De Kift

Around 1988 De Kift emerged from the Dutch squatter's movement and the punk waves of the late 70's, early 80's. Think Wire, Crass and Minutemen. Described as something like art-folk-punkers De Kift arrived to the forefront of Holland's fringe-political, musical and theatrical movements. De Kift have become legends in the Netherlands, influencing a whole generation of Dutch musicians with their combination of punk angst, world literature and the Crescendo Music of their home village where Jan Heyne, father of band founder Ferry Heyne and the oldest member of De Kift at age 75, has lived for over 33 years.
De Kift's initial goal was to make music using lyrics in the Dutch language with the emphasis on intelligibility. This resulted in the rhythmic, electric music on the 1989 vinyl LP "Yverzucht"

After Maarten Oudshoorn (vocals/lyrics) left, De Kift began borrowing their lyrics from literature. Works by Wolfgang Borchert, E.M. Remarque and Jan Arends formed the basis for their 1993 CD release "Krankenhaus". This CD, originally packaged in a small wooden box with burned cover art, is a collection of compressed short stories about madness and war written from the perspective of a person on his sick-bed.

Between 1993 and 1996 De Kift continued touring through The Netherlands, Germany and France. "Krankenhaus" was released in the German language and Jos (The Ex) toured with the band as a guest vocalist during their German tour.
With time and experience, the group realized that the theatrical character of Kift's music required costumes and decor. This led to the 1996 CD release "Gaaphonger": a theatrical piece based on the adventures of the Dutch explorer Willem Barentz during his exploration of Nova Zembla, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean northern Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, circa 1596. Imagine ship-crunching ice fields, the building of a cabin with salvaged wood from his ship, the 'Jacob van Heemskerck', and the strenuous fight for survival during the months-long winter nights. These harsh conditions and the state of mind of an isolated group are central to the music of "Gaaphonger".

In 1998, De Kift created a new body of work entitled "Vlaskoorts". This new work focused on the intense contact between the band and its audience. "Vlaskoorts" is the story of a country family in disarray. Fragments of text were used from Venedikt Jerofejev, Jan Arends, Wolfgang Borchert, Flannery O'Connor and Werner Schwab. In 2000 a film of the story was made in cooperation with film makers André van der Hout, Karen Muller and Matte Mourik. The film is called "De IJzeren Hond" (The Iron Hound) and the results are a combination of film, music and live theatre.
In 2001, De Kift celebrated its 12-year anniversary. This memorable event was highlighted with the presentation of the special anniversary CD "Koper" (Copper). This milestone record incorporated a kind of new anthology of stylized quotes celebrating their four previous albums and history to date. A greatest hits album but not, "Koper" combined new compositions with several adaptations from the "De Molenaar" project and previously unreleased material. De Kift plays itself performing at its own anniversary ball for a small, off-the-record fee: they have to come up with a master of ceremonies who guides the audience through this Super 8-in-the-flesh extravaganza.
As a result of the good reception of "Koper" in 2002 the group was awarded a Silver Harp, a Dutch industry prize for promising newcomers (=P).

In january 2003 the film 'De Arm van Jezus' (Jesus' Arm), directed by André van der Hout, opened at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam and De Kift was responsible for the score as well as filling most of the cast. The film was nominated for a Tiger Award and at the Netherlands Film Festival was awarded the Dutch Film Critics Award.
The CD "Vier voor vier" (Four to Four) appeared in 2003 as an opera based on the play Elizaveta Bam (1928) by the Russian author Daniil Kharms. The record combines De Kift's self-willed music of pots and pans, brass band horns and gnarly, scraping choral singing with two classically trained singing voices. With "Vier voor vier" De Kift brought together the worlds of opera and pop music.
In 2005 the band presented two DVD's, one of "De IJzeren Hond" and one of "Vier voor vier". That same year the group presented "De Kift", the first CD aimed especially at a French audience. Its presentation took place in Paris with tracks from "Koper" and "Vlaskoorts". This same CD went on to become De Kift's first ever North American release in 2006 with its reissue by North East Indie Records.

De Kift remains fully active with two generations on stage. They continue to tour throughout the European continent and even through parts of the farther east including Russian Federation. The group's creativity is relentless and they remain yet to be discovered in the sense of their importance to the contemporary musical/lyrical/political/theatrical traditions. They are unparallelled in their country and internationally.

A new album, Hoofdkaas, was released in 2008.

Band members]
Ferry Heyne
Maarten Oudshoorn (With a break in 1993)
Eddie Kagie

www.dekift.com