Maarten Van Der Vleuten - The Scars Remain

some wounds will never heal: maarten van der vleuten has dedicated his second release for tonefloat under his civilian name to physical and psychological scars, ranging from personal grief to severe pain of entire peoples, some of them passed on from one generation to the next. a programmatic double album - however “not a concept album in the true meaning of the word”, as van der vleuten points out - the scars remain takes its audience on a hypnotic ride through both intimate and historical scenes. from the time of the crusades to early 20th century genocides, van der vleuten regularly touches upon the fine line where sound art becomes political and individual lives are inseparably connected to the fate of nations. but in the end, his message is that suffering is both universal and subjective and and that everyone will have to find their own way of dealing with it.

musically, the scars remain revisits the intense and occasionally outright claustrophobic soundscapes of its predecessor, high intolerance towards low energies, but juxtaposes them with various pieces combining martial drum rolls and sweeping brass fanfares, sentimental strings, sacral chanting and the artist’s own voice. partly the result of a meticulous production process – van der vleuten tends to regard the studio as his instrument of choice – the work also puts various external sources to highly effective use: ‘drumfire at smallwater’ contains samples of monks chanting the gregorian ‘cantemus domino’, while ‘der tod ist keine himmelsversicherung’ incorporates out-takes of a sermon by german evangelist anton schulte. the result is a hallucinogenic trip spread out over four sides of vinyl, setting the audience’s synapses on fire and refusing to let them go until they’ve faced the inevitable conclusion: that one can never completely leave one’s past behind, because, as the lyrics to the title track put it, even “when the bleeding stops, the scars remain”.

the scars remain, pressed on two 180 grams black vinyl discs, is released in a deluxe two panel sleeve. the official release date for the album (which is limited to 200 copies) is february 27, 2011

Tracklisting:

01. der tod ist keine himmelsversicherung
02. bury me among the dogs (51.66092, 5.296464)
03. a.xx.viii.mclxxxxi
04. sh_ift
05. another man’s suffering is easy to bear
06. drumfire at smallwater
07. kriegslied
08. the scars remain
09. with sorrow he wept
10. burden

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