It was about a year ago when I took my boyfriend Jean Louis van Dam to a concert of my favorite singer and composer Sting, and that's where the idea for this project arose. Jean Louis promised to produce and arrange a CD for me; not with covers from Sting, but rather a complete collection of brand new songs for which he would write the music, and I would write the lyrics. Using little more than a ten year old Macbook and a small home studio, he began recording. With the help of two top musicians, his brother Danny van Dam on drums and friend Ian Boelens on guitars, Jean Louis has created a beautifully arranged pop CD for me, with a gorgeous palette of colors and sounds inspired by the music of Sting. The sound is completed with guest musicians Jeroen de Rijk (percussion), Hermine Deurloo (chromatic harmonica) and Tom Beek (saxophones). I really hope that many people will enjoy the variety of these twelve beautiful new songs.
This CD has become a very personal story: a tribute to Sting of course, but also to my mother.
I was coming out of a difficult period (a messy divorce, followed by the unexpected loss of my dear mother) when Jean Louis came into my life a year later, on Christmas day. I had already known him for fifteen years, as a colleague.
My mother, once herself a pianist, choir director and vocalist, had met Jean Louis once and considered him to be a miraculously good pianist. She promised me that when the time came, she would give me a 'sign' of love, and that's what she did! I had an unexpected feeling of knowing during our walk on the beach together by the North Sea that night. Our mutual happiness has led to the tremendous inspiration and passion with which we have worked on this CD.
The title "Driven By The Wind", for me, as a girl growing up near the beach of Noordwijk, is very fitting.
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My CD is also available for download at cdbaby, iTunes or amazon.
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