Orphax & PONI (person of no importance) is a collaboration between the two Dutch brothers, Sietse (Orphax) and Tjeerd (PONI) van Erve. Since their early years they share a broad interest in music, fed mostly from their fathers’ record collection, ranging from early blues to Pink Floyd or Beethoven. But also listening to Belgian radio channel Studio Brussels (which during the late 80s and early 90s was a common listening close to the borders between The Netherlands and Belgium), and the late night Dutch radio inspired them in exploring the rough edges of underground music.
An exploration that gave them a common interest in indie and noise rock, but soon enough both followed their own path in music. Tjeerd moving more into underground guitar music, whilst Sietse developed a wider interest in (experimental) electronic and contemporary music. Both as listeners, but also exploring their own interests as musicians.

Now many years later these musical paths cross again in this album Inheritance (with a slight imagination, a translation of their last name van Erve). An album where Tjeerd brings in his dark and noisy lo-fi guitar songs and Sietse brings in his drones and electro-acoustic composition styles.

The album opens with its longest track, “As Received”. This combination results in a slow developing drone, with the intensity and tension of a well build-up post-rock track, that slowly unfolds Tjeerd his guitar layers and vocals. The title of the song refers to one of the PONI projects, where Tjeerd would send rough recordings to befriended musicians who than would rework those recordings without any restrictions which then would be released side by side with the original rough recordings. A project which actually sparked the idea of this collaboration (and that can still be listened to on PONI’s bandcamp-page).

On the flip side of the record, three shorter works give more room for regular song structures. In “Sunburns” this results in slowcore with subdued vocals, melancholic guitars and nasty synth and organ drones. When Tjeerd wrote the basis for the song, he actually had been listening to a lot of Codeine and Bedhead. One does not need much fantasy to recognize the influences of these bands.

“The Tears Are Necessary” is build up around various broken up piano tracks accompanied by moody drones to develop a fragile song.

The album closes with “Lockdown”, opening with silence as a moment of contemplation after the previous work but then quickly develops in a playful song where improvised play on piano, guitar and modular synthesizer create a lo-fi gem that clearly shows that both brothers still haven’t lost their love for Sentridoh or Guided By Voices.
All together resulting in an album that is an ode to the love of music, experiment, and creativity and a celebration of brotherhood.


PONI
PONI, short for Person Of No Importance, is the moniker of Tjeerd van Erve, Dutch dark lofi and noise artist. Some years ago it started out as a sketchbook for Ervelien, a project with Rotterdam-based musician Rene van Lien (Feverdream, Neon Rainbows, Jimmy Barock e.a.), it soon developed as a more regular musical outlet for the Tilburg born singer songwriter, leading to an output ranging from small lofi recordings to more experimental noise works, with releases on Smikkelbaard, Barreuh Records and collaborations with Glice, Jurgen Veenstra (Aivery Plains) and even the grindcore band Zalm. Next to PONI Van Erve has also been active as Nerd Herd – a Walkman-recordings project – and part of the duo De Snorkels, a lofi recording project of Veenstra and Van Erve with Dutch lyrics. Prolific to say the least, Van Erve explores the borders of noise, lofi and electronic music in over an hundred online songs and has lately combined forces with his brother Orphax to finally come with his first vinyl release. Never too old to fulfil a childhood dream.

ORPHAX
Amsterdam based musician and trained drummer Sietse van Erve (Orphax) was introduced to electronic music in the early nineties. After playing around with tracker software for a couple of years, he eventually recorded his first more serious attempts of music with beats and melodies in 1998, though soon lost interest in both these.
He started researching new sounds and new ways of working – always with an organic touch, often incorporating sounds that would be regarded by others as errors or mistakes. Considering life isn’t without errors either. During this search, he found his way into drone and microtonal music. As a result in his most recent work, time and spatiality become more important factors. The goal of the music is for the listener to lose the sense of time and place.
Live this is combined with room for improvisation. This way of working results often in an organic form of drone and minimal music.

He has released over 50 releases, as Download, CD-R, Tapes, CD’s and Vinyl, on various labels, as well as self-released online since he started working on music. This includes collaborations with Machinefabriek and Martijn Comes. Furthermore, he contributed to many remix projects including work for Kenneth Kirschner, Sontag Shogun, Martijn Comes, TVO and Chris Dooks among others.
In the past, he has shared the stage with various musicians including Martijn Comes, Jos Smolders, Frans de Waard (Modelbau), Zeno van den Broek, TVO, BJ Nilsen, Philip Jeck, Yann Novak, Sarah Davachi and Scanner.

Besides making music, Sietse van Erve runs Moving Furniture Records and has curated concerts at home, at Amsterdam institute STEIM, De Ruimte, OCCII and more.