CONTACT

Sonja van Hamel
Music & Graphic Design
Brouwersgracht 238F
1013 HE AMSTERDAM
Mail: son@sonjavanhamel.nl
T: +31 (0)20 6823211
Follow me on facebook
Like me on facebook

BOOKINGS

For bookings and info email here

BIOGRAPHY

Sonja van Hamel is a singer, songwriter, illustrator, designer
-- an artist with many avenues of expression, all of which reflect her playful, adventurous spirit and contemporary design aesthetics.
Sonja graduated in 1999 from the Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy (Amsterdam). In the same year she formed the group Bauer together with Berend Dubbe (ex-Bettie Serveert). Her new album “Transcendental Man” produced by Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, R.E.M., Big Star) and JB Meijers (De Dijk, Solomon Burke) will be released on October 17th 2011 on Basta Music.

Sonja’s current musical presentation is a concept she calls “Draw Clips” -- the songs are illustrated by her own drawings that move and travel in time with the music, thanks to ingenious mechanical inventions by renowned photographer Eddo Hartmann. The result is a real time, live video accompanying Sonja’s live performance.

EYE FILM CAFE - 10 May

May 10th we are playing at live magazine EYE filmcafé with West Side Trio & Tini Thomsen. We will be playing some of Sonja’s tunes but also an extraordinairy cover of the soundtrack: The Rainbow Connection (The Muppet Movie). See the original below, but be prepared for a experimental version!

The show will be recorded between 16:30-17:30 Free entrance so please stop by!
Broadcast is between 22:00-23:00 on VPRO De Avonden Radio 6

EYE Filmcafé - VPRO De Avonden Radio 6
Host: Lotje Ijzermans
Location: EYE filmuseum
IJpromenade 1, Amsterdam

Sometimes - to be screened at Incredible Short Film Festival, Sydney!

Sometimes

“Draw Clip” of several zoetrope and phinakistoscope loops, drawn by Sonja. The animation machines were build and filmed by Eddo Hartmann.

The roman Empire

Below you see a video of Sonja van Hamel and band performing The Roman Empire “Draw Clip” at Bitterzoet in Amsterdam, 17 oct 2011. The Pop-up book was flipped over and projected live by Eddo Hartmann. Also watch the original Draw Clip

Transcendental Man - Slow Motion Flipbook

Transcendental Man - Slow Motion Flipbook from Sonja van Hamel on Vimeo.

The Freezing Time machine

“Freezing Time” (rough mix) is an outtake from the album “Transcendental Man” (2011). The video shows The Freezing Time Machine: a construction made of Meccano by Eddo Hartmann, that reproduces a drawn landscape (drawn by Sonja) seen through a train window.

The Freezing Time Machine from Sonja van Hamel on Vimeo.

Muizenhuis Best Verzorgd 2012

Deel 2 van “Het Muizenhuis, Sam en Julia in het theater” van Karina Schaapman is verkozen tot 1 van de Best Verzorgde Boeken 2012! Grafisch ontwerp deed ik samen met Yolanda huntelaar van Werkplaats Amsterdam. De prachtige fotografie is van Eddo Hartmann

Website design

As much as I love print, I DO design websites too!
So, I designed my own but also the site of my all time cellist, arranger & friend
Annie Tangberg. Take a look at her newly launched website HERE
If you want me to design for you too, don't hesitate to contact me: son@sonjavanhamel.nl

Die Abentuer des Prinzen Achmed - live score

On Sun 11 November we played newly composed LIVE soundtrack to the incredible animationfilm Die Abentuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger, in EYE filmmuseum, Amsterdam. Music written and played by Sonja van Hamel (wurlitzer piano, guitaret), Tessa Douwstra (guitar, bass, harp, percussion) and Tini Thomsen (bassclarinet, flute, cajon). Here's a registartion of our performance in 2 parts:

Die Abentuer des Prinzen Achmed - part 2

What are Draw Clips?

Watch the video below of The Roman Empire: a handmade book with drawings is flipped over and projected LIVE on stage during my shows. To see how it's performed live also watch The Roman Empire - Behind the scenes on Stage mentioned as of the most inventive videoclips of 2011 by MusicFrom.nl !!!
More about Draw Clips on the VIDEO & DRAWINGS page!

The past year I did artwork & graphic design...

...for quite some musicians and bands:

Ken Stringfellow - Danzig in the Moonlight
Theo Nijland - 't Begin van het einde (photo: Eddo Hartmann)
Martin Fondse - Testimoni  with Eric Vloeimans & Matangi Quartet
(photo: Eddo Hartmann)
Eva Auad
Dusty Stray (collage: Jonathan Brown)
The Universal Thump
Lewis Phillips (release 1 nov 2012)
Tini Thomson

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.

Here's me working on a painting of a freeway for a new song called "395" (my favourite interstate in California.
Soon more about these shows!