STEPHEN EMMER

Stephen Emmer is a composer/musician from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. From experimental rock, free jazz and modern classical music to filmsoundtracks, television themes and cultural projects, he has been involved in many projects too numerous to mention in his musical life. Involved in bands such as Minny Pops, Hopper, the Associates, Lotus Eaters and Act, he made one earlier solo mini-album called Vogue Estate feat. the late Billy MacKenzie and was the first inhouse composer for the main public broadcaster NOS in the Netherlands. Here he worked with renowned orchestra's such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Windsensemble and the Metropole Orchestra. Next to having been a radiopresenter of experimental musicprograms for other Dutch broadcasters VPRO, NPS and Concertzender and as a editor-in-chief- of the cult magazine Vinyl, he also created music for the Van Gogh Museum, the Mediamuseum and Prix de Rome.
The combination of pop music and spoken word is a unique phenomenon in music history. The album contains 17 different compositions in 7 different languages and styles, performed, arranged and composed by Stephen Emmer.
On Recitement everything comes together: past and present, death and life, writers and singers, poems and music. Is it Spoken Word Pop? Is it a contemporary audiobook? Rap 2.0 or is it 'just' a music album? Recitement is the Music of Words.
The international press:“Surprisingly addictive”- Word Magazine UK “Ever wondered how bowie’s low would have sounded if the art of noise had produced it and recruited richard burton to do the vocals?”-UNCUT Magazine UK“Most wanted”Record Collector UK“Both the intelligent words and elegant music make a refreshing change from the scrappy guitars, vacant pop and clumpsy lyrics cluttering up the charts”-Yorkshire Evening Post UK“Spoken word combined with original music composition never sounded so good”-Cleardaynebraska.com“Fans of Lou Reed will be pleased he has undertaken a project with a degree of musical integrity again..”-Gigwise.com“Recitement is both diverse and imaginative enough to pull even the most recalcitrant listener..”-getreadytorock.com“Emmer here achieves the same supersoft penetrating power of Air, yet mostly acoustic..”-Kulturnews Germany“A piece of musical art!”-Lea Magazine Germany“The man knows his craft”-Raveline Germany“This enormous project amounts to a stylistic masswedding...free from all rules”-WOM Magazine Germany'the whole album delivers a cerebral workout that is rare in art today..''-music-news.com 'this is music which will soundtrack your dreams..'- uk fusion
Performances by a.o.: Lou Reed, Richard Burton, Sylvia Kristel, Kurt Schwitters, Jorge Luis Borges, Sacha de Boer, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Ken Nordine, Shyrock aka Michael Parkinson & Allen Ginsberg.
Lyrics and words by a.o.: Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Paul Theroux, Yoko Ono, Alessandro Baricco, Jorge Luis Borges,Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Remco Campert, Hugo Claus and Thomas Hardy.