"Machinefabriek is the alias of Rutger Zuydervelt. Rutger's music combines elements of ambient, noise, minimalism, drone, field recordings and electro-acoustic experiments. His pieces can be heard as an attempt to create sonic environments for the listener to dwell in. Finding tension in texture, tone and timing, the result can be very minimalistic at first glance, but reveals itself upon closer listening. The devil is in the details.

Rutger was born in 1978 in Apeldoorn (The Netherlands) and now resides in Rotterdam. He started recording as Machinefabriek in 2004. After a series of self released cd-rs, his official debut Marijn was issued in 2006, with great critical acclaim. Since than, a solid stream of music was released on labels such as Type, Important, Home Normal, 12K, Entr'acte, Dekorder, Miasmah, Consouling Sounds, Experimedia and Staalplaat. He performed all over the globe, from Canada to Israel and from Russia to Japan.

Rutger collaborated (on record and/or live) with numerous artists, such as Steinbrüchel, Jaap Blonk, Aaron Martin, Peter Broderick, Frans de Waard, Mats Gustafsson, Steve Roden, Gareth Davis, Stephen Vitiello, Michel Banabila, Dirk Serries and Dead Neanderthals, amongst many others.

He frequently works with film makers, like Makino Takashi, Mike Hoolboom, John Price, Paul Clipson and Chris Teerink, for whom he composed a soundtrack for his documentary about Sol LeWitt. Rutger also recorded the music for the Canadian drama The Cold and the Quiet from 2014. Furthermore, his music was used in Edward Burtynsky's Watermark, the drama Stone (with Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton) and Josh Fox' influential Gasland and Gasland Part II documentaries. Besides films, Rutger also composes music for dance pieces, like Alix Eynaudi and Kris Verdonck's EXIT (premiéred at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin), Alexander Whitley's The Measures Taken (for the Royal Opera in London) and Beheld (for Candoco Dance Company), and multiple pieces by Spanish/Dutch choreographer Iván Pérez. Then there's Rutgers installation work, in which the dialogue with the environment plays an important role. He did projects for Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NAi (Dutch Architecture Institute), the new Armando Museum MOA, Sounds Like Audio Art in Saskatoon (Canada), the Into the Great Wide Open Festival, Netwerk in Aalst (Belgium) and children's museum Villa Zebra in Rotterdam."

"Romke Kleefstra is a musician/sound artist/experimental guitarist and ornithologist from the Netherlands. Currently he is a member of Piiptsjilling, Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra, The Alvaret Ensemble and Tsjinlûd.

Romke Kleefstra was born on 28 July 1972 in Akkrum, Netherlands. He started as a song writing singer and guitarist in 1992 when he formed his first band Shatterhole. Kleefstra didn't study music; he's a self-taught guitarist, at early age influenced by bands like The Ex and Sonic Youth.

From 1992 up to 2007 Kleefstra was singer and songwriter in the indie bands Shatterhole (1992-1995), Seascape Painters (1995-2000) and Polaroyd (2003-2007). In 2008 Kleefstra formed Piiptsjilling with his brother Jan Kleefstra (poet), Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) and Mariska Baars (Soccer Committee). Since then he's been in numerous collaborations and projects with his brother, in which his music contains elements of ambient, post-rock, minimalism, drone, modern classical music up to free impro jazz. Recurrent collaborations differ in style and sound, from the filmic soundscapes of Piiptsjilling, to the pitch black ambient of Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra, to the free impro with influences of modern classical music of The Alvaret Ensemble. After releasing Piiptsjilling's first album in 2008 a solid stream of CD's, LP's, DVD's and cassettes followed on labels like Experimedia, Hybernate, Home Normal, Spekk, Low Point, Monotype, Denovali, Midira and Tombed Visions.

As a member of Piiptsjilling Kleefstra co-initiated the film and music project Seeljocht for the Into The Great Wide Open festival in 2011 (Vlieland, Netherlands), with Piiptsjilling, Peter and Heather Broderick, Nils Frahm and Greg Haines. It was succeeded by the half-Icelandic project Skeylja for the Oerol festival 2012 (with The Alvaret Ensemble and Kira Kira, Eríkur Ólafsson, Ingi Erlendsson and Borgar Magnason). In 2015 the Frisian collective Tsjinlûd toured the Netherlands with Japanese film artists of the +Project from Tokyo. In 2016 the Kleefstra's did the same with a similar project called LJERKE, including the Norwegian musicians Alexander Rishaug, Hilde Marie Holsen and Michael Duch.

All studio-albums and live performances are based on free impro / instant composing. Live performances with Piiptsjilling, Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra and The Alvaret Ensemble took Kleefstra to Japan, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Iceland and Britain.

Within the frequently returning collaborations and live Kleefstra collaborated with many artists, among whom Anne-Chris Bakker, Peter Broderick, Gareth Davis, Nils Frahm, Joana Guerra, Greg Haines, Will Long, Sytze Pruiksma, Alexander Rishaug, Danny Saul, Olga Wojciechowska and Rutger Zuydervelt. Visual artists that worked together in projects with Kleefstra are 33one3rd, Haraldur Karlsson, Kei Shichiri, Marco Douma, Rei Hayama, Sabine Bürger, Shinkan Tamaki and Takashi Makino.

Kleefstra is an autodidact ornithologist, since 1998 working as field assistant and project coordinator for Sovon (Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology). Kleefstra is also chief editor of the Dutch ornithological magazine Limosa. He publishes regularly articles and short notes with a wide variety of subjects, mainly in Dutch and sometimes in international journals for ornithology. The Wadden Sea, bird populations in wetlands, population dynamic, birds on roosts, species targeted research in herons, geese, birds of prey, waders, gulls, terns and owls have his special interest.

Romke Kleefstra resides in a small township in the Frisian countryside."

"Mariska Baars is best known for her solo career as Soccer Committee. Her latest solo album was released by Morc Records and showcases Mariska at her most intimate and minimal. It's folk music stripped down to the core, giving every sparse word and note an incredible importance. This is also evident on the new Piiptsjilling recordings, where on some tracks her wordless vocals become an instrument that is just as important as the guitars. At other moments, Mariska's guitar fuses flawlessly with Romke's patterns to deliver a steady counterpart for Rutger Zuydervelt's drones."

"Jan Kleefstra is a poet on music and part of the Kleefstra Bros. Check out our blogspot and further info on this page. From his biography:

"I am a poet on music. That's all.

Together with my brother Romke i've made a number of music releases and worked on film in various collaborations. Please check for all the releases, the films, loads of reviews, the liveshows we did so far and we are going to do and much more http://romkekleefstra.blogspot.nl/

On my own i work with the German artist Sabine Buerger on an installation for verses on screens. So far we showed Two verses on two screens. Two verses are shown on two screens beside eachother line by line in a slow and silent loop. Both verses can be read seperately, but also as one. Because of the different length of the verses, constantly changing combinations will occur. It has been exhibited so far:February - april 2014 Galerie Vayhinger, Radolfzell/Bodensee (D) part of group exhibitionApril - September 2014 Martin Luther Haus, Leer (D) part of group exhibition Waddenkunstkring. We are working on expanding it to more verses and more screens.

Beside that i published four collection of poems so far in the beautiful traditional way of books you can feel and smell and hold.

Stem van de stilte (Voice of silence), Boon publisher in Groningen, March 2004 (sold out)Collection of Dutch poems with painter Minne Onnes, in which the paintings and the poems are printed next to eachother on seperate pages (sold out)

Fragmenten, publisher Boon in Groningen, April 2006Collection of Dutch poems with some pictures of artist Johan van Aken (some left, available through me)

Fragminten, De Friese Pers Boekerij in LeeuwardenAugust 2008Collection of Frisian poems with some pictures of artist Johan van Aken (available through me)

Uit het lege midden/Sing vir my, De Friese Pers Boekerij in Leeuwarden, August 2011Collection of Dutch poems together with the South African poet Floris Brown with poems in South African language (available in stores and through me)."