Ambient artist in search of the perfect melt of synthetic and acoustic sound material.


Playing guitar at the age of seven, Patrick's interest in music was obvious. Seven years later the keyboard became a major push in order to develop his first compositions.

After several years of composing music and performing theatre, he joined the division for Art, Media and Technology at the School of Arts in Utrecht. 

Around the time his first demo album was produced, Patrick was asked to contribute some music for a CD series.

'Passing Winterghosts' embodied this first struggle to create an album in own production, what turned out to be a very learnable experience. The 6-track album contains a small selection of compositions from his archive in their original state.

During his formal education Patrick composed music and sound design for various media, such as animations for Dutch television and a leader for an international congress on creativity.

This period of merely 'composing on request' caused a temporary halt in the production of his personal music. 

Internet turned out a major push to dig up this music again, with great support from Spanish spiritual and musical friend Ran Kirlian. 
'Cave of Forgotten Fires' is the result of an online composition session in a Dutch and a Spanish studio.

Patrick graduated in the summer of 2001 from the School of Arts in Utrecht. The after-school period turns out to be a time of spiritual growth, giving lots of inspiring moments and musical insights, creativity and ideas for experimentation.

His current experiments with for instance textural - or prepared guitar, audio processing or overtone singing lead to new pieces and material. A new step in comparison to his former work. In developing his own style, Patrick tries to melt synthetic material with acoustic sounds. Noise that can be produced by any object that can move the air... and therefore has a sound.

While synths, samples, guitars and vocals are the common brushes, strange scraped-together-stuff as stones, pinecones, bottles, metal pieces, a leather belt, a water boiler or even assorted flowerpots are no strangers in his set-up of instruments. Those instruments give the pieces a new 'bite'.

This 'scrapology' needs further exploration, since the results can be limitless.The melting result is often an ambient or textural piece with the approach of minimal music. All pieces have one thing in common; they are shaped through intuition and improvisation. 

Influences: 
Jazz/Guitar - Andy Summers, Terje Rypdal, Jeff Pearce, ECM label
World - Stephan Micus, Tibetan Monks, East Indian music
Ambient - Steve Roach, Patrick O'Hearn, Vidna Obmana, Michael Stearns
 

Recently composer Patrick van de Ven 
finished his second ambientalbum Involution. 
It's a journey as interesting for the listener 
as it was in the making of it. 
Patrick explains why.

 How did the album get started? 
After graduating from the School of Arts I really felt this urge to get back to the source of my passion again. The drive to make music that I could reflect my feelings and ideas onto. Also to find out how my music had unconsciously developed underneath the surface of 4 years musical theory and assignments that varied from big band to reggae and Jerry Goldsmith. So the album is actually born out of a series of explorations in composition, production and performing with new instruments and sounds.

 Do you consider yourself a composer, producer or performer? 
All of them, though not all at once. During the making of the album I'd normally start performing some material to compose with. While composing I like to be able to make sidesteps to performing again or making a few production choices. In the final stages I try to separate from the composer/performer I was when starting the piece.

 In the song credits you mention relatively long periods of 
 working on a piece. Can you explain that a little further? 
A good album should be like a wine cellar. You could compare my view of composing ambient with the ripening of wine or sculpting a statue. I wanted time to become an essential part in the process, so on most occasions I worked on two or three songs simultaneously. This allowed me to keep a fresh view on the piece and kept the ability to let the piece go into a totally different creative direction as the project developed. On the other hand I discovered that a first take is often the best material in terms of emotional contained play. I played a small piece on bass guitar one night and finished the piece the very next day, which became Wires in Air.

 Ran Kirlian seems to be an important figure in the booklet. 
 How did he contribute to your album? 
I met Ran on the internet a few years back. His unbridled passion to sculpt sounds and ambient pieces helped me a lot in regaining my own music. Our first achievement in collaborating became Cave of Forgotten Fires. We use to send each other material from pieces we're working on. With that interaction it's unavoidable that material would merge, and luckily it did. Ran's contribution is like having a different colour pallete bringing in a new depth in the musical painting. Furthermore he designed the booklet for me.

 Are you fond of strange objects? 
(Laughs...) Well, as a listener that surrounds himself with ambient music, every sound in your daily life may become something more than just a thing that you take for granted in your environmental perception. So, yes I like to put strange objects in front of the microphone to make them part of the material. I think they act like strange spices that you hardly know while they do improve the recipe.

 What music do you listen to yourself? 
It all depends on the mood off course, but generally it would be atmospheric jazz, world and ambient music. My jazz taste is very specific. I'm not into the American jazz that much, except for Andy Summers, but more into the north-european jazzlable ECM, with names as Terje Rypdal, Ketil Bjornstad, John Surman and David Darling. I listen to world or ethnic music occasionally, to music of Stephan Micus or Jorge Reyes. Some oriental and Tibetan as well. During ambient moods I float into realms of Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana, Robert Rich, Brian Eno, Patrick O'Hearn and many more.

 I sense a spiritual flair in the album. Was that your purpose? 
Yes. For me this project was symbolic on many levels. Also every song has a hidden idea. We know Ouroboros as the snake eating it's own tail. A symbol of the cyclic nature of our universe, of renewal. Involution is the spiritual side of evolution. We evolved to Homo sapiens, and from here we may involve to a new form you might call Homo spiritualis. We still evolve, inwards.

 Do you have a website? 
I don't have an own website yet. Although there are some plans with Ran (Kirlian) to build one. However there is this Brazilian site (http://www.ocaixote.com.br) that holds an article on me in the music section. People can always contact me at pvdven@freemail.nl 

 Can we see a new album in the future? 
Currently I've started working on material for a third album. I feel I'm still floating in between the ideas and concepts that naturally formed out of the Involution album. Thus far I'm enjoying the shaping of the new pieces. With Ran I hope to do some new collaborations, in the near future which may end up on a shared album or on my new album.

 Thank you for this interview Patrick. 
You're welcome.

INVOLUTION

01 - The Hangman's Trail – 5,8 MB

02 - Tlalocan – 6,8 MB
03 - A New Light – 5,7 MB
04 - Ascend of Unseen Beauty – 6,8 MB
05 - Wires in Air – 2,8 MB
06 - Ouroboros – 16,5 MB

07 - Passage of Initiation – 6,9 MB

08 - Involution – 9,7 MB

09 - Indigo Dawn* – 5,2 MB

*Composed, arranged, performed and produced by 
Patrick van de Ven from March - 11 Aug 2001 as a 
tribute to the magnificent structural music of 
namefellow Patrick O'Hearn.
Instruments used:
Synthesizers
Synthetic Percussion
Textural Electric Guitar