Pieter Nooten

Pieter Nooten's musical career starts as early as the late 70s. Starting out as the drummer in a local symphonic rock band, Nooten quickly changes to bass guitar and later keyboards, playing in different bands all over the place. At the height of house squatting culture and New Wave, Nooten meets Anka Wolbert and Ronny Moorings who just formed Xymox together. During the mid-eighties Xymox records two highly acclaimed albums on 4AD. Nooten teams up with Michael Brook to record Sleeps with the fishes, also released on 4AD.This 'soundtrack to heaven' (Melody Maker) would become Nooten's highly acclaimed masterpiece and 'maintains a cult status up until this day' (amazon.com). In 1989 Xymox signs to PolyGram N.Y. and release their third album, "Twist of Shadows". By 1990, in spite of the band's success, Nooten decides to leave Xymox due to growing internal musical differences. Whilest Xymox clearly wants to stick to their 80's roots, Nooten starts to explore new musical directions. The new, young dance culture intrigues him and a post as in-house producer at the famous One4Two studio's in Amsterdam is readily undertaken. During the first half of the nineties Nooten produces countless dance 12inches and ambient orientated music for labels and projects(Hypercycle/First Contact/Ultimate Dream Mix), some of which reach the national record charts. By 1995 Nooten moves back over to London and teams up with Anka again who has by now also left Xymox (for similar reasons). Nooten has become somewhat tired with the slowly more and more morose dance music. He signs a publishing deal with Momentum (London) and it looks their second cooperation proves to be quite succesfull again. Anka and Pieter sign to EMI (NYC) under the name Vaselyn. However, due to record company internal re-organizations, the Vaselyn project in London gets unexpectedly and suddenly cut short. Anka and Nooten decided to take the material of Vaselyn with them knowing that some day, this material will get its release. Nooten takes an extended sabbatical from the major record industry during which time he writes music for theatre, commercials and other media occasions. Around 2004 Anka and Pieter start producing Sophie Zeyl's debut album Two Ways of Running. When recordings are finished in 2005, Pieter starts producing and remixing the material for OURSPACE. Nooten wants nothing more then writing and releasing the music he always kept close at heart. Pieter Nooten's "Sleeps With The Fishes" is adept at taking what should be morose music and converts it into something resplendent. And it maintains that sad, beautiful sensation throughout its length. Not too many albums have such a perfectly-realized mood and atmosphere, one that draws you into its haunting world and stays with you long after the last song ends. But"Sleeps With The Fishes" is just such an album. And though some of its content delves into the Goth and ambient genres, it easily avoids the former's self-indulgent melodramatics and the latter's vacuousness. (Opus.com) It's hard to imagine this collaboration between Pieter Nooten (from Xymox) and ambient, experimental guitarist Michael Brook working any better So Sleeps With the Fishe's is quite dark, but it's equally beautiful and uplifting in the same instance. Nooten and Brook are restrained in the creation of their moody aesthetic, but the songs are a delight from start to finish. It's amazing that material that's so calmly paced and atmospheric is so enjoyable. Sleeps With the Fishes could not be a more perfect dark ambient, experimental album. It's essential listening for fans of 4AD, ambient music, minimalism, experimental electronic music, and morose themes alike. This album is an overlooked masterpiece. ~ Tim DiGravina , (AMG) Trish Connely ©I-Rain Records The full-length album Ourspace is available from the i-rain webstore: www.-i-rain.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.