Solitary refinement

>> One's a crowd for solo sound selector Solex

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

"Electronical music gives musicians the opportunity to make a complete sound by their own. It's not often that conventional music is written by just one person, and that's a shame because, most times, it would be better." Elisabeth Esselink is Dutch sample seamstress Solex, a moniker lifted from her mom's beloved old scooter. Low Kick and Hard Bop is her wildly eclectic romp of a third album, this one almost entirely constructed from samples of game shows, bootlegged bands, animals and unsellable CDs from the second-hand music store she runs in Amsterdam. But Esselink is temporarily closing shop to present her sound collages live, with support from additional musicians and sound wizards. The Mirror spoke to Solex about deaf people, her rock past and the benefits of being alone.



Mirror: So you were a drummer in an all-girl band?

Elisabeth Esselink: When I first started that band, we wanted to do something like the Velvet Underground meets the Shaggs. The Shaggs were the worst musicians ever, so it was easy, we kept the standard really low. But it didn't work out at all because the singer got really into metal music and, first, I don't like metal, and secondly, you have to be a really good drummer to pull it off.

M: Do you miss the rock band aesthetic?

EE: I prefer to play with a band live, but at the time that I will make songs, I prefer to play on my own. I thought it was always frustrating, working on new material in a band. Lots of times, there are egos and everyone wants to do their own thing, which is understandable, but it always ends up in compromised music. I think it's a waste of time.

M: What were your other bands like?

EE: The first band was new wave, very synthy, then I sang in a bossa nova band, so that's quite different, then came the girl band, then I sang in a noise guitar band. That's when I bought a sampler and started working on my own, and everything, all of a sudden, went really quickly.

M: Tell me about sampling deaf people.

EE: I wanted to sample more human voices and there was a documentary about deaf people on English television. The noises they made were so good and I thought they were very, very sweet and sophisticated people, but, on the other hand, they were shouting like madmen. The contrast is so big, and I thought it was really fascinating and really beautiful.

M: You've talked in the past about writing soundtracks for Dutch directors. Any progress there?

EE: I did make a soundtrack for a documentary about European hotels where artists design and decorate the rooms. Soundtracks are fascinating, the standards are so different from pop music. It really has a function, and it

shouldn't be so dominant that the attention draws away from the picture. That's really hard because it's very supportive of the visual but it's not that much fun, it doesn't stand on its own.

With Dälek at la Sala Rossa on Sunday, Nov. 4, 9pm, $12