Jaap Blonk is a Dutch sound poet, vocalist, and composer whose work merges improvisation, performance art, and the extended possibilities of the human voice. Known for his powerful interpretations of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate and his exploration of phonetics and algorithmic composition, Blonk's practice bridges mathematics, language, and sound, revealing a restless creativity that transcends genre and medium.

How would you describe music?

I cannot do this better than Edgard Varθse did about 100 years ago: Music is organized sound.

What is your relationship to music?

I grew up in a very strict Calvinist (Reformed Church) family. There was almost nothing but church music in the house, of a very boring kind — Bach, for instance, was considered way too frivolous. At some point in my teens I got myself a small transistor radio and listened to pop music broadcast by radio stations on ships in the North Sea — stealthily in my bedroom, because my parents didn't approve of course. When I went to university in Utrecht, at 19, I started buying records — rock and pop of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The local library had a great record collection; every week I brought home a stack of LPs. Hearing all that music for the first time was an incredibly intense experience. Then I went on to jazz — swing, bebop, and finally the free jazz of the 1960s. Over the decades I never stopped buying records — African and Latin music, Indian classical, electronic, and contemporary composed music. First thing every morning when I'm at home: listening to good music before looking at email or the news.

What draws you to the instrument(s) you play, and/or to composing?

In Utrecht I began saxophone lessons at a local music school — not a conservatoire, just a place where anyone could start learning an instrument. I loved the saxophone and practiced many hours, but never got as good as I hoped. Influenced by free jazz and European free improvisation, I tried to make weird sounds, but it never came out right. I quit saxophone in 1995. In the late 1970s I discovered sound poetry and began performing Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate. One day, while listening to Archie Shepp's "Two For A Quarter, One For A Dime," a vocal improvisation suddenly erupted from my mouth — and kept going after the record ended. Making sounds with the voice felt direct and natural; I had found my instrument. I've composed since the 1970s — jazz themes, chamber works, and pieces for ensembles. In 2006 I took a sabbatical to study mathematics again and discovered computer programming, opening new worlds for composition, sound design, and algorithmic text generation.

What musician(s) most influenced your approach to music, and why?

There were many — and changing through the times. For jazz composition: Ornette Coleman and the Tristano school. For other works: Messiaen, Schoenberg, Webern, and later John Cage. For vocal improvisation, I listened to singing styles from many cultures. I learned most from improvising with instrumentalists — Michael Zerang, Mats Gustafsson, Carl Ludwig Hόbsch, and Birgit Ulher among others — and from the sound poetry tradition (Hugo Ball, Schwitters, Artaud). My study of phonetics — taking ordinary speech sounds to their limits — has been a lasting influence.

Who or what influences you most outside of music, and why?

Reading good literature — fiction and poetry — always feeds my imagination. Being in nature, hiking or biking, often gives me new ideas without my knowing why.

What deceased performer(s), improviser(s), or composer(s) would you most like to have a conversation with, and why?

The work itself tells me more than a conversation could, but I'd have been intrigued to speak with Warne Marsh, Francisco Guerrero, Demetrio Stratos, or Misha Mengelberg in the early 1980s.

What advice would you give to a young musician entering your field?

Advice To The Young Creative Artist

All kinds of material can be useful.
You decide what is ugly or beautiful.
Feel confident about letting totally unrelated things happen at the same time.
Follow your first impulse with a healthy mistrust.
Listen to yourself only and don't do public try-outs.
Humor is indispensable.
No humor for humor's sake.
No provocation for provocation's sake.
If you're honest, you'll provoke the right people at the right moment.
Institutions are not there to be served, but to be used.
Take lots of risk! Only then you have a chance to hit the bull's eye.

(From my CD Irrelevant Comments — English translation printed on the label.)

What do you hope audiences take away from experiencing your music?

A strong feeling — either positive or negative. Never indifference!

Where are you currently located or musically associated with?

I live in Arnhem, in the east of the Netherlands. There's little happening locally, so I'm loosely connected with the Amsterdam improv scene. I perform mostly solo, and in duos with Birgit Ulher, Terrie Ex, and Jasper Stadhouders.

What is your musical education or background?

No formal education — some saxophone and singing lessons, two years of musicology at Amsterdam University. As a composer and sound poet I'm completely self-taught.

What are some of your favorite recordings by other musicians or groups?

Ballads - Derek Bailey
School Days - Steve Lacy & Roswell Rudd
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady - Charles Mingus
Feed Me Weird Things - Squarepusher
In My Own Time - Karen Dalton
The Bach Partitas played by Glenn Gould
The Passacaglia of Anton Webern
Zayin - Francisco Guerrero
Kφrper - Enno Poppe (his recent work is very impressive)

What are some of your favorite recordings that you have made?

Consensus - Splinks (1999)
August Ananke (2014)
Joyous Junctures (2019)
New Start - Retirement Overdue (2020)

Is there any comment not covered here that you would like to share?

In the past decade I've taken to drawing, which now feels close to vocal improvisation — the difference being that the materials are outside my body. Though I still perform voice-only, improvising on the laptop has become vital; after 25 years of practice I've reached a directness and flexibility that feel as intuitive as the voice itself.

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