OOR review

Pop and poetry, music and spoken word – combinations that have entered into a somewhat jarring and uncomfortable marriage many times before. Recitement, however, is an entirely successful attempt to bring together writers, singers, and musicians from the past and present in harmony. Thanks to the Dutch creator/composer/arranger/musician Stephan Emmer, the seventeen very diverse compositions in seven languages ​​form a logical and reasonably easy-to-sit whole.

Emmer not only succeeded in bringing together recitations of literary texts (from Samuel Beckett to Yoko Ono) by, among others, Lou Reed, Richard Burton, Sylvia Kristel, Ken Nordine, Alan Ginsberg, Hugo Campert, Hugo Claus, and Sacha de Boer (one of the successors to his father Fred Emmer at the NOS Journaal), but together with the musical contributions of Emmer himself, Bauer, Tony Visconti, Benjamin Herman, and many others, they form a truly fine, culturally responsible hour that certainly does not weigh too heavily on the stomach.

Vogue Estate

That can safely be called an achievement by the man whom many had lost sight of since the first half of the 1980s. At that time, Emmer was part of the Minny Pops, founded the music magazine Vinyl, and later left for England to record the excellent album Vogue Estate with the later-famous producer Flood and to join The Lotus Eaters from Liverpool.

Theme songs

In recent years, Emmer has been making a name for himself by creating theme songs for RTL Boulevard, RTL Nieuws, and the NOS Journaal, among others. On Recitement, both his artistic aspirations and his gifts for crafting a substantial audiobook using pop, jazz, classical, lounge, avant-garde, soundtrack music, and beautiful voices come together perfectly.

[OOR - Willem Jongeneelen]