"Popping up in Oostellingwerf" een kunstproject van Georgina Starr.

Popping up in Ooststellingwerf

Sitting with a group of strangers in France - lost for words, the language barriers are up, it's all smiles and nods but the silence is painful. The group I'm with are standing looking at their toes and picking at the skin on their fingers. I have trouble swallowing my wine in case I choke and make a scene. Someone mentions music but the tape machine is in another place a few miles away - I know it's worth the trip. An hour later we're dancing, people are laughing, singing along, bodies are gyrating and someone's even attempting to moonwalk. It might sound like a cheesy scene from Fame, The Musical, but we're having a good time and we're definitely communicating better than before.

Coming to Ooststellingwerf wasn't as painful as all that but the silence I found there as I cycled around alone for two weeks in July 1998 was sometimes quite similar, if not more sinister to me. When confronted with peace and quiet my reaction is that it either has to be broken or twisted in some way or that it's actually not a real silence but just a front for something beyond it which is much more strange. Cycling around I always had the fantasy that I'd be going through a quiet, deserted forest and then suddenly a whole lot of action would pop up in the landscape or that I'd come across a vibrating barn in the middle of a field of cows and open the door to find it full of people making music and singing and dancing.

With these thoughts in mind I was directed to Sjouke Nauta at Friesland Pop in Leeuwarden who helped me to discover that there was in actual fact quite a big noise going on beyond the silence. During my next visit 8 months later I found myself in that barn in a field of cows listening to the songs of Chocolate Moose a three piece band from Oosterwolde who introduced me to their music, which they loosely describe as "Blues, jazzy, rock, reggae, pop, ballads, everything !" and even allowed me to sing along to a number I especially took a shine to. When I asked what music meant to them though they seemed to have a pretty clear idea. "If you listen to our songs," said Eric the bass player, "You'll know what's going on in my life, we play with the feeling of that day and my micis like a sort of shrink - a really cheap one !" Eric, Wander and Kor of Chocolate Moose meet once a week in the barn in Haulerwjk which they recently converted into a mini studio where them and other bands can record demos. Unfortunately there's not much opportunity to play gigs in Ooststellingwerf and I was told that only a few bars can have live bands.
"If you've got a cover band, yeah you can play, but if you're doing your own music then there is no-where, no one is willing to take the risk and no one has set up something for local bands to play their own stuff" said Wander the guitarist in the band, "It would be excellent to have a special place for all the bands in this area to get a chance to perform - there's no opportunity, we have to go outside to the larger towns".
After placing an advert in 'Freeze' the Friesland Pop magazine asking for new songs I got a few local bands and song writers interested but due to a combination of mistrust in the project of an 'outsider' like myself and the attitude that 'nothing ever was allowed to happened before so why would it now' it took a while before confidence in the idea started to spread. The Chocolate Moose boys helped by spreading the word that I wasn't a complete pretentious arty farty idiot and eventually more people like Endorphin, Project X, Zie Maar and D-Rust came forward, some unfortunately too late for the CD recordings which I'd planned but who will hopefully get a chance to play at the live event in September.

The music in the area is diverse, and although everyone is intent on doing what they 'like', with most people there is no real style or agenda going on. "When we play together we suddenly speak the same language," said Ben, the drummer from Project X " It's in the spirit - it's not about fame and money, it's more than that." Some are more ambitious about their music nd are looking outside to the bigger cities like Groningen and Rotterdam to take it further, some see what they do as an escape or plainly just a hobby, and others just want to have some fun.

Through the CM Boys I went along to the 'Pop Workshop', which is not actually in Ooststellingwerf but just outside, and which was initiated by local guy Bas Ruitenbeek and set up 11 years ago (with the help of Friesland Pop) to give young people a chance to get out of their bedrooms and play music with other aspiring musicians. As Bas said " It's for people who love music and want to play what they hear on the radio and for people without bands who have an instrument and just want to get a chance to learn more and play with others" The workshops have enabled people to meet and given them confidence to play and many of the bands from Ooststellingwerf initially met each other there. At the end of the workshops, which last 16 weeks and are taught by Stefan Mooibroek, the groups get to play live for an evening. It was during this evening in a packed pub in Bakkeveen that I was lucky to meet, amidist the singing and dancing, the only two girls in the "Popping Up" project Anette and Annemarie of Bas Ruitenbeeks' band Zie Maar. The atmosphere at this concert was fantastic and it was after seeing the enthusiasm and energy of the people there that my own confidence in the project I was proposing got an extra injection of energy.

Alongside the bands I've already mentioned there's also Haunch of Venison who have written a song especially for the project called "Stellingwerf", Jacob Meinardi who was born in the region and remembers times when bands played 'psychedelic rock' in the hall of the hotel De Zon in Oosterwolde and has written a piece of music which was played for the project on the church organ in Oosterwolde by Arend Doorenheim, Netwurk a band initiated by Ger Bijzitter with a song he has written and sings in Frisian, local poet Fred Hoekstra who has written three new poems inspired by the area which are set to ambient music composed by Phil Mills, Kor Slofstra has written a song together with fellow member of the band Dandruff Bas S. about a local guy in Ooststellingwerf entitled "Arnolds House", and finally Killerbunny have made a techno track which is performed by Draaiorgel de Noorderkroon.

The CD and concert "Popping Up in Ooststellingwerf" is what eventually came out of my time hanging out in the area and is by no means a survey of all the music from bands and songwriters in the region but is just a taste of what's going on behind the quiet peaceful facade that confronts the outsider who enters Ooststellingwerf. By choosing the Zandvlakte for the venue of the concert I think I may be trying to fulfil my own initial fantasy of discovering something unexpected, loud and strange going on in a quiet place beyond the woods, but hopefully this taster of the local musical talent will propel someone somewhere to set up a venue for them to play the music they so strongly believe in more often. "Popping Up in Ooststellingwerf" was made possible by the added energy and talent of Phil Mills who recorded and mixed all the tracks in his studio (Cryptic Recording) in Leeuwarden. Myself and all the bands are indebted to him.

Georgina Starr, Ooststellingwerf, 1999

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