coolhaven

COOLHAVEN
Coolhaven is a band based on the principle of diabetics. Their music is inspired by the disturbance of balance between centrifugal and centripetal energies. The first and last thing Coolhaven has is some kind of concept or idea about how the noises they make should sound. We think the idea of making ‘good' music is kind of obsolete.
There could be improvisation (utterly and totally composed) involved, or badly played dutch tribal polka blues. It's the moment that counts, not fame or respect from future generations of cd-listeners.
Our first records sounded like some kind of lo-fi techno ambient country and western and in the beginning of 2003 we released our first feature album; “Blue Moustache” , inspired by electronic music, bullshit generators and flying trapeze's. Last year (2006) saw the light of a collaboration with Felix Kubin 'Suppe Für Die Nacht' (CD, Korm Plastcis) and the release of the long awaited 'Strombloque Phantasieën'(CD, Taple Records).
At this moment our interests lays more in the exploitation-genre field. Recent projects include something called ‘Strömblock Phantasieën' with German lyrics by David Hasselhof and visuals by Martijn Van Boven, a collaboration with Beautiful Young German Electro Pop Star Felix Kubin, an ungoing ‘electrosoap' called ‘STROMBOLI, a project about & with AGIT PROP and lots of other ways to strange and inventive use of soup, words and sound.
The members ;
Hajo Doorn ; Used to play with Veryan Weston (for about a minute), and in the notorious group ‘The Lost Lovers. And Dull Schicksal. He's some kind of director at WORM , and his writing alter ego is called ‘Raoul Goudvis.
Lukas Simonis ; Sometimes calls himself 'musician' (when he's not drunk probably). Played/plays in Dull Schicksal, Apricot My lady, Liana Flu Winks and Trespassers W. Also works at WORM where he has a 'free' role. Just Like in the bible.
Peter Fengler ; His other group is called ‘Pool Mongool ‘ .And besides that he's a visual artist. And besides that he still has a nice body (well girls -and boys- hurry! it's decomposing rapidly). And besides that he has a club called DE PLAYER in the former red-light district of Rotterdam. But they do art there nowadays.
Johan De Koeyer (aka. as culthero ‘Donkey hare Joe) is our technical slave. Doing the visuals, taking care of the sound and doing the dirty laundry.
But what do we actually sound like live ?
Let's say it's a mixture of electronics, sampling, loops and delays, live-video and self made films, free improvised compositions, folksy bits with acoustic instruments, strange little songs, performing (blowing your nose in front of an audience, etc.) 'sprechgesang', surreal tearjerking stories and performance & unperformance.
2006
October; the release of two CD's; 'Suppe für die Nacht' by Coolhaven & Felix Kubin (Korm Plastics) and 'Strømbloque Phantasieën' (Taple Records)
March; An Evening With Coolhaven In De Willie in Deventer, Holland
In this beautiful; club in Deventer, Coolhaven did another of their extended shows with dancing, lots of mime,russian punk electro and another live radioplay.
February; Coolhaven does live radioplay ‘Kachelmeisje' at Extrapool, Nijmegen, Holland
Actually this was in the ‘Stromboli' cycle but this time in the form of a live-radioplay, initiated by the Extrapool's ‘Radiotoop'-series.
2005
December; For the Charms festival, Coolhaven produced and played ‘Branding' on several locations.
Another ‘theatre' play –with some real bicycling!- about the virtues of branding a good name.
September; ‘De Vrolijke Brigade', Schouwburg, Rotterdam, Holland
A ‘theatre' play –with some real acting!- about the cultural Abendland of Socialism.
July; ‘The Chroup' in WUK, Vienna, Austria
Coolhaven plays and produces a Milky Media Play
April; Coolhaven plays the SKIF festival (again), St Petersburg, Russia
March 2005; STROMBOLI, DePlayer, Rotterdam, Holland
the new series of 5 blunt guerilla music-theatre pieces about manhood, empathy,making choices and more
2004
September ; COOLHAVEN plays the performance 'Museum Darlings' in Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Holland
We offered the museum to buy this performance (which was to say the least, arty) but they couldn't afford it.
August ; The COOLHAVEN fashion show, in club De Player, Rotterdam, Holland
There were a lot of requests from fans all over the world to make a show that showed all our different costumes we used through all our different projects. So we got them out of their closets. It smelled good,too.
July; Coolhaven plays the Garage Festival in Stralsund, Germany.
A small but very inspiring festival on electronic arts.
May; An evening with... COOLHAVEN in Chicago , USA
Coolhaven plays the Hidden Network Festival this time, preparing & writing new stuff as part of the project.
february; An evening with...COOLHAVEN in Switserland
In Uster, Switserland.Singing, dancing and other pragmatic forms of entertainment.
february; COOLHAVEN meets STEAMBOAT in Zurich, Switserland
The old 'Battle Of The Bands'-thing revised, in the WIM in Zürich Coolhaven meets up with the notorious 'Steamboat Switserland'.
january; playing 'Strømblock' at the Transmediale Festival, Berlin, Germany
Well attended multi-media spectacle but shitty produced, anyway, we had a good time.
2003
october; Strømblocque Phantasieën
Schubert meets Electronics while baywatch is on; mega-production for several big festivals; Crossing Border, October Music, Rumor Festival and more.
may; Hamburg, Bremen und Berlin, Germany
Confirming the friendship of french wood with german dwarfs while drinking too much wodka.
april; ‘Stromboli' at ‘The Player' ,Rotterdam , Holland
An electro soap with lots of guests, one week ,doing a different show every day at a former sexclub in the former red light district of Rotterdam.
january; the CD ‘Blue Moustache'
2002
november; presentation Worm salon, Worm In Las Palmas , Holland
Which means we presented all the people that presented something on this occasion. We created our own vehicle for this (with wheels that is) and wrote meaningfull poems.
october; Tour to Slovenia, Austria, Hungary and Czech republic
Together with S.Spier and Liana Flu Winks.
september; ‘Fanfare' during the ‘Kunstexpress'
A lucid tribute to youth and it's tight ass.
april; Coolhaven goes to Russia
Playing ao. at the Kuryokhin Festival in Petersburg and DOM in Moscow.
march; ‘Het Zoveelste Kutbandje Dat Op Het Dak Speelt'
During the ‘Museumnight 2002 Coolhaven played ‘Let It Be' on the roof of the V2 building for almost an hour.
february; 'Ambiance Asthmatique', Boijmans Museum, Rotterdam , Holland
A multi media experience for visitors of the Museum Boymans Van Beuningen during the opening of an exposition.
2001
november; Radioplay ‘Grindpad Naar Las Palmas' icw. radio Worm, for‘Supplement' National Radio4.
A 2-hour live radio play with some electronic stuff, and a neo-postmodern approach to telling stories, on Dutch National Radio.
november; Langweiligkeit festival, Paard, Den Haag , Holland
september ; 'The Summer Of Love' set , Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam , Holland
Maybe this will lead someday to our long awaited spoken word project called 'Spoken Worst'.
july ; playing the ‘Stubnitz' multi media boat.
may ; 'Futurism Was Now' workshop and presentation during Worm In Las Palmas, Rotterdam
With students from the art-academies in Rotterdam and Den Haag we made a very audience-challenging performance.
april; ‘Klank' festival, Den Haag , Holland
Winning the Klank- trophy, and being very proud of that as it is probably the only thing we will ever win.
2000
december ; the piece ‘kutbandje' during the ‘ Ver Uit De Maat”-festival, Rotterdam , Holland
Trying to recall that good old 'playing in a rockband' feel, but failing miserably.
october ; ‘the best of Impakt', Paradiso, Amsterdam , Holland ; the piece‘Four Labtops'.
Making some mighty intelligent comments on playing live-music with labtops.
august; ‘de armada' in Nijmegen, organised by Extrapool, premiere of the piece ‘Four Labtops'.
This piece was a comment on playing electronic music in a live situation. With other words ; who is doing what on their labtop and is there a big difference with just playing the tape and who cares ?
july; performance festival in ‘De Verschijning' Tilburg
may; Nesserdijk (Rotterdam), Historical & Environmental Foundation Performance with live cinema.
march/april/may ; Lantaren/Venster workshop production ‘Tribune'.
‘TRIBUNE' is a musical performance with the help of the syndrome of Gilles De La Tourette. Most people live their lives without ever having to seriously react or make decisions. People with the Syndrome can't do that ; they are forced to organise their own ‘spectacles'. ‘Tribune' used this thought as a starting point for a theatrical reality.
january/february/march; ‘the linzentour'
Performances in Zwatra (Rotterdam), Vrij Entrepot (Amsterdam), 2B (Eindhoven), Extrapool (Nijmegen), London(Centurion, Klinker en Mopomoso)Brightton, Eurodusnie (Leiden) and Ekko (Utrecht). This tour had a conceptual program ,concerning human suffering and very thick soup.
1999
september; ‘Estafette' filmmusic for animations, in cooperation with Karel Doing.
Mixing animation cinema with performance & sound.in Nighttown, Rotterdam
september; ‘Coolhaven plays Tourette', in Lantaren/Venster
A try out for the theatre piece ‘tribune' that turned into something totally different then the latter -we found that out later- this was a performance about the Syndrome of Gilles De La Tourette.
juni 1999; tuinhuis/huistuin 7” on Room records, performance Room gallery
Coolhaven exists since june 1999. In that month they released a 7” Single on Room records, with a sleeve by the well respected simple mind Jan vd Ploeg.