Headphone recommended 🎧

Melody Garden is like a place where sounds are planted like seeds, and melodies bloom and grow freely, evolving in an organic form. Each sound or rhythm contributes to the whole, creating a harmonious space where the natural evolution of sound guides the listener.

Melody Garden

Berno van der Wal (BERW) is a sound artist based in Zwolle (Netherlands). Music was a refuge during a difficult childhood; it literally gave him a stage to express his emotions, and it has positively shaped the course of his life. A tattoo on his wrist of the Chinese character for music, 樂, symbolizes the place music holds in his life. After taking classical guitar lessons at a young age, he played in various bands from the age of fourteen until his mid-thirties, combining guitar and vocals. However, drumming was always a quiet passion that drew him to the drum kit during breaks in rehearsals, searching for the rhythm that fascinated him.

Later in life, he discovered the possibilities of hybrid drumming. This allowed him to drum without disturbing others and gave him both technically and creatively limitless ways to express himself. This led to a fascination with ambient music, where he experiments with percussion, (organic) samples, carefully chosen frequencies, and synthesizers.

In his music, Berno strives to let go of fixed structures and create a space for exploration, calm, and reflection. Each performance is a continuation of what already existed, a deepening or new interpretation, without a clear beginning or end. His music weaves deep, emotionally charged rhythms with ambient textures, drawing the listener into unknown spaces. The layers and sounds in his music are like elements that together form a composition, constantly in motion and evolving.

The first collection of tracks he is currently working on is called LMNTS, inspired by the elements that create and sustain life.