The strangely-titled album 3 × hullo, hullo fits perfectly the eccentric, Dadaist spirit of the Belgian, Antwerp-based duo Jeugdbrand of illustrator-visual artist-radio-maker-musician Dennis Tyfus, who plays the piano, organ, tapes, and sings, and drummer Jeroen Stevens, who alternates on melodica and organ. The Jeugdbrand duo was augmented by fellow Belgian electronics player-visual artist Gerard Herman and Icelandic sound artist Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson.

3 × hullo, hullo is the fourth album of Jeugdbrand, and it was recorded at Studio Finster in Antwerp between May 2023 and May 2024. Its back cover features British painter Rose Wylie’s painting «Hullo, Hullo, Following-on after the News», whose other painting, «Yellow Head VI, Solider Boy» is on the front cover. The album is released as a limited edition of 12″ vinyl plus a download option.

3 × hullo, hullo is a collection of provocative, fragmented snapshots of a strange and abstract, stream-of-consciousness story, characterized by odd, alien phrases and subtle collisions of playful remarks and ideas that insist that «There’s No Word for Ambient in Dutch», as the third piece is titled. The emotional aspects of this sketchy, unpredictable story shift quickly and sound as if they are disconnected, allowing a burst of surprised laughter to turn instantly into a heavy cry.

Fellow Belgian conceptual composer Lieven Martens (formerly known as Dolphins Into The Future), contributed the liner notes to 3 × hullo, hullo, and interpreted the listening experience to a story that begins with the sight of a little blind mole in a neat Flemish garden, that in its turn, evokes the lust for sterile gardens that nudged the world into water waste and clouds of pesticides. «If there is still a tuft of green to be found in our oppressive villages, you can be sure that a stuffed truffle with a municipal portfolio will turn it into a drab development for impoverished architecture». Martens even compares Jeugdbrand’s music to a «pickled mist above the waves breaking on black volcanic rocks». An excellent image for Jeugdbrand aesthetics.

Eyal Hareuveni

Jeroen Stevens (percussion, melodica, organ), Dennis Tyfus (piano, organ, vocals, tapes), Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson (tapes), Gerard Herman (loops)