This short dutch song is exploring and pondering about life's shadow sides. It has a happy ending, kind of.

English translation:

THE WATERED-DOWN WINE

Glued to the present
I’m going to the max
I’m nearly dying twice
The world’s really not cool

Truly, man, it is a burden
To live on tick
To not be what you want to be
Life is falling flat

I want to go everywhere
Anywhere they’re true
Where I’m always able
To say that I miss
That sometimes I’m not that precise
The watered down wine that I drink today
It’s the problem I’m dealing with
Will I manage, that’s the question

Past time, what is done
Is now done
I’m blazing new trails
And I’m completely in the zone

But, truly, it’s a bold move
I’m shoving back and forth
‘Cause alone is still alone
And that ruins the vibe

I want to go everywhere
Anywhere it’s wonderful
Where we’ll always be together
And no one is missing
That I’m wandering free and boldly
Oh, I drink the wine more than happy
There’s no more problems in my life
From now on, I can handle it!

Het Water Bij De Wijn - The Watered-Down Wine (English translation in description)

A slightly jazzy and progressive instrumental piano-based pop ballad. It's completed with a bass guitar and some drums. Played in the key of F sharp minor, it was originally composed for a Dutch podcast series made by a befriended theatre director. The series subjects all background aspects of creating, writing, practicing and staging podium arts. Since I had a lot of (more or less) promising music ready for the series, there was no room to use it all and so another piece now serves as the opening and closing theme music. I can't post that theme here, because it's under strict confidentiality for the podcast series has yet to be launched. The music within this upload, however, is not subject to any restrictions and solid enough to be appreciated on it's own merits.

Enjoy!

The True Value - 1st music for a podcast (it didn't make the final soundtrack)

Written in A major, this short theme was also part of my "composing spree" for the aforementioned informative podcast series about all aspects of theatre making. This theme, just like The True Value, is also worthy to be enjoyed on it's own. 
It's scored for a solo trumpet, accompanied by a rhodes electric piano, a bass guitar, a drum set and a synthesizer playing additional melody hooks.

I'm Feeling Jolly Good - 2nd music for a podcast (it didn't make the final soundtrack)

This instrumental pop song is the main tune for a Dutch podcast series about every aspect of the theatre world, which is hosted by poet, playwright, stage director, artist and photographer Irene Siekman. I composed the tune and played 'n recorded all the instruments. It was a nice collaboration with fellow Dutch composer and multi instrumentalist Johanna Monk who was inspired and commissioned to make a set of variations based on this theme.

De Vierde Wand - The Fourth Wall (Theme for a podcast about theatre)

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) - Quatre Motets sur des thèmes Grégoriens - Ubi Caritas, for unaccompanied SATB choir.

Vocaal Ensemble Basiliek Schiedam, conducted by Bas van Houte. The event took place in the protestant Bethel Church in Vlaardingen, The Netherlands, on the sunday of may 22, 2016, as part of a Bach-cantata service.

Vocaal Ensemble Basiliek Schiedam - Duruflé - Quatre Motets sur des thémes Gregoriens - Ubi Caritas

This dreamy, jazzy song first had lyrics in English, which were decent, but not particularly outstanding. They were discussing the then-fictional matter of someone wanting to re-start a broken up relation, but he knows in his heart it's not the right thing to do. They would soon be splitting up again for the same reasons, possibly causing unnecessary bad memories. Again, the lyrics were quite o.k. but I felt I could do better. 
So sometime after that I completely changed my plan and wrote a Dutch lyric, a true story, about breaking up with my girl at the time. It was a most intense relationship to break up - see my song "2003-2007", also uploaded here - but they were a dreadful, horrible set of Dutch language. I actually had the nerve to record them some years ago, but I've decided it is better for all of us if that recording never sees any SoundCloud daylight. 
So as for october 2017 I present you guys a voiceless song, a dreamy jazzy piece in an intimate arrangement of software plugin instruments. I played and recorded the thing with my M-Audio Keystation 88-es and used Propellerhead Reason v6.5 as my virtual recording studio.

Even If It Starts All Over - 2017 version (instrumental) (lyrics to be written by me)

This morning the Schiedam-based chorus Vocalis St. Jan got to perform BWV 140 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, a cantata for soli, chorus and orchestra by J.S. Bach. It's well known for the fourth movement, which is the tenor chorale Zion hört die Wächter singen. I am not currently a member of this chorus, but I was invited by their conductor Arjen Leistra to sing the second movement, which is a short recitativo for tenor solo. The as before mentioned tenor chorale was sung by all six tenors of the chorus, with the addition of me (as I was there anyway), but for this upload, I decided to concentrate on the recitativo as I think I sung that quite well. As an advanced tenor chorister, I am a rare specimen. I can sing anywhere I like and I have to say no to invitations from choruses to "help them out" more often than I like, but it's not often I get to be invited to sing 
a classical solo, so I decided to record it.  The whole cantata was recorded, but I am only Soundclouding my take on the tenor recitativo.

J.S. Bach - BWV 140 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme - 2. Recitativo (tenor)

Although the track has always been unrestrictedly fully playable, there was something strange going on, with it's avatar-image blurred and the audio track's weird display. 
Just in case anyone felt offended by the song's previous title (Stereotypes), this was surely not intended. The song neither has a political agenda nor does it link to any left- or right-wing stands on the issues that the world is facing today. 

This music is just intended to be my take on a lengthy instrumental song in a kind-of progressive style resembling Mike Oldfield's lengthy album tracks. A musical journey.

The Imaging (2020 re-titling of Stereotypes)

A Reminder Of The Past

A Cabo de São Vicente (Blurry Images 2018)(De Spring Holidays Frisia & Portugal)

A song about a man (me) loving a woman who is substantially younger than him: 13 years. She loves him back, but ultimately turns him down on the count of the age difference; she just considers their connection to be good friends, activity partners and for messaging on the phone.  He accepts, but against all odds, and secretly, he keeps loving her with all of his heart, hoping that eventually she'll set aside her problem with their age difference.

The Miracle Of My Life (2018)

I decided to have my latest musical effort revolve around the "Sad News" of the woman from my previous upload "The Miracle Of My Life" eventually turning me down. I sing about how I like her and how she brings joy to my world dominated by the sad news stories presented in the media.  
My HiFi recording and mixing gear and skills are not that advanced, so I apologize for the somewhat distorted sound on, most notably, the vocals. 

True followers of my works could hear a pretty different musical sound, compared to most other uploads of mine. They are not wrong, as for this musical arrangement I used the remix software of Ejay HipHop v5. I remixed various instrument loops and street sounds, provided by the sofware's highly extensive sound library. The result is a medium-tempo, semi-acoustic pop arrangement with some hiphop influences. I then exported the resulting backing track to a standard audio file (wave), and imported it in Propellerhead Reason music recording software, where I recorded and mixed in the various vocals and the two melodica soli, using a Samson microphone and (for the soli) a red Stagg melodica.

Sad News (A Bird In A Tree)(2018) - additional info in description below

A sad song about a guy trying to fall asleep at night, but he can't as he ponders about life and especially his love-interest who wants to have only friendship. He realizes he wants more, but knows in his heart he can't get it with her. He wants to settle for the friendship, and take his love-business elsewhere, but it's tough to let his feelings for her go; tougher than he thought. The picture displays the very last line of the song.

Job Vink

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