Liana Flu Winks

Liana Flu Winks is a Rotterdam-based Scottish/Swiss/Dutch trio that started performing in 2001 Differing musical backgrounds & influences combine to create an eclectic confluence of sonic situations.
Bassist/’cellist/organist Nina Hitz also plays in the modern ensembles ‘The Barton Workshop’ (based in the Netherlands) & ‘Daswirdas’ (Switzerland), whose repertoire includes works by John Cage & Morton Feldman. In her spare time she has been known to cavort in the world of the baroque chick.
Drummer/multi instrumentalist Wilf Plum hit most of his beats in the ‘Dog Faced Hermans’ & since their demise he has played with ‘De Kift’, ‘Rhythm Activism’, Hendrik-Jan de Stuntman & ‘Donkey’. He is currently busy with the ‘Ex Orchestra’ & ‘Runt’ as well as LFW. Lukas Simonis, sometime guitarist, is a valued force (he thinks) in the electronic masquerade ‘Coolhaven’. Previously he twanged his strings with Trespassers W & Dull Schicksal. The sum total of the groaning weight of all this history results in bewildering, easily digestible yet intrinsically heavyweight music.
Somewhere in the developed but abandoned area where Postrock tussles with Easy Listening. There we must search.

LFW toured in october 2002 with S.Spier and Coolhaven through middle Europe, in june 2003 they did a small promo tour for their ‘Liana Celluloid’project in the Netherlands. Since then they’ve been working on the forthcoming CD, ‘The Discombobulators’ . See; CD & Review.

Since 2005 Liana hasn’t been touring. The reason for this was more an ‘economical’ one then lack of inspiration. Some of their music is being used for films (for instance; the animation Throwaway for SweetWorld TV), and they are still doing studiowork, composing and recording new material. The idea is to do more stuff for film & theatre, so who knows where that will lead them. A new CD is in the make (we’re talking 2007/2008 now) but the band is definitely not in a hurry

CD;
Sunshine Furball (CDr on ZZZZZZ records/Z6 0993)

The Discombobulators (CD on ZZZZZZ records/Z6 0994)

 

Title: The Discombobulators (CD Z6 0994)
Group; Liana Flu Winks (NL/CH/UK)
Label: ZZZZZZ Records
Genre: Aliens forced us to play the wrong music

The origins of this CD lie in the ‘Liana Celluloid’ project, a collaboration between Liana Flu Winks and various film makers (Joost van Veen and Martha Colburn among others) in which, for once, the music came before the film, rather than the other way round.

The result of this was that even during composition the cinematic atmosphere was created musically, and the music needed the accompanying films less and less; hence its presentation now as the ‘usual’ collection of numbers that make up an album, rather than (for example) a DVD production.

Each number is like a short film, with its own atmosphere, plot development and dénouement.
The music is multifarious, with a light touch of lo-fi (which nowadays refers less to recording on an old cassette machine with a broken Phillips microphone and more to a method of mixing and mastering that doesn’t use much compression or radically alter the sound of what was originally played).
Genres; Blaxploitation, Cult & Horror, Expensive Abstract Art, Cheap Soapy
Trash, Rockumentary, Baroque Dub, Fake Documentaries. Etc…

Nina Hitz – ‘cello, bass, organ, voice, etc.
Wilf Plum – drums, bass, guitar, voice, etc.
Lukas Simonis – guitars, ukulele, voice, etc.

 

Alain W. Skinful presents…
LIANA CELLULOID

This Is a project , invented by the dutch/swiss/scottish band ‘Liana Flu Winks’. The idea is very simple indeed ; try to make a program in which 16 mm (celluloid) film fits together with live music. BUT ! the way to work is ‘the other way round’; the group first records the music, then asks the filmmaker to make the film, and at the end, playes live to the film. The idea is to make short pieces that are inspired by 60’s and 70’s exploitation film-music (of the likes of Lalo Schifrin, Henry Mancini, Quincy Jones,Les Baxter, John Barry, Michel Legrand, Ennio Morricone, etc.).
The filmmakers use 16 mm celluloid, partly because we don’t want it to become a video-clip kind of thing (the material is less suitable for easy effecting, fast cuts, etc.), partly because the material has a lot of atmosphere and has a very special touch to it.
Filmmakers will be ; Martha Coburn (USA/NL), Joost Van Veen (Rotterdam) and Jeanette Munoz Candia (Chile, Switserland).

 

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Hausbesetzer-Avantgarde (vooraankondiging optreden in Bremen)
“Liana Flu Winks” und “Coolhaven” aus Rotterdam: Am Samstag ist die MIB voller NL-Moderne
Wahrscheinlich ist es kein Zufall, dass ausgerechnet aus der niederländischen Hausbesetzerszene wesentliche Impulse für Improvisation und Avantgarde kamen.
Das Experiment im Sozialen bedingte das Experiment in der Kunst. Organisation und Form der Musik wie des Musizierens wurden von Musikern wie “The Ex” immer als weiter zu Entwickelndes verstanden. Das Kollektiv einerseits, radikale Nebenprojekte einzelner Musiker andererseits, sowie Kollaborationen jeglicher Couleur stehen auf dem Programm.
Hier lebt der Gedanke von Punkrock als stetige Herausforderung an sich selbst weiter. Zwei Projekte aus Rotterdam, die dieser Szene zuzurechnen sind, führen am Samstag in der MIB unter dem Titel “Eerlijk is heerlijk” verschiedene AnsŠtze aus diesem Arbeitsfeld vor.
“Liana Flu Winks” ist ein schottisch/schweizerisch/niederländisches Trio, das auf Cello, Orgel, akustischer Gitarre und Schlagzeug eine Art avantgardistischer Folkmusik spielt. Nina Hitz, Wilf Plum und Lukas Simonis spielen und spielten in so unterschiedlichen wie seelenverwandten Formationen wie The Barton Workshop, Daswirdas, Dog Faced Hermans, De Kift, Rhythm Activism und dem Ex Orchestra. Lukas Simonis bringt ausserdem sein Projekt “Coolhaven” mit nach Bremen. Unbekümmert lässt er da KlŠnge aus dem Computer gegen Fürze anstinken, eine Ukulele ist im Spiel und Videos lassen das Auge mithören.
Beiden Bands ist ihr Humor gemein, eine irgendwie freundliche Art zu musizieren. Dabei ist ihre Musik alles andere als einfältig. Hier entspringt das Experiment der Lust daran, zu probieren – womit die akademische luxuriöse Frage nach dem Wohin und Warum eines musikalischen Fortschritts mal so eben und en passant erledigt wird.