Lukas Simonis

My Attention Has Always Caught My Attention by Suikeroom

Suikeroom consists of the duo Francesco Zedde and Lukas Simonis. They were caught playing weird sounds in the Worm Studio in 2019, initially without any bad intentions, but drifting off to good intentions with the kind of attention span they could provide was too much to ask. So what happened was a recording that attended to a submerged attention with an unattended form of ascension, did even look like an instigation for prevention. But what kind of prevention? There’s all kinds of pretensions, as soon as they have your attention. Now don’t get me wrong on this, but are we talking about music here? If so, could I please be more specific. Do I intend to be funny? Well, my intentions on this matter are that I try to attend in words what the music apprehends in sounds. Call it an amendment for attention, the kind of attention that has your attention.
I hope this promotion text will tell you all you want to know to obtain the CD we’re offering here. Or at least buy some invisible digital files. It will improve your life, that’s for sure.
About the two ‘musicians’; Zedde comes from Italy, is a drummer and electronic wizard, organizes lots of concerts that do improv and is a decent chap. Simonis comes from Rotterdam and drinks beer, preferably in cans. If you want to know more, try google.

credits

released June 1, 2021

francesco zedde – no input mixing
lukas simonis – guitar, blippoo box

distributed by underbelly.nu   and     clearspot.nl

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Comes & Simonis – Regering

With the album ‘Regering’ (dutch for ‘Government’) the duo Martijn Comes and Lukas Simonis release their first record together. The title and track names are derived from the works of B. Traven (aka Ret Marut), which says something about the atmosphere of the work and the way it was constructed. Although there are signs of Traven’s criticism of capitalism, freed of blatant moralising, there is also a sense of nostalgia as far as the atmospheric side of the music is concerned. A longing for the days when social media and the lot were not involved in the struggles for justice and freedom. Of course this is ‘only music’, and how can you criticise anything by just making sounds and suggesting an aural world that goes beyond that? That being said, listening to this ambient meets improv meets film-score album is its own reward, so it may be best to let the listener decide.

Martijn Comes comes from a film-score background while also moving in circles of experimental electronics, ambient and drones. Lukas Simonis is a seasoned improviser/sound artist with a post-punk edge.

This release is available as digital download/stream and as a limited edition CD in a 3-panel cardboard sleeve, with an impressive painting by visual artist Daniel Verkerk on the cover. When the predominantly black cover opens up, the painting is revealed in closer detail, splashing over all three inside panels in radiant colour. This is a co-release with Esc. Rec.

 

First reviews coming in! (translated from the dutch);

Opduvel review – Gert Derkx

Two musicians from different corners of the musical spectrum start jamming in order to eventually arrive at compositions that involve more than the sum of its parts. That is pretty much what happens in the collaboration of Martijn Comes (piano, organ, synth, electronics) and Lukas Simonis (guitar, effects, synth). The result was released under the title Regering by the Deventer,NL based Esc.rec label.

Comes has a background in film scores and has researched popular, modern and classical music. His own music can often be categorized under ambient and drone, but in fact he works on a heterogeneous oeuvre, in which he also incorporates melodies or impulses in his soundscapes, although he sometimes also goes for layered minimalism, such as on the great Interrogation Of The Crystalline Sublime. Simonis is a guitarist who is at home in improvised and experimental music and alternative movements within the rock genre. He has appeared with Dull Schicksal, Trespassers W, AA Kismet, Coolhaven and Ig WItzelsucht, among others. And with Zoikle, whose strong debut album was only released last year.

The two musicians met several times in the period 2018 – 2020 and recorded their music in the L6S Studio and the WORM Studio in Rotterdam. The album title and the titles of the six pieces that make up Regering are based on the work of B. Traven, a writer publishing in German who most likely also wrote under the pseudonym Red Marut. Much of the writer’s life is shrouded in mystery and he did not really help himself by never giving interviews. If he is indeed who he is believed to be, then it is possible that he took part in the Bavarian Revolution in 1919, was sentenced to death, escaped and fled to Cologne.

The mystery that surrounds the writer is also somewhat in the music of Comes and Simonis. There are clearly elements of ambient and drone music present, but the music of the pair also contains so many aspects that indicate other genres, or cannot be categorized at all, that any indication falls grossly short. It does not make the music easy to fathom, but that is okay, because Regering is a feast for the ears even without wondering what exactly you are listening to. The six pieces differ and there is no simple soul to be found. The music sounds adventurous and at the same time purposeful.

The duo resides between lightness and heaviness in Opstand der Aanhangigen. A floating tone, which is occasionally swept towards a different pitch, neutralizes the playfulness that the piece carries (pleasant rhythm, tingling free guitar playing). Most sounds disappear after a few minutes. The rhythm remains intact and is now provided with more elements. That persistent pattern has a trance-inducing effect. Variation is applied with subtle sounds, without disturbing the pattern.

Laffe Epicus starts whispering softly and excitingly. Strange sounds are draped over a soft drone and also soft and slow rhythmic pattern in the background, seemingly random. The volume quickly increases, as does the number of layers, bringing the tension to a boiling point. There is something evil in the music that comes straight at you. Rotating movements pass at different tempos and a drone consisting of a full organ sound can be heard. The duo has got hold of the listener and won’t let go.

Very adventurous it is in Ouverture voor een Einde. Just like in Opstand der Aanhangigen a light-footed rhythm is heard, now overlaid with guitar, sliding synth sounds and drones. Together they could form a futuristic-looking whole, but that ever-present rhythm places the music in the here and now, with both feet on the ground. A melody emerges, skillfully disrupted by Simonis’s guitar playing. Gradually the course changes, the rhythm disappears into the background and an organ tone predominates. Subsequently, the disruption becomes increasingly severe.

A pitch-dark tone sets in motion Ijzingwekkende Weegschaal. That drone pulsates, while in the depth sounds fly around teasingly. New elements emerge from the darkness: a moving motif, sounds rising and disappearing like thunder clouds, sounds moving unpredictably like strange creatures, a rhythm that sounds like a slow moving train, electronic sounds that are reminiscent of nature sounds from the jungle, long guitar sounds, a machine-driven rhythm, etc. Everyone will have different images within their own fantasy. There is no question that the music has a strong imaginative power. Moreover, the piece is exciting.

In Er is maar een Nergens (There’s Only One Nowhere) the basis is formed by a two-movement, slightly distorted piano motif. Around this, Comes and Simonis manage to create a range of sounds, such as percussive sounds and sounds reminiscent of a circular saw in the carpentry workshop or unidentified flying objects. The duo plays with density: sometimes the overall sound is fairly bare, at other times the space that is offered is more filled. The piano motif is the ideal breeding ground for all kinds of experimental discoveries and the wealth of sounds and movements is therefore great.

Closing piece De Verloren Zaak (The Lost Case) then sounds as if the pair have freed themselves from the yoke of the piano motif: sounds emerge from every nook and cranny, together creating an incoherent rhythm, free and playful. The piece is all movement and moves in all directions except straight ahead. The music is colorful and the drive is great. Gradually elements are brought in that dampen the nervosity, some puzzle pieces fall into place, while others keep flying around elusively. It is a piece of music in which so much is happening that you simply cannot get bored.

That last comment actually applies throughout the album. Regering is a festival of sounds that makes a big impression in its originality, diversity, creativity and quality.

and another one;

 

Subjectivisten review – Jan Willem Broek

Martijn Comes and Lukas Simonis are two names that I regularly see and hear over the years. But they never made an album together before. That is about to change.

Comes is a Dutch graduated composer who has a special interest in sound character in different musical traditions, which in his releases translates into electro-acoustic music, drones, ambient, neoclassical or combinations thereof. Many of his works, which have been released on Moving Furniture, The Silent Howl, IO SOUND and Bedouin Records, among others, also have a cinematic character. This probably has everything to do with his study Composition for Film at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Before that, he has already graduated from the Academy for Digital Communication. Besides many solo albums he has also made works with Orphax, Giulio Aldinucci and Hessel Veldman and there are albums in the air with Frans de Waard.

The Dutch guitarist Lukas Simonis has been on the road for some years now and comes from roughly the opposite corner with alternating art rock, punk, industrial and avant-garde. He has played a large part in the Rotterdam alternative corner, also as a programmer for WORM. Groups such as Dull Schicksal, Trespassers W, AA Kismet, The Rosebuds, Zoikle, Morzelpronk, Coolhaven, Apricot My Lady, Vril and many more have been able to count on his contribution. Later he started to focus more and more on experimental improvisations, which again resulted in extremely interesting releases. For example, I have a great collaboration with Pierre Bastien on the shelve. But a lot of great things can be found in his impressive discography.

As Comes & Simonis, sounds so nice together, they present their first joint album ‘Regering’ (Government), released on the innovative label Esc.rec. This title immediately appeals to me as a writer for het Schaduw Kabinet, but it also makes me curious about the content. This (fortunately) has nothing to do with the current formation of a new government, but just like the album titles, this one is taken from the work of the somewhat mysterious B. Traven aka Ret Marut. Comes throws in synthesizers, piano, organ and African percussion here, while Simonis takes off with guitars, effects, analog synthesizer and blippoo box. The composer versus the improviser, but here above all coming to a fascinating com-pro-mass, yes, leave that to Comes and Simonis. The six compositions that they serve here in a good hour are written from 2018-2020. From the very first notes, they already manage to keep me in a headlock. The CD opens with Opstand Der Afvalligen, where you hear a controlled mysterious, almost tribal ambient sound, throughout sounding guitar improvisations. But even after that, both manage to challenge each other and to fabricate the most fascinating creations, where improvisations, electro-acoustic music, ambient and all kinds of experiments pass the review in a varied and surprising way. Although the approach of both is different, their sounds are bundled into one whole and do not run parallel to each other. Because you do hear that different input, it gives a great spatial effect, where sounds seem to arise or echo again in the void. Think of it as a specially created grid, through which sounds fly, collide, become intertwined and also distort the grid again. However, that can sometimes produce frightening shapes, as in Laffe Epicus and Ijzingwekkende Weegschaal. I regularly think of that oppressive atmosphere of David Lynch’s Eraserhead, albeit with modern music. Music that is not always pleasant, but of which you do not want to miss a second; there is so much interesting to discover. It has become an immersive, unparalleled and adventurous listening trip!

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Coolhaven Mijn tijd sal t wel dure

In het kader van de aftakeling van verouderde lichamen en de daarmee gepaard gaande luxe besloot Coolhaven een geheel nieuwe kant op te gaan met haar muziek; would-be hiphop voor 50-plussers, hope you like our new direction. Wat hebben we aan dat geronk van de jeugd en hun neiging tot overdrijven van de eigen krachten. Wij, plus 50ers plussers, weten precies waar het om gaat. En we gooien onze papiertjes en RedBull blikjes wel netjes in de vuilnisbak. Dus wat valt ons te verwijten?

De B-kant gaat over de bewondering van de massa voor de massa, ook altijd leuk.

En dit alles in smakelijke hoes gestoken door de bekende nederlandse kunstenaar Peter J. Fengler.

Beperkte oplage ook nog!

En extra lage prijs opdat de arbeidersklasse kan meeprofiteren.

bestel! via email; klangendum@xs4all.nl

via bandcamp; https://z6records.bandcamp.com/album/coolhaven-mijn-tijd

of via; underbelly.nu

 

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Candlesnuffer & Lukas Simonis: Nature Stands Aside

record was made in 2010, only a few copies left.

review from chaindlk;

http://www.chaindlk.com

Artist: candlesnuffer & Lukas Simonis lukas {at} xs4all {dot} nl ]

Title: Nature Stands Aside

Unquestionably, curiosity for the sonic expectoration by this duo made up of two eccentric and inventive guitarists and performers with a remarkable background and an intricate web of collaborations and projects in different art/punk constellations like the versatile Dutch music “activist” Lukas Simonis, also known for his tireless work in the field of organization of music festival (he recently collaborated for the setting out of WORM, a multimedia centre for experimental arts in Rottardam), and David Brown aka candlesnuffer, skilled guitarist coming from the fertile Melbourne art-punk scene with a meaningful experience in film score composition, might be aroused by the intellectualist framework they find for their bizarre experiments on prepared guitars: while being aware of cultural diktat of the so-called capitalist civilization and neoliberalism’s pretensions to set a strict universal (and somewhat natural) order during an historical moment where anyone’s aware of its detumescence, they build a conceptual bridge with “Special Cases”, which is not the notorious song by Massive Attack, but an interesting art book by photographer and collage artist Rosamund W.Purcell about a peculiar human obsession with monstrosity which features an approach, remarkably differne tfrom the grotesque one pervading most of last century’s literature, where monstrosity is not related to external aspect, but it’s more something cognitive, so that a monster could just be something we don’t know and we don’t understand. The manifest lack of regular rhythmical and melodies structures, the abundance of jumps from one scale to another one and chaotic arrangement of cracks and nice sonic creatures (I particularly liked the moment when they jump from saturations of plinks, so that sometimes listeners could imagine guitar cases have been overfilled with marbles, to detonations and somewhat molecular sonic decay as well as those ones when disruptive scratches, cracks, rumbling thumps and other timbrical trifles look like jamming rusty mechanical cogs like in “Morph My Logic”, “A Happy Life At The Expense Of Others” and “Hottentot Venus”…and the final lovely divertssment “Mermaid Giving Birth To Twins While Kissing Her Consort”…what a title!!!) could have fed this conceptual link with those natural anomalies explored in that book (even if I’m more inclined to associate it to another art-book by the same author, titled Bookworm, where there’s a bizarre re-interpretation of a French economics text by imaginary termites!). Such an intellectual approach could eclipse the musical content of this release, which could sound like a frivolous oddity, but I’m pretty sure many listeners will discern in these abstract improvisational knick-knacks more marvels than monsters!

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los siquicos cenan con static tics

name of the cd; los siquicos cenan con static tics

name of the group(s); los siquicos litoraleños & the static tics

Recorded on different times in Rotterdam while touring- , this album finds Argentines Los Siquicos Litoraleños joining forces with experimental dutch duo Static Tics (Lukas Simonis & Henk Bakker). Flying high and on full psychedelic mode the sonic synergy of the two bands creates impossible and almost absurd tracks in which distorted melodies and weird growling vocals merge in a very unusual mix. The psylocibe madcaps laughter reverberates through the album with explosive dynamics in pieces like “Saber Mas” or the post-folklore “Desde Acá”. There´s even some kraut (with chorizo) action on jams like “Ritmo Abismo” and “El Baile del Pato”, the dry dub without echo of “El bruto” or the impossible cumbia & garage punk drunken fusion of “Soy un Troglodita” all with touches of the southamerican spicy mind-melting weirdness typical of this Argentine band. But In all the lunacy there´s always place to move your feet and dance with the flow even if gravity could not always be there or respect the physical laws of planet Earth.

distributed by underbelly.nu

BANDCAMP

Comes in a lovely ecopack card case, with artwork by Red Bol

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Cantos Deus I’m Your Child 7″

The second release of Cantos Deus. In this Corona year they thought it was appropriate to release a 7″ with 3 songs; the mouth harp-invested ‘I’m Your Child’ which sends chivers to our spines if we think of the consequences of this statement the singer makes us think to believe… (or believe to think) And then we have the Wally Tax meets Flamenco-with-a-wooden-leg stomp called ‘Regrets’, another highlight in the Cantos Deus story. And we end with the immortal ‘Valley By The River’, a heart breaking story about somebody who seems to be in the neighbourhood of deep water.

Deus Cantos is;

Jacco Weener – conscience

Bruno Ferro Xavier Da Silva – patience

Lukas Simonis – gratitude

 

Distributed by Underbelly.nu

 

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Prins & Simonis – Mothers of Exit

 

 

Animalistic high metal grooves…

a collaboration of these two veterans of improvised weirdness.

…was bound to happen sometime!

Prins, playing electronics and for this recording also back to animal skin drums ,

while Simonis is sharpening his guita and approaching a modular synth.

results into seven pieces of improv and minimal rock/jazz/noise…

where both players display, in healthy doses, all their specialisms and experience

this album is an energizing soundtrack to almost any activity, but preferably human ones.

Gert-Jan Prins: drums, cymbals, radio electronics, microphones

Lukas Simonis: guitar, effects, modular synth, blippoo box.

 

Check out the artwork on the sleeve, made by Prins, who makes beautiful mixed media 3D art.

 

Distribution; https://underbelly.nu

Label: Z6 Records / Z6934P15

Artist: Prins & Simonis

Medium: CD

Category: Records & Tapes.

Tags: Analog Synth, Experimental Rock, Guitar, Percussion.

limited edition of 200

some press;

“Gert-Jan Prins and Lukas Simonis create improvised and raw trip of a sound towards free jazz, glitchy and warped shape of something that is both refreshing and can be used in a way that helps you to understand the nuances and details through almost metal energy.” (felthatreviews)

“… It is an interesting work they offer here. The drums and guitar play a role, sure, but not exclusively. I would think Simonis use his guitar a more than Prins plays the drums, but when they do, there is a fine crude rock element to their noise music to be noted, tortured and demented, not some consistent rock approach. However, much of their other work is on the same noise trail but then electronic. The rhythmic element we know from Prins’ solo work is present here, touching upon broken cables and connections, where’s Simonis adds bleeps and blips from the synthesizer and, maybe, a bit of guitar, such as in shaky ‘Shadows And Tall Seconds’. While much of the music in these seven pieces and fifty-one seconds, is noisy, it is never the sort of conventional noise music which all screams and shrieks. There is some sense of this madness and I wouldn’t have expected this anywhere from these elderly statesmen of improvisation…” (vital weekly)

” korte recensie: geen behaagzieke of interessantige dronerij, (kramp in de) kloten, hangend aan een besmeurd hart, dat naar het verre hoofd roept: ‘ vergeet mij niet?!’ zorro vindt het mooi. om bij te werken ( als dichter of machinaal houtbewerker), of snags, in de nieuwe auto. lukas rotterdada simonis en gert jan prins: mothers of exit; dat helpt me er uit…. dank…” (hansko visser, plan kruutntone)

“…Opening on a highly experimental and avantgarde-leaning tip from the get go with a combination of super distorted guitar feedback Noize, brutalist Phonk and a combination of FoundSound, Cut-Up and Plunderphonics collage techniques all to be found in the warped, art-school’esque opener “Numb Lesson Stomp” which paves the way for things to come, be it the stripped down radio static improvisations of the subsequent follow up that is “Stories For The Babyface Ocean”, the raw, untamed and ear piercing Metal guitar solos in the title track “Mothers Of Exit” or the doomed Noize meets muffled and subdued background drums apocalypse aptly named “Twilight Out Of Control” which are all interesting pieces providing moments of sonic joy when one has finally adjusted to the albums intent and aesthetics (…) Not for the faint-hearted, though…”  (nitestylez.de)

 

and here’s a very well written review, our favorite until now;

Prins & Simonis – Mothers of Exit [Z6 Records – 2021
Prins & Simonis is the collaboration of veteran Dutch avant garde musicians Gert-Jan Prins and Lukas Simonis, on electronics and guitar, respectively. Mothers of Exit, released this year in 2021, is their first collaboration. The result is a dadaist cut-up noise rock album somewhere between Black Dice and Nurse With Wound’s Sylvie and Babs.
We are immediately introduced to blown out, sloppily improvised drum circle-esque beats from a drumset, sounding like a group of teenagers recording themselves banging on trash cans through a cellphone microphone, with reckless enthusiasm and bottom of the barrel sound quality to match. Rather than attempting clean production, Prins & Simonis cheekily indulge in clipping audio whenever possible, reveling in the harshness of the hiss as each heavy drum hit falls. Like a lot of mid 2000’s noise rock music (like Boris or Lightning Bolt),
the overloaded audio is part of the character of the project.
After the aggression of the initial track “Numb Lesson Stomp” we veer away from distorted rhythms into a kind of esoteric spaciness, with chirps and interference textures one might hear from an untuned radio, and a faint motorik pulse. In a similar way as Nurse With Wound, the music here could be seen as a very abstract form of krautrock, taken to the furthest extent of its far-out potential. This is the space reached during the headiest of deconstructed breakdowns on experimental 70’s LPs. Elements are arranged in an intuitive, tempo-less collage comparable to musique concrete or free jazz, with hints here and there of a drumset or a guitar solo. There are definite echoes of Can in the lurching, sluggish riff of closer “Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your End of the World”.
The jaded, bitter shred of Simonis’ noisy solos is the closest thing to traditional musical satisfaction to be found on this album, with achingly cathartic bluesy bends and wails in dissonant churning clusters, sounding a bit like the busy bumblebee tones of Mick Barr’s atonal Orthrelm project. He only appears in short bursts before abandoning us again to the noise, cementing the discontinuous, unanchored feeling of the whole album.
Rhythmic tracks like the titular “Mothers of Exit” or “Twilight Out of Control” are balanced with the sputtering modulated static of “Shadows and Tall Seconds”, which is not unlike something you could find on the Merzbox. This prevents the distorted drumset material from becoming too fatiguing, as it invariably would have. Some, of course, will find the presence of distorted cymbal crashes unbearably bright as it is, and the general absence of substance or structure disconcerting or annoying. The drumset playing, while perhaps executed to some sort of hypnotic internal cadence, does not demonstrate much coordination or skill.
However, I sense a strange sort of magick charge to the idea-less non-structure they have conjured. The point, as it were, seems to be to sketch around a sort of hollowness or emptiness, so that one might see that is in fact there. The overbearing, vivid whiteness of ice or fluorescent lighting permeates the bright, sharp texture of the recording. The immediacy and enthusiasm that come with improvisation surely benefit the results here. There is a palpable sense of whimsicality and playfulness. It has the feeling of a sudden vision, witnessed and recorded all within a single day.
Like early Zoviet France material, Prins & Simonis’ Mothers of Exit straddles the line between esoteric ritual space and idle hedonistic self-amusement. What it lacks in rhythmic cohesion and conventional timbral beauty, it makes up in sheer psychic disruptive force, the erratic thrashing and mad scribbling of its movements serving to stir the neurons into manic awareness. Recommended to fans of “bands” like Black Dice or Caroliner Rainbow.
john landry/musiquemachine

 

 

 

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COOLHAVEN : RODE PRUIK

Coolhaven’s 10 inch vinyl release ‘RODE PRUIK’, with covers of de Rondo’s and combined with a 24 page comic book-style artwork by De Rondos’ Johannes van de Weert.

At this special release Coolhaven perform covers of both De Rondos and Tandstickorshocks, next to other obscure material. Johannes made an appearance in his own right alongside his old Rondos bandmates (and those from Tandstickorshocks), as ‘Rode Pruik’ is a reworking of old hits from both bands. According to Coolhaven’s Lukas Simonis, “The reworking is done with a Gabber feel, which suited those songs like a glove”.

Listen & Order at De Player

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