FLIN VAN HEMMEN - Luxury of Mind

From Flin van Hemmen

In order to thaw matters of the heart, one must go to where it's cold.

It was the summer of 2022 and I was finally summoned there.
My personal winter had come, a place at once foreign and familiar.
In a flash I was made aware of all my life's dimensions - the ones less welcome, or simply too big to face.
My sense of musicianship was temporarily halted, at that point unsure of its return.

Early 2024 I knew my personal winter was waning, and so I started tinkering away again, musically.
The pitter patter of the rain, the orchestra rehearsing their parts simultaneously, the sounds inside the corner store where I buy my daily coffee.
And how do they sound, together?
What indeterminacies reveal itself, or do I pick up on?

That's my journey and a journey I wish to share with you in Luxury of Mind.

Biography

Whatever the circumstances may be, there are ways in which we can develop our creativity. Thus, Flin van Hemmen (born in Nijmegen, the Netherlands), embarked on this musical journey, switching from guitar to drums, from drums to piano, from piano to his home studio, realizing all are ways or tools in which we chisel away, looking for that bit of magic that we know is always around the corner. Flin thrived early in his career as a jazz drummer, touring and recording throughout Europe, playing with Michael Brecker and lesser-known gods. He moved to New York in 2008, where he’s been an active presence at the fringes of jazz and improv while experimenting with various percussive set-ups. In his trio, Casting Spells, he plays piano as well as the drums along with Todd Neufeld on acoustic guitar and Eivind Opsvik on the bass. Since 2015 he has delved into processing recorded material in the digital realm. And so he found himself creating with abandon, from home no less, a whole set of new 'tools' at his disposal, resulting in the most recent release You Can Know Where the Bombs Fell, for the illustrious Neither/Nor label. Recently this direction has also resulted in a new collaboration with Fender Rhodes wizard Jozef Dumoulin, by the name of Too Tall To Sing. 2020 inspired Flin to seek the outdoors (Central Park) as a setting in which music could be made with longstanding musical peer Sean Ali. 'Forest Music' played all four seasons and is about to repeat the feat. In all settings, Flin focuses on how harmony and melody can simultaneously create space for any variety of improvisation, field recordings and textures. Rather than one embellishing the other, they weave one tapestry. And so he finds that all the 'forms and tussles' inform one another, inspire directly or indirectly.