Tromsø World 2023: YĪN YĪN (NL)

YĪN YĪN (NL)

Fredag, 03. November 2023

Blårock Cafe

Doors: 20:00

Show: 21:00

Tickets: 

Uncut ‘The Age Of Aquarius has a patchwork aesthetic, pulling together loose strands of music from across the globe and placing them in service of the dancefloor’ 

YĪN YĪN’s new long player, The Age Of Aquarius, is a simple, direct appeal to dance. It is also a record blessed with a considerable hinterland; with cosmic time, long studio hours and a determination to transcend the daily ennui of living in the Dutch city of Maastricht all playing their part.
The beautiful, old and somewhat staid city of Maastricht, where the band is based, isn’t really conducive to setting up a bustling music scene: and it’s a place where the outsiders quickly recognise each other. YĪN YĪN are all “nightlife people”, which meant their friendship initially came about through co-organising and deejaying DIY parties. Before the band formed, none had carved out a conventional career, or done the “very Dutch thing” of completing their studies. 

Things started to move for real when founders Yves Lennertz and Kees Berkers decided to make a cassette tape that drew on references to Southern and South East Asian music. Once the idea was formed they wasted no time in taking “a lot” of instruments to a rented rehearsal room in a small village near Maastricht. There the pair set up a couple of mics and recorded a number of songs in three days flat. 

We asked our musical friends to help us out, and from that night on we became a full band: with Remy Scheren on bass, Robbert Verwijlen on keys and occasionally Jerome Cardynaals on percussion. 

Early 2022 YĪN YĪN had a major change in the line up when co-founder Lennertz left the band and got replaced by guitarplayer Erik Bandt. With new energy the band conquered stages across the continent.