Man Creates, Nature Intervenes is a collaborative project between myself and The Hague coastline. During a 2017 residency with SATELLIETGROEP, I focused on the Zandmotor, a man-made peninsula created to protect the coastline from erosion and support marine life. I developed an ambient album embodying the environment through field recordings, instruments made from found objects, and tape cassette recordings manipulated by water and sand.
Living in The Hague for a month and visiting the beach regularly allowed me to experience it fully, from beautiful clear days to foggy, dull days with visibility of only a few feet. One memorable day was my last visit to the Zandmotor. I woke up hungover just a few hours after going to bed. It was still dark outside, but I set off for the Zandmotor. As I arrived, the sun broke the sky, creating a gradient from light orange to pinks and dark blue. The area was deathly silent, disturbed only occasionally by passing planes. The barely audible recordings I captured that morning were stacked together to create the spacious track RETROSPECT.
The final album is a collection of memories, capturing my feelings and impressions from various visits to the space. By working with the space and not striving for pristine recordings or perfectly crafted instruments from found items, I aimed to create a genuine impression of the environment, capturing its heart and authenticity.