Post by Steve on Jan 1, 2012 1:33:45 GMT 1
Although Bertolf is currently working on his third album, on 7 December 2011 he released his first single from the album, the beautiful a capella "English Roses".
Though his songs are usually pop/rock/folk, Bertolf wanted to record a track to pay respect to his late grandfather who sang in a men's chorus (D.E.V. Kampen for many decades. As a boy, Bertolf would go - such as during Christmas - to listen to his grandfather's chorus, and he enjoyed the sound of the voices echoing inside the church.
Using Twitter to ask around for a church he could use as well as someone to direct a choir made up of his father, good friends and colleagues, he recorded his English Roses" on 3 December, 2011 inside a church in Warfhuizen.
I wanna lie on a bed of English Roses
Tied to nothing else
I wanna dream of pretty things
Sleep and take wing
To stop this great Endeavour
A very rough, probably faulty translation into English of Bertolf's blog about "English Roses":
This song is a tribute to my Granddad Lentink. From him comes the musical gene in my family. For 60 years, he sang in the choir D.E.V from Kampen. As a boy, I often went along to Christmas performances. I found the male voices were made so much more beautiful by the reverberation of a large church. That's why I have long wanted a piece of choral writing. I composed the basis of this song in 2005, but for this album, I got the idea to arrange it for choir. The text concerns fatigue. My grandpa eventually came to suffer from dementia. It is in this way that you can read the text: as a death wish. But it also concerns myself. Sometimes I am entirely done with my own ambition - that I must expect everything of myself and always still even more. From time to time, I just want nothing. Rest in my head.
"English Roses" will likely be the final track on the upcoming album.
Though his songs are usually pop/rock/folk, Bertolf wanted to record a track to pay respect to his late grandfather who sang in a men's chorus (D.E.V. Kampen for many decades. As a boy, Bertolf would go - such as during Christmas - to listen to his grandfather's chorus, and he enjoyed the sound of the voices echoing inside the church.
Using Twitter to ask around for a church he could use as well as someone to direct a choir made up of his father, good friends and colleagues, he recorded his English Roses" on 3 December, 2011 inside a church in Warfhuizen.
I wanna lie on a bed of English Roses
Tied to nothing else
I wanna dream of pretty things
Sleep and take wing
To stop this great Endeavour
A very rough, probably faulty translation into English of Bertolf's blog about "English Roses":
This song is a tribute to my Granddad Lentink. From him comes the musical gene in my family. For 60 years, he sang in the choir D.E.V from Kampen. As a boy, I often went along to Christmas performances. I found the male voices were made so much more beautiful by the reverberation of a large church. That's why I have long wanted a piece of choral writing. I composed the basis of this song in 2005, but for this album, I got the idea to arrange it for choir. The text concerns fatigue. My grandpa eventually came to suffer from dementia. It is in this way that you can read the text: as a death wish. But it also concerns myself. Sometimes I am entirely done with my own ambition - that I must expect everything of myself and always still even more. From time to time, I just want nothing. Rest in my head.
"English Roses" will likely be the final track on the upcoming album.
