Recorded on a sailboat, ‘Current’ is a extraordinary piece of showmanship from Dutch artist Vivienne Aerts, transforming musings about the journey through life into an inspired album.
Not many albums have the power to stop you in your tracks because of how unique they feel and how precisely they capture a particular moment in time. Yet Dutch artist Vivienne Aerts has achieved this with her latest release.
Recorded on a sailboat-turned-recording-studio, ‘Current’ is a personal and collaborative endeavour. In an extraordinary, creative piece of showmanship, Aerts has transformed musings about our journey through life into an inspired album.
Together with her husband Ted Steinebach and a team of collaborators including Susanne Alt, Hermine Deurloo and Adinda Meertins, she transformed their sailboat journey through the Dutch waterways into a series of floating studio sessions and produced a series of heartfelt, meaningful songs.
I spent time listening to each of the tracks in turn, but I’d recommend a listen to the record in its entirety to get a sense of the journey that the artist makes and to experience the recurring themes throughout.
Track 1: Nothing Needs the World
The album’s opener, ‘Nothing Needs the World’, is a wonderful exploration of the album’s themes: the flow of creativity, and the ethereal nature and transience of life.
Musician Hermine Deurloo adds a wonderful, warm quality to these tracks. I found this to be a compelling, heartfelt opening track with warm melodies and an inclination towards the album’s main themes.
Track 2: Touching The Light
This track feels ethereal. It begins with a soundscape and builds on the album’s central themes: connecting with people and achieving enlightenment. The opening lyrics — “small spaces, bright faces, sweet places, touching the light” — show the musician’s observational skills.
While not following a traditional rhythm or conventional structure, the song is more of an exploration of the artist’s ideas. There’s a recurring motif of a descending scale which changes register, like water falling. I enjoyed the way this track felt like it connected the artist’s vision with the physical elements of the water in which the songs were composed.
Track 3: Watch Its Show
‘Watch Its Show’ begins with a pleasant, melancholy melody on saxophone from the talented Susanne Alt. There is an undercurrent (pun unintended) of a gentle bass line keeping the rhythm moving. This is a story about nature: Aerts extends the metaphor of a flower, describing the sensation in sensory detail.
Overlapping lyrics by different vocalists, overlaid in post-production, give the sense of polyphonic rhythms, and the saxophone soars into a higher register melody to play alongside the vocals and take prominence towards the second half of the piece.
While the two saxophone melodies play in and out, the lyrics — “the way you look at me, like a bird looks at the sky” — include questions and speculative responses from the artist. We get the impression this has come from deeply personal reflections.
Track 4: Gathered Here
In the fourth track, we hear a melodic synth with minor melodies, but it feels hopeful with an ascent up the scale. The lyrics are melancholy — “standing up for what’s right and wrong” – yet offer a sense of purpose. This track is really short and feels cut off quickly, like a fragment of a voice note added before the artist forgets an important thought.
The beauty of this track is that it shows how important it is to capture transient thoughts and moments to reveal the artist’s vision for the album.
Track 5: Current (Improv 1)
‘Current’ is a meditative soundscape, making full use of improvised vocalisation. Although it maintains quite a pedestrian pace in the beginning, it picks up with new synth textures towards the end of the piece. A dappled electronic pad mimics the journey of the water through which the passengers travel, overlaid by higher-register tones. Eerie whistling rounds off the track, using reverb to enhance the depth of the melody.
I always enjoy improv tracks because they feel so prosaic and not contrived. There’s a reason the album is named for this track, ‘Current’ — I felt it was at the heart of what Aerts wanted to achieve. By presenting musical motifs and letting the team’s creativity flow, it captures a moment in time when the artists had free rein to create whatever they felt compelled to at the time and will always capture the essence of the unique freedom they’ve experienced on the sailboat.
Track 6: When I’m Gone
This is more of a traditional jazz number, which feels at once melancholy — “I see you smiling into the sea, then you looking straight back at me”. It could be heard as a lament, a breakup, but it’s bittersweet. The harmonica here feels reminiscent of a higher register: the overall impression is that the song offers a commentary that the water will still remain once the artist has sung her song and moved on.
At 5:39, ‘When I’m Gone’ is one of the longer tracks on the record. While a longer saxophone solo is underscored by intermittent percussion and piano, the full depth of the artist’s quiet feeling manifests itself through crescendoing melodies.
I especially enjoyed ‘When I’m Gone’ as it develops some of the themes from ‘Current’ in a more structured way and shows the virtuosic talent of individual artists through their own melodies, giving them each the opportunity to shine through their own instrumentation.
Track 7: Where Is the Sun
In ‘Where Is the Sun’, we hear the yearning lyrics, “I miss the light, that was shining so bright”. Melodies feel melancholy à la Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’: there’s a chorus that repeats like a chant, and I’d say there’s more lyricism than in other tracks on this record.
What begins as a lament for the changing weather and seasons then becomes a reflection on what the sun means and what it represents to the artist — and, by default, the listener — so that it plays out like a dialogue, encouraging us to reflect on our own experiences of summer and sunlight.
I enjoyed listening to this, though the synth is at times a little contrived, especially compared to the recurring piano chords in a lower register. Yet ultimately the elements work together to present both a structured and futuristic sound.
Track 8: Closer
Again we have a shorter track with ‘Closer’. It’s ambiguous what ‘closer’ refers to but it’s open to the listener’s interpretation. A staccato synth playing underneath the lyrics maintains a steady beat and sense of movement.
Track 9: Water Lock (Improv 2)
In ‘Water Lock’, the sounds of echoing vocals feels like water running. A gentle, simple synth of a single note (or drone, as in Indian classical music) on which the additional layers build. There are some added SFX, including wildlife and bird songs, adding to the feeling of being part of nature, which can feel like an immersive experience. And again there are no lyrics, just improv, which makes the nature of the piece feel transient and natural.
Track 10: Reminiscing
In the penultimate track, there are only a few simple lyrics, but the steady percussive beat, ethereal melodies and jagged synth punctuations convey the tone. We encounter some easy rhymes (“dismissing”/”reminiscing”) yet it doesn’t make the track seem oversimplified. The track fades out with layered vocals, which is a wonderful way to bring to life the titular theme of ‘reminiscing’ while immersing us in the layered elements of the track.
Track 11: Outside Inside Out
The final track is easier listening, with more harmonic and less discordant chord progressions. We encounter a harmonic double bass rhythm, and I appreciate the way it guides the listener through the story and towards the end of the journey of the record.
The effect is undercut slightly with the repetition of overt wildlife noises throughout but it’s clear to see the intended effect, immersing the listener and the musicians in nature.
The saxophone takes centre stage towards the end of the track with a winding, explorative movement that you can tell the musician is enjoying. It elevates the piece and brings the listener to an enjoyable experience.
Final thoughts
Overall, I thought ‘Current’ is a fantastic concept album: well executed, and particularly impressive that it’s been formulated, produced and shared from a sailboat. The recurring themes are a testament to the strength of Aerts’ vision and I felt the essence of the creative team’s feelings and expression throughout. I look forward to seeing how Aerts continues to build on her success with ‘Current’.
You can listen to ‘Current’ on Bandcamp and YouTube, watch the full album trailer and find Vivienne on Substack.