SONJA VAN HAMEL
Graphic Design & Music
Brouwersgracht 238F
1013 HE AMSTERDAM
M: son@sonjavanhamel.nl
T: +31 (0)20-6823211
About Me
My name is Sonja van Hamel and I make music, graphic designs and drawings. I graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 1999 and have been working individually and in cooperation with others over the past years. On this website you can see and hear a selection of my work. Enjoy!
Draw-clips
In May 2010 we played a couple of shows for the Dutch Foundation of Literature in Madrid and Barcelona and in our all time favourite venue in Amsterdam: The Nieuwe Anita.
For these shows I made “draw-clips” (teken-clips) for some of my songs: drawings and paintings that represent the lyrics and follow the song in different sequences.
All was filmed live and projected on a screen behind the band.
It was based on an idea I developed with Dick Tuinder during our Winterland Live performance in The Melkweg in October 2009.
Take a look the clips (more info beneath):
395- A long painting (1 x 12 meter) of a freeway, the 395 in CA, USA, was taped across the floor of the club. A cameraman (Marijn J.T. Scholte) walks through the audience and follows the images along the freeway representing the lyrics of the song. All was filmed live and projected on the screen behind the band during the show.
PARALLEL LIVES - A simple drawing of a room with two windows forms the stage for multiple drawings on transparent sheets. They come and go and interact, like actors on a stage, but also make the the room turn into different dimensions. Draw-clip was filmed live (by Odilo Girod) and projected during the show .
BIZARRO CITY - A large cardboard book with images about life in the big city. Pages were turned over (by Odilo Girod) live during the show and projected behind the band.
WHY DO PEOPLE TALK? - Drawings in a sketchbook were filmed live (by Odilo Girod) and projected behind the band. The audience travels through the story of the song, in drawings of landscapes and words.
395 was performed by Sonja & band at The Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam. The rest was performed by Sonja (wurlitzer, vocals), Annie Tangberg (cello) and Hanna Vink (backing vocals, melodica) in Madrid.
The 395 interstate at the Nieuwe Anita
Sonja & band in BARCELONA
We spend last weekend in Barcelona, playing a show for the Dutch Foundation for Literature. In between lectures of writers like Robbert Haasnoot and Bernlef, we played songs accompanied by live-filmed drawings I made for these shows (also see Drawings).
My bandmembers: Annie Tangberg (cello), Marit de Loos (vocals, banjo, melodica and drums/percussion) and Eddo Hartmann (camera).
Click on pics to enlarge.
Sonja & band in MADRID
Photo taken by my dear bandmember Annie Tangberg
Sonja & band in METROPOOL, HENGELO
An impression of me and my band at the last night of our mini-tour (may 22). Annie Tangberg (cello, banjo), Hanna Vink (vocals, banjo, melodica), Mark van den Driest (drums and percussion) and Gert-Jan Blom (bass).. and me on keyboards (wurlitzer piano 200A) and vocals.
Click on pics to enlarge.
Sonja on Vibes!
Niels Meliefste played some amazing vibraphone during our show at the Nieuwe Anita last friday. Here's me trying, at the rehearsal...
Sonja van Hamel & band Tourdates in MAY 2010
15 may - Burgerweeshuis, Deventer (support for Tim Knol)
17 may - CCCB, Madrid (acoustic show for Dutch Foundation of Literature)
21 may - De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam (with Duo Percucello) See flyer above!
22 may - Metropool, Hengelo (support for Tim Knol)
28 may - Circulo de Bellas Artes, Barcelona (acoustic show for Dutch Foundation of Literature)
SHOWS IN SPAIN
I was invited by The Dutch Foundation of Literature to play on the opening night at the Literature Festival in Barcelona and Madrid.
We are playing in acoustic set up with Annie Tangberg on cello, Hanna Vink on vocals, banjo and melodica and myself on keys and vocals. Hanna will be replaced by Marit de Loos (Scram C Baby, ex-Caesar) in Barcelona.
For these shows I made a serie of drawings and paintings that accompany the songs in images and words. This will be filmed and projected live in different sequences by Odilo Girod (in Mardrid) and Eddo Hartmann (in Barcelona).
The concept for these shows was created by Dick Tuinder and myself in October 2009 when we did a couple of shows in the Melkweg (Amsterdam) called WINTERLAND LIVE.
Dick Tuinder made some amazing paintings and combined those with clips from his multi-layered movie WINTERLAND (where I wrote the soundtrack for).
Watch the live-shows and trailer on You Tube.
Soon more about these shows!
