Childwood: Sharing emotions and experiences, beyond any spoken language

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Discovering new and truly talented bands is always something I really appreciate. Childwood is certainly a very exciting new acquaintance. In addition, they are truly an international band of musicians from many nations. Opalessence is their debut album and the record was released earlier this year.

Opalessence retraces a psychic travel through the six mental stages cyclically experienced during a lifetime. From birth to death, literally or symbolically, human beings indeed consciously or unconsciously go through several psychological steps that cause them to make certain decisions and choices, and so directly contributing to their self-development. Each composition represents such chapters in a cycle, the musical aspects insisting on the unstable and constantly changing nature of that process.

Childwood is as mentioned above  an international band created in Rotterdam (Netherlands) by composer, arranger and guitarist Alex Vansalen (Belgium), the band’s current line-up consists of singer Isabel Bermejo (Spain), violin player Burcu Ramazanoglu (Turkey), saxophonist Wietse Voermans (Netherlands), double bass player Alessio Bruno (Italy) and drummer Ruud Voesten (Netherlands).

They all met at Codarts, Rotterdam Conservatory and have different backgrounds (pop, metal, jazz, latin, classical, contemporary, world, rock and fusion music). Being a university of arts bringing together many styles and disciplines in one place (music, dance, acting, circus and composing), the Codarts school is a hearthstone for curiosity and interest in exploration, crossover and interaction.

The band Childwood was created in this environment, as Alex Vansalen was studying for his master’s degree in Jazz Composition, working more specifically on how to combine acoustic and electronic music through a mix of narrative jazz, progressive rock and alternative pop.

Alex Vansalen makes this very sensible and reflective statement, «Being a musician consists in sharing emotions and experiences, beyond any spoken language, beyond any rules or beliefs. Music is able potentially to broaden the horizon and perspectives of a whole epoch or group of beings, by influencing and sometimes even changing collective consciousness. It has the power to convey certain signals or messages universally without having to resort to doctrine, constraint or denial».

Link:
Bandcamp