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Droëland is a place which exists, and yet seems to be a suspension of reality. Deep in the 'Kouebokkeveld' desert's mountains, inaccessable to cars, electricity, logic and stability, Droëland inhabitants walk the slow, fine line between khoisan shamanism and socio-economic despair. Their mythologies are inseperable from daily life: mermaids, shape-shifting snakes, 'tokoloshes' inhabit all corners of Droëland.
The songs of Droëland are dangerous, playful, mysterious and childlike. To me they are mantras for negotiating the landscape of the Karoo, a gateway between the past and the future.
Spending time in Droëland is like looking at the world through a magnifying glass. During our time there, both Paul Miller and myself were amazed at how the small, minute aspects of the environment become amplified to reveal their complex, normally hidden beauty.
The creation of this album was inevitable, an amplification of the inaudible, the songs of a voiceless people. /Alex van Heerden
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"bushtech is my response to the minimal tech house and 'clicks & cuts' genres that I was exposed to during my stay in Sweden. I felt so close to this music, but for very personal reasons which reflected my 'home': the 'Karoo' in the rural Cape province of South Africa.
Here the aesthetic is also one of minimalism: the vast desert landscapes; the fine, sparse 'fynbos' flora...also the general world view, one of timelessness and non-linearity.
The word 'click' also means so much more to someone living in Southern Africa: The Xhosa language which can be heard everywhere resounds with percussive clicks, even more so the dying Khoisan languages.
We have a traditional rural dance music in the Cape called 'vastrap', and I wanted my music to be a kind of new 'vastrap', funky, rural, organic and techy at the same time...a dance music for the future Karoo!" Alex van Heerden
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various works and projects of alex van heerden. track 1-3 is bushtech; funky, minimal, rural techno. track 4-6 is hemisfär; spacious & introspective afrikaans anthems. track 7-9 is evilPop: dark, fragile & erotic. music of forbidden charm. collaboration with kate ehrhardt. track 10-12 is nefertiti; insect jazz
