Reviews (NL) and Ordering here
CD Release Concert Live here:
Part 1:
CD Release Concert ‘Organic Cities’ – (Part 1) from Thoughtrecords on Vimeo.
Part 2:
CD Release Concert ‘Organic Cities’ – (part 2) from Thoughtrecords on Vimeo.Maartje Teussink
Organic Cities
Butler Records I maartjeteussink.nl
Onvoorspelbare ontdekkingstocht
Er zijn maar weinig voorbeelden van albums die van kop tot staart door een artiest zijn gemaakt, maar Organic Cities is zo’n witte raaf. Multi-instrumentaliste Maartje Teussink schreef en produceerde het album volleedig op eigen kracht, en dat is op zichzelf al een bijzondere prestatie. De plaat bestaat uit negentien dromerige, niet altijd even toegankelijke nummers, die laag voor laag door Teussink zijn opgebouwd. Over het algemeen pakt dat aardig uit. Ondanks het feit dat iedere noot op Organic Cities van dezelfde persoon afkomstig is, is er meer dan voldoende variatie. Met name op het gebied van instrumentatie biedt Teussink’s muziek een schat aan verscheidenheid. Gitaar, cello, electronica, piano: je kunt het zo gek niet bedenken of Teussink beheerst het to in haar vingers. Teussink’s zang is ook prima in orde, hoewel sommige nummers lijden onder een overvloed aan vocale overdubs, waardoor de songteksten lastig verstaanbaar zijn. Al met al is Organic Cities geen gemakkelijke, maar wel een indrukwekkende plaat, waarop veel te ontdekken valt. Ton Fiselier
Review Musicmaker: (English Translation)
Maartje Teussink
Organic Cities
Butler Records I maartjeteussink.nl
Unpredictable Discovery Tour
There’s just little examples of albums that are made by just one artist from head to tail, but Organic Cities is such a white raven. Multi-instrumentalist Maartje Teussink wrote and produced the album completely on its own, and that already is in itself a special achievement. The album consists of nineteen dreamy, not always as easy-listening songs, that are built by Teussink layer by layer. On the whole that works pretty well. Despite the fact that every note on Organic Cities came from the same person, there’s more than enough variation. In particular in the field of instrumentation, Teussink’s music is offering a treasure of diversity. Guitar, Cello, electronica, piano: there’s all manner of things and Teussink controls it down to her fingers. Teussink’s singing is fine, although some songs suffer from a plenitude of vocal overdubs, that makes the songtexts somehat intelligbly difficult. All in all Organic Cities isn’t an easy, but is an impressive record, on which a lot is to be discovered. Ton Fiselier
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Mpodia (English Translation):
Albumreview
By: Roelof Noorda
Jazz/Singer Songwriter
As a winner of ‘De Grote Prijs van Nederland’ she’s made several albums afterwards. The new album is again a jewel. As singer-songwriter she knows how to give a place to many instruments within her own songs. The songs are introvert such as ‘You Would Want me To’ and ‘For You’. The open songs such as ‘Labyrinth’ gives the space in her songs. It’s not strange that her fan group is to be found at ‘Oerol’ or another theater event. Sometimes it’s somewhat overdone with ‘Draw to See’, but on the whole its a fine album. The songs are artistic enough to connect with this audience. The songs won’t be part of a popsound very fast, that’s why her live arts also won’t be on the big festivals (yet) to be seen.
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NNM
NNM is a series in which w discuss new music of Dutch artist.
Maartje Teussink – Organic Cities (cd,Butler / Bertus)
By: Jan-Willem Broek
I sometimes wonder how many artists, that are completely in my lane, I don’t know. One accuses me sometimes that I know many and a lot, but that’s rather relative. For example, the Dutch singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist Maartje Teussink. A megatalent, who already appears in 1997 in the group Speeskeep.
After that, she continues in 2000 under her own name. I discover her music yet later, but have a nice and above all biologizing catching up behind me. She turns out to be a varying musician, who knows to combine the high quality with the passable. From Dutch to English singing, embedded in varied genres.
Teussink has received training, but procedes after that at the percussion and singing departement of the Janaček Music Academy in the Czech Brno, where also heroine Iva Bittová has been studying.
Next to that she graduates at the Toneelschool & Kleinkunstacademie Amsterdam, what later on again is bearing musically fruits. As a Very Hungry Caterpillar she sudies singing and double bass in her own country and abroad. Eventually she masters a lot of instruments because of this, that she uses when she considers it good. That delivers soundscapes, songoriented music and soundtracks for theaterproductions and video-installations, for national and international ensembles such as Conny Janssen Danst, Orkater, Theater Bremen, Ro Theater, Bloeiende Maagden, Saskia Boddeke and Peter Greenaway. In the mean while her oevre is imposing and varied and is often released on her own label Thoughtrecords, which she keeps since 2013. To get an impression, I can recommend you to visit and search though her bandcamp page, it won’t dissapoint you!
Ealier this year her cd ‘Broos’ appears, that forsees the eponymous piece from Conny Janssen Danst of music. Now she’s back with her new studiowork Organic Cities, on which she presents 19 songs. There, where she started somewhat careful, she now sounds supremely selfconfident and makes a unique and headstrong sound. Her voice reminds me a little of a mix of Jabroe and Kendra Smith. Musically sees she’s harder to catch, which also has to do with the broad instruments that among other things consist of guitars, double bass, piano, bouzouki, clarinet, sythesizer, percussion-instruments and samples. For that matter she reminds me somewhat of William Ryan Fritch. She seems to operate on a stage with an always changing rotating decor, where the emotion or the atmosphere she wants to state seems to be determinative above the style that results from that. That way, she crosses pop, jazz, neoclassical, avant-garde, folk, funk and altcountry and a lot more often the interesting subareas of it, which she submerges in a fine poetic, nostalgic and melancholic atmosphere. Although in her case you may not or even must not compare, her music contains a lot of recognizable and familiar elements, which she howevertakes to places on a completely quirky way. Thereby it can be that you obeserve Joy Division, Swans, Insides of Low on the background, but on other moments hear Liesa Van Der Aa or even Phyllis Nelson and Madonna hear passing.
Still you have to let this go when it comes to the music of Teussink, cause she really maps out an own musically route. It’s about the content and that which she wants to communicate; you wrap a bottle of wine differently than a box of chocolates? It provides an alternate and intriguing listening trip, which alway takes you slightly somewhere else along Teussink’s spung red thread and where you dicover new enjoyable things listen after listen. Therewith you go from one climax to another. Although she’s aimed extremely high with her other albums this is her best work so far.
The album is therefore a lovely album to play while the evening falls and the warmth is still in the air.
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Johnny’s Garden:
By: Theo Volk
‘The Songs give an impression of a constant world of feelings during collecting all these impressions and experiences in a city-moving world’ the guiding press release concisely describes Teussinks album Organic Cities
Maartje Teussink is a Dutch multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer. She graduated at the Toneelschool & Kleinkunstacademie Amsterdam and completed next to that a couple of musical studies. In the mean while she’s a big name in the area of music for theater, she wrote for a large number of ensembles, nationally as well as internationally. Among them are sounding names such as Orkater, Ro Theater, de Bloeiende Maagden and Theater Bremen. At the moment, the last named company is playing the piece ‘Der Schimmelreiter’ after the well-known novel of Theodor Storm. In my day at high school a common book on the read book-list by the way. Maartje has an affinity with literature, in No Nearer she puts a part of the famous poem ‘The Hollow Men’ of T.S.Eliot on music, maybe the most cited poem from the twentieth century. The other eightteen , mostly personal compositions she did write completely herself, although Drawn to see was inspired by ‘The Wild Duck’ by Henrik Ibsen. The songs are written during travels and (partly) recorded abroad. The developing and finishing has been done partly on the road, in her homestudio and in Schiebroek. The recording took a lot of work, mainly because she played everything herself. She uses no less than twenty-two instruments. Her songs often have an atmospheric character (in which electronica sometimes playes an important role). They force the listener to real listening. Her often more-layered songs need some time to be fathomed out. Maartje has a notable, somewhat hoarse voice. Very deep Maartje knows how to move me in the above mentioned, live sung, Drawn to See. The 1st of June the releaseconcert will take place in the Pelgrimsvaderkerk in Rotterdam. Who’s prepared to bite himself in Organic Cities will in my opinion be richer a varied wonderful record. Warmly recommended.
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Rootstime.be
by: Valsam
The Dutch musician Maartje Teussink has gone a long road the last twenty years in which she has done all kinds of musicstudies and learnt to play on several instruments. Next to that she also writes music for theaterproductions in which she plays and sings herself. We have a look today to a record that she’ll release the end of May under the title ‘Organic Cities’ and on which she presents self composed songs in a good mix of folk and pop, substantiated with elements from the classical music.
Admirable surely is that Maartje Teussink also recorded all the instruments herself in the recordingstudio. An anthology of these instruments teaches us that doublebass and electric guitar, acoustic and electric guitar, cajon, synthesizer, ukelele, keyboards and piano, drums and percussion, violin and saxophone were used with that. There’s 19 songs on ‘Organic Cities’, songs that are all brought in English.
Don’t expect an cheerful popalbum with happy and melodious uptemposongs, because therefore the complexity of these alternative compositions is too big. The most easy to hear songs are according to us opener ‘Turn into a Dream’, ‘Dust and Stones’, ‘Organic Cities’, the ballad ‘For You’ and pianosong ‘Rising Above’, next to the akoustic ‘You Would Want Me To’ and ‘All Asked For’ and the poetic ‘Drawn to See’ that’s presented as a live played and sung song.
When there’s an end to the record with ‘Take Me’, you’ll know that you’ve been listening to songs that need actual more listenings to fathom the pure beauty of the by Maartje Teussink written and played songs. We don’t think that these songs will often be heared on the radio, so you can better go to purchase of this cd if you wish to enjoy these songs in all rest and serenity.
