VANDEWOLKEN, LINUS - Het Vlier, Een Hommel Op Aarde

Okraina

VANDEWOLKEN, LINUS - Het Vlier, Een Hommel Op Aarde

"Okraina presents Linus Vandewolken's Het Vlier, Een Hommel Op Aarde. "What you are listening to is the sound of a forgotten instrument. Nowadays it seen rarely outside of museums in Brussels and other places you most likely have never heard of. It is not spectacular; its simplest version is just a long thin box with strings on top. Some of the strings are melody strings, which have frets placed underneath them, the others are drone strings that have no frets. Traditionally it was strummed with a goose feather and notes were made by sliding a hard stick with a handle, from fret to fret on the melody strings leaving the drone strings ringing openly. The constant hum of the drones is where the name of the instrument comes from: bumblebee, which in Flemish, is a hommel. The hommel has now all but disappeared from the collective memory of Flanders. If it is seen outside of a display case, it is usually being played in a static way, denied the right to evolve and find a more contemporary voice. I saw the hommel for the first time years ago at the Volksinstrumentenmuseum in Gooik. Curious to how it would sound, I suggested to my father that we make one. It's not the most elaborate example of a hommel, but, with the relationship I have forged with it over time, it's a beauty to me. I do not play in a traditional way: I pluck, fingerpick, tap, and bow amplified flat-wound electric guitar strings. I change the notes with my fingers, metal sticks, steel tubes, and the hard stick with a wooden handle which has a special name : the vlier. I play in a Eb/Bb tuning to be in harmony with the tin whistles you hear from time to time and occasionally play shakers. The songs in this collection are not traditional either, they are inspired by cycling around Flanders and the landscape that surrounds my home in Niemandaal. Until I was 40, I only played at home. Since my first public concert, I have been invited to play more in many locations. Thanks to Okraïna, you now have this record in your hands. I chose to keep the recordings quite raw in the hope that the natural reverb and warmth of your listening space can evoke the music's spirit.'' --Linus Vandewolken" - Okraina .
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After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.

This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).

Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.

Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.

Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
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