time for the realisation of his final dream: Your Lips. Synesthesia is the label's first release and a 12" of the track "The Sun Goes Down" featuring Lex Empress, will be released with a remix on (coloured) vinyl same time.
It's gonna be another long hot summer...
Chiudi
