De Bonte Koe Rec.
In Julia's Mind-Scene (LP) (NL,2005)****
It was not very easy to place 'In Julia’s Mind Scene' on my webpages, because they are a mixture of singersongwriting and arranged soft-rock, with jazzy warmth. On the demo I really liked the special, subtle vulnerable and warm timbre of singer Mark Versteegen vocals (slightly like Pat Orchard). Here Mark sings and sounds a bit more self-assured, without having changed his soft vocals. There are many varied art-folk arrangements on this collection. The songs and instrumentals are kept somewhat compact, but have at the same time its inner calmness and vision. The strength of the demo was its mood building long flow. The two tracks from the demo are added here too. Feel the warmth that’s given” was my favourite, with horn, flute, bass, drum jazzy mood arrangements, and its long outro called “Stonerage”. It is slightly different from the demo but surely as rewarding. Most songs are kept a bit more safely separate from each other, and all other mood changes are tighter. “Trust In Wealth” is an instrumental for harmonium with ambient and slight reverb electronica. The last concluding track has a great flute and rock outburst outro. This first album reveals some great potentional, which I can imagine can be even greater than it already is during live performance or with additional guests, because the music itself has that openness that can easily be improvised upon. A beautiful, highly recommended debut.
In Julia’s Mind-Scene here is Mark Versteegen, acoustic guitar, vocals, Niels van Heumen, trumpet, flugelhorn, thinwhistle, Martijn Buser, drums, percussion, melodica, voice, with Gijs van der Heijden, piano and glockenspiel on one track and Daniël Antonis, double bass, electric bass, accordion, and Michaël Brijs, flute.
