Pitou's EP 'I Fall Asleep So Fast', released on Mink Records on May 11th, 2018.

The music of Amsterdam-born musician Pitou is characterised by her highly distinctive voice, unique compositions and the use of vocal harmonies as an instrument in themselves.

Her highly anticipated self titled debut EP was released on 10’’ vinyl and CD on the 8th of September 2016, during a sold out release show in the Vondelchurch in Amsterdam, on UK/NL label Mink Records. Spotify and Apple Music a.o. placed her songs in worldwide playlists. In 2017 Pitou played across the Netherlands and Belgium, and in Glasgow and in London. She was named one of the 12 talents for 2018 by 3VOOR12, the Dutch national broadcaster’s music branch, and British newspaper The Independent declared her ‘One To Watch in 2018’. Pitou received widespread praise for her performance at European showcase festival Eurosonic/Noorderslag 2018, with 3VOOR12 naming her performance no. 3 of the 25 best shows of Noorderslag. Pitou has been confirmed for The Great Escape 2018.

Late 2017 saw the release of new material: single ‘Problems’ came out on November 17th, with a video premiere at the Independent. The track was featured in multiple playlists, including New Music Friday NL on Spotify. A second single, ‘Give Me A Glass’, will be released on May 4th, accompanied by a video that will be released slightly later. Pitou’s new EP ‘I Fall Asleep So Fast’ ​was released on May 11th, with a full-band live show celebration on May 13th at Bitterzoet, Amsterdam. The record will be available digitally as well as on vinyl and CD. Pitou's tracks 'Be Delicate' and 'I Fall Asleep So Fast' also featured on the new EP, received airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X prior to release.

The Independent‘s Roisin O’Connor says:
‘Amsterdam-born artist Pitou has one of the most arresting voices to emerge from this year … she crafts intelligent folk-pop that balances the darkness and light of human emotion.’

Complete Music Update say:
‘If she doesn’t find an audience vastly beyond the already growing fanbase she currently commands, everything in the world will have gone terribly wrong.’

Noisey/Vice NL say:  ’I don’t know exactly how to describe this, but Pitou’s songs reach straight into my soul. Her way of singing instantly brought tears to my eyes. She creates intimate, minimalistic and above all beautiful folksongs, with mysterious melodies that remind one of Alela Diane, Laura Marling or Julia Holter. Not overly sentimental, but intimate and powerful.’

Pitou - I Fall Asleep So Fast EP

'Return To Form', the debut album by Torii, out on Mink Records 21 February 2020.

management/label: info@mink-records.com | publishing: marieke@mink-records.com | live bookings: marijn@blipagency.com 

When you first listen to the psychedelic pop of Torii, the songs seem to deftly breeze by without a care in the world: warm, wistful and weightless. Multiple listens to the band’s debut LP Return To Form (out in 21 February '20 on tastemaker Mink Records), however, reveal a stark antithesis of that snap judgment: each one of these eleven tracks was written, composed and recorded with painstaking, deliberate care. Founder Domenico Mangione transmutes troubled feelings of trauma, lonesomeness, and alienation into his intricate, spectral production values.

Torii started as a solo project that found Mangione demoing tracks in an abandoned school building. This rather desolate scenery, plus the screeching of the seagulls that terrorized the area, provided the perfect echo chamber for the Dutch musician & producer to find his definitive voice, at his desired pace. Now a steady five-piece ensemble – Mangione, multi-instrumentalist/producer Tijmen van Wageningen, guitarist/lap steel player Willem Oostendorp, keyboardist Jilles van Kleef, and drummer Olivier Schiphorst – Torii began using Mangione’s free-spirited recording methods as the root for fully-realized studio splendor, giving themselves ample time to blur the sharp frontiers in skill and philosophy. Each musician handled Return To Form’s makeup with kid gloves, harvesting wayward sounds in meticulous fashion.

The band’s crisp attention to detail – each drunken lap steel note, glistened vocal overdub or softly applied bass thrum – isn’t anything less than cathartic. Domenico: “We don’t want to be the umpteenth band that reacts to something and becomes mired in the whole guitar rock machismo. I feel people are generally too confined to their own self-image, rather than just making music.” By merit of Mangione’s deep investment in recording and composing songs, he was able to confront some of his greatest demons. While some music is made to channel hardships, Torii opts to enwrap it, nourish it, and fill up those cold barren voids with myriad colors, textures, and vegetation.

The phosphorescent phaser-infused glimmer of ‘Oh Nola’ and the narcotic, Van Kleef-penned ‘Sinuosity’ both illustrate the band’s desire to create an alchemy of pop harmonics and texture that’s somehow anything but intimidating. Domenico: “Tijmen played this wonderful recorder melody on (Sinuosity) that’s barely audible. All four of us love records like that: in which you discover something new each time you hear it. But without it becoming overwhelming.”

Torii shrewdly borrows stylistics and bends them to its whims, like on the sweltering soul melodicism of ‘Heat Lightning’, which thrillingly accelerates into a motorik-indebted slipstream. Then there’s the chiming, tropical mirage of ‘Passing Thoughts’, one of the foursome's more organic strokes of brilliance. The instrumental ‘Tongue Tied’, meanwhile, was recorded in the middle of a half-pipe, its sleepwalking, benevolent daze informed by the setting's contorting acoustics. Torii strays most from its cryptic abstraction on ‘Antwerpen’, a heart-rending push-and-pull exercise between unconditional love and bitter inertia.
Congruently, Return To Form is the kind of singular pop record that treats dissonance and tunefulness as a calming symbiosis, and though the five musicians responsible have traveled radically different paths, they all met halfway within the album’s strange disembodied zone.

Torii - Return To Form [album, Mink Records]

Towards Yourself: sound meditation and sound healing by classical musician and sound healing expert Eline van Esch, solo flutist in The Hague Philharmonic Orchestra. These sounds can be used for being in stillness, meditation, relaxation, mindfulness, yoga and inner journeys. It is available on CD (via the webshop on www.mink-records.com) and on streaming services.

Tracklisting:

1. The Space Within
2. Polihale
3. Rainforest
4. Towards Yourself
5. Urpichay Sonqoy

Towards Yourself - Sound Meditation by Eline van Esch [album, Mink Records]

‘Fearless’ is the new single by Illnoledge, out on Mink Records on 16 September 2022. 

lllnoledge is a duo consisting of two brothers: Steve Hartley en Mill Voyance. Music and spirituality are closely related - this is the philosophy with which the brothers were raised. Illnoledge have developed their own music style dubbed ‘Akan Fu’, containing elements of Afrobeat, Soul, Latin, Jazz en Reggae. Hypnotizing heart-beat rhythms, mystic melodies, magical harmonies and cryptic lyrics. 

Music, production, mix by Stephen Hartley Linger and Milton Leo Linger
Mastering by Jerboa Mastering
Costume design: Tricia Nganga Mokosi
Creative direction artwork: Marieke McKenna & Philine van den Hul
Photography: Philine van den Hul
Special thanks to: Nike Ayinla & Nas Hosen (Orisun Studio)

℗ & © Mink Records

WWW.MINK-RECORDS.COM
INFO@MINK-RECORDS.COM

Illnoledge - Fearless

Illnoledge - OBIA

Round Midnight 28 November | NPO Radio 2 Soul & Jazz, Marieke McKenna

Round Midnight 13 February 2025

Round Midnight 6 February 2025

Round Midnight 20 February 2025

Sunflower - Loki Project

This is a sonic collage created by Marieke McKenna for Zazi Vintage, to be played at Milan Fashion Week 2025. It features the voices, poems, songs and compositions of women artisans from India, Afghanistan, Iran, Ghana and more. They share their perspectives on artisanship, women, female empowerment and life.

Featuring music by Khorshid Dadbeh (improvisation: Echoes of Mountains), Anouska Shankar & Ravi Shankar (Kirwani)

Zazi Vintage, Milan Fashion Week 2025 | Sonic Collage: Women Artisans from Around the World

Round Midnight 27 March 2025

'The Horse' is The Stangs' debut single and was released on the 27th of May 2016 on Mink Records. It's available online and on 7'' vinyl through the Mink Records webshop (www.mink-records.com)

The Stangs is a Sixties Beat group from the Hague. By combining influences from the sixties with sounds inspired by the Dutch west coast, they create their own genre they call Dune Beat.

Expect jangly guitar and organ riffs backed by a melodic bass and swinging drums, yet still leaving room for harmonies with the occasional shout.

Watching them live is like going back to the old days, as stated by Phil May from the legendary ‘Pretty Things’.

Keep an eye out for live performances near you on www.thestangs.nl

Track listing:

01. The Horse (2:15)
02. Betty Ford (2:18)

℗ 2016 Mink Records

The Stangs - Betty Ford

The first of a series of live jazz events hosted by Mink Records, inviting well established jazz musicians to come and play with promising young musicians from the Royal Conservatoire. The line up for this edition included saxophonist Benjamin Herman and guitarist Reinier Baas, drummer Omiros Miltiadous, saxophonist Emilio Tritto and bassist Ignacio Santoro, who formed the main band, and an open jam afterwards.

21st of May, 2016
Café September, Grote Markt, The Hague (NL)

Recorded and mixed by Sander van der Gaag
Presented by Marieke McKenna
Special thanks to Louis Portal, Marco Bijsterbosch and Michiel Mutsaerts.

To see the pictures of the night, and to stay updated with upcoming events like this one, check out the Mink Records Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Mink-Records-1442045982756126/?fref=ts

Mink Jazz Session 1 ft. Benjamin Herman & Reinier Baas

Amsterdam based Folk songstress Pitou's debut record, released on Mink Records on the 8th of September, 2016. 

The music of Amsterdam-born songstress Pitou is characterised by her highly distinctive voice, unique compositions and the use of vocal harmonies as an instrument in themselves. Live Pitou is accompanied by backing vocalists, who help put forth a rich and in-dept sound. Through her distinctive Folk Noir style, which has been compared to the likes of Vashti Bunyan, Joanna Newsom, Laura Marling and Alela Diane, Pitou manages to combine her background in classical and world music, creating a contemporary sound whilst maintaining a timeless aesthetic. Last year, during one of her first performances, Pitou won the ‘Mooie Noten’ competition. This year she performed at a multitude of venues and festivals including Paradiso, Valkhof, Grasnapolsky, Noorderzon and Amsterdam Woods. Her highly anticipated self titled debut record was released on the 8th of September 2016, during a sold out release show in the Vondelchurch, on Scottish/Dutch label Mink Records. Following the release Pitou’s music was picked up by national and international music blogs, including Noisey/Vice who dubbed her record ‘one of the most important releases of the past week’. Spotify and Apple Music placed her songs in worldwide playlists, including ‘Breaking Singer-songwriter'. This autumn Pitou will be touring through the Netherlands with Popronde, for which she was named ‘3voor12 Talent’. Plans for 2017 include a U.K. tour and the release of two videos, made in collaboration with promising young film makers. 

http://www.pitoumusic.com

Debt Of A Lover - Pitou

Walls - Pitou

Fool - Pitou

Lay This Woman - Pitou

His Song - Pitou

Cut A Hole - Pitou

Decay - Pitou

Parable is an EP by Dutch Beat band The Stangs.

The Stangs is a Sixties Beat group from the Hague. By combining influences from the sixties with sounds inspired by the Dutch west coast, they create their own genre they call Dune Beat. Expect jangly guitar and organ riffs backed by a melodic bass and swinging drums, yet still leaving room for harmonies with the occasional shout. Watching them live is like going back to the old days, as stated by Phil May from the legendary ‘Pretty Things’. 

The Stangs released their single 'The Horse' digitally and on 7'' vinyl through Dutch/Scottish label Mink Records in May 2016. 'The Horse', and 'Parable' were both recorded at PAF Studio in Rotterdam with Dutch 60's enthusiasts Dave von Raven (the Kik) & Marcel Fakkers (the Madd). 

'Parable' features guest appearances from classical musicians from the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra, Gambian percussionist Ebou Gaye Mada, saxophonist Benjamin Herman and Jazz students from The Royal Conservatoire. 

Keep an eye out for live performances near you on www.thestangs.nl

Look Into The Sun - The Stangs

Forum (Gather Around) - The Stangs

The music of Amsterdam-born musician Pitou is characterised by her highly distinctive voice, unique compositions and the use of vocal harmonies as an instrument in themselves.

Her highly anticipated self titled debut EP was released on 10’’ vinyl and CD on the 8th of September 2016, during a sold out release show in the Vondelchurch in Amsterdam, on UK/NL label Mink Records. Spotify and Apple Music a.o. placed her songs in worldwide playlists. In 2017 Pitou played across the Netherlands and Belgium, and in Glasgow and in London. She was named one of the 12 talents for 2018 by 3VOOR12, the Dutch national broadcaster’s music branch, and British newspaper The Independent declared her ‘One To Watch in 2018’. Pitou received widespread praise for her performance at European showcase festival Eurosonic/Noorderslag 2018, with 3VOOR12 naming her performance no. 3 of the 25 best shows of Noorderslag. Pitou has been confirmed for The Great Escape 2018.

Late 2017 saw the release of new material: single ‘Problems’ came out on November 17th, with a video premiere at the Independent. The track was featured in multiple playlists, including New Music Friday NL on Spotify. A second single, ‘Give Me A Glass’, will be released on May 4th, accompanied by a video that will be released slightly later. Pitou’s new EP ‘I Fall Asleep So Fast’ ​will be released on May 11th, with a full-band live show celebration on May 13th at Bitterzoet, Amsterdam. The record will be available digitally as well as on vinyl and CD. Pitou's tracks 'Be Delicate' and 'I Fall Asleep So Fast' also featured on the new EP, received airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X prior to release.

The Independent‘s Roisin O’Connor says:
‘Amsterdam-born artist Pitou has one of the most arresting voices to emerge from this year … she crafts intelligent folk-pop that balances the darkness and light of human emotion.’

Complete Music Update say:
‘If she doesn’t find an audience vastly beyond the already growing fanbase she currently commands, everything in the world will have gone terribly wrong.’

Noisey/Vice NL say:  ’I don’t know exactly how to describe this, but Pitou’s songs reach straight into my soul. Her way of singing instantly brought tears to my eyes. She creates intimate, minimalistic and above all beautiful folksongs, with mysterious melodies that remind one of Alela Diane, Laura Marling or Julia Holter. Not overly sentimental, but intimate and powerful.’

Problems - Pitou

We proudly bring to your ears the ethereal track 'Causeway' by Scotland-based trio Avocet. Available on all major streaming platforms 🌙

Vocals & harp: Iona Zajac
Guitar: Sam Grassie
Double bass: Herbie Loening

Recorded in Amsterdam at the Abbey Road Institute by Michiel Mutsaerts & Dieter Boels, executive production by Marieke McKenna, mastering by Bart Schatteleijn, artwork by Michiel Mutsaerts

Avocet - Causeway

Pitou - Stay

'Problems', released in November 2017, is the first single from Pitou's EP 'I Fall Asleep So Fast', released on Mink Records on May 11th, 2018.

The music of Amsterdam-born musician Pitou is characterised by her highly distinctive voice, unique compositions and the use of vocal harmonies as an instrument in themselves.

Her highly anticipated self titled debut EP was released on 10’’ vinyl and CD on the 8th of September 2016, during a sold out release show in the Vondelchurch in Amsterdam, on UK/NL label Mink Records. Spotify and Apple Music a.o. placed her songs in worldwide playlists. In 2017 Pitou played across the Netherlands and Belgium, and in Glasgow and in London. She was named one of the 12 talents for 2018 by 3VOOR12, the Dutch national broadcaster’s music branch, and British newspaper The Independent declared her ‘One To Watch in 2018’. Pitou received widespread praise for her performance at European showcase festival Eurosonic/Noorderslag 2018, with 3VOOR12 naming her performance no. 3 of the 25 best shows of Noorderslag. Pitou has been confirmed for The Great Escape 2018.

Late 2017 saw the release of new material: single ‘Problems’ came out on November 17th, with a video premiere at the Independent. The track was featured in multiple playlists, including New Music Friday NL on Spotify. A second single, ‘Give Me A Glass’, will be released on May 4th, accompanied by a video that will be released slightly later. Pitou’s new EP ‘I Fall Asleep So Fast’ ​was released on May 11th, with a full-band live show celebration on May 13th at Bitterzoet, Amsterdam. The record will be available digitally as well as on vinyl and CD. Pitou's tracks 'Be Delicate' and 'I Fall Asleep So Fast' also featured on the new EP, received airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X prior to release.

The Independent‘s Roisin O’Connor says:
‘Amsterdam-born artist Pitou has one of the most arresting voices to emerge from this year … she crafts intelligent folk-pop that balances the darkness and light of human emotion.’

Complete Music Update say:
‘If she doesn’t find an audience vastly beyond the already growing fanbase she currently commands, everything in the world will have gone terribly wrong.’

Noisey/Vice NL say:  ’I don’t know exactly how to describe this, but Pitou’s songs reach straight into my soul. Her way of singing instantly brought tears to my eyes. She creates intimate, minimalistic and above all beautiful folksongs, with mysterious melodies that remind one of Alela Diane, Laura Marling or Julia Holter. Not overly sentimental, but intimate and powerful.’

Pitou - Problems

Pitou - Be Delicate

Pitou - I Fall Asleep So Fast

'Give Me A Glass', released on May 4th 2018, is the second single from Pitou's EP 'I Fall Asleep So Fast', released on Mink Records on May 11th 2018.

The music of Amsterdam-born musician Pitou is characterised by her highly distinctive voice, unique compositions and the use of vocal harmonies as an instrument in themselves.

Her highly anticipated self titled debut EP was released on 10’’ vinyl and CD on the 8th of September 2016, during a sold out release show in the Vondelchurch in Amsterdam, on UK/NL label Mink Records. Spotify and Apple Music a.o. placed her songs in worldwide playlists. In 2017 Pitou played across the Netherlands and Belgium, and in Glasgow and in London. She was named one of the 12 talents for 2018 by 3VOOR12, the Dutch national broadcaster’s music branch, and British newspaper The Independent declared her ‘One To Watch in 2018’. Pitou received widespread praise for her performance at European showcase festival Eurosonic/Noorderslag 2018, with 3VOOR12 naming her performance no. 3 of the 25 best shows of Noorderslag. Pitou has been confirmed for The Great Escape 2018.

Late 2017 saw the release of new material: single ‘Problems’ came out on November 17th, with a video premiere at the Independent. The track was featured in multiple playlists, including New Music Friday NL on Spotify. A second single, ‘Give Me A Glass’, will be released on May 4th, accompanied by a video that will be released slightly later. Pitou’s new EP ‘I Fall Asleep So Fast’ ​was released on May 11th, with a full-band live show celebration on May 13th at Bitterzoet, Amsterdam. The record will be available digitally as well as on vinyl and CD. Pitou's tracks 'Be Delicate' and 'I Fall Asleep So Fast' also featured on the new EP, received airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X prior to release.

The Independent‘s Roisin O’Connor says:
‘Amsterdam-born artist Pitou has one of the most arresting voices to emerge from this year … she crafts intelligent folk-pop that balances the darkness and light of human emotion.’

Complete Music Update say:
‘If she doesn’t find an audience vastly beyond the already growing fanbase she currently commands, everything in the world will have gone terribly wrong.’

Noisey/Vice NL say:  ’I don’t know exactly how to describe this, but Pitou’s songs reach straight into my soul. Her way of singing instantly brought tears to my eyes. She creates intimate, minimalistic and above all beautiful folksongs, with mysterious melodies that remind one of Alela Diane, Laura Marling or Julia Holter. Not overly sentimental, but intimate and powerful.’

Pitou - Give Me A Glass

Pitou's EP 'I Fall Asleep So Fast', out on Mink Records on May 11th, 2018.

The music of Amsterdam-born musician Pitou is characterised by her highly distinctive voice, unique compositions and the use of vocal harmonies as an instrument in themselves.

Her highly anticipated self titled debut EP was released on 10’’ vinyl and CD on the 8th of September 2016, during a sold out release show in the Vondelchurch in Amsterdam, on UK/NL label Mink Records. Spotify and Apple Music a.o. placed her songs in worldwide playlists. In 2017 Pitou played across the Netherlands and Belgium, and in Glasgow and in London. She was named one of the 12 talents for 2018 by 3VOOR12, the Dutch national broadcaster’s music branch, and British newspaper The Independent declared her ‘One To Watch in 2018’. Pitou received widespread praise for her performance at European showcase festival Eurosonic/Noorderslag 2018, with 3VOOR12 naming her performance no. 3 of the 25 best shows of Noorderslag. Pitou has been confirmed for The Great Escape 2018.

Late 2017 saw the release of new material: single ‘Problems’ came out on November 17th, with a video premiere at the Independent. The track was featured in multiple playlists, including New Music Friday NL on Spotify. A second single, ‘Give Me A Glass’, will be released on May 4th, accompanied by a video that will be released slightly later. Pitou’s new EP ‘I Fall Asleep So Fast’ ​was released on May 11th, with a full-band live show celebration on May 13th at Bitterzoet, Amsterdam. The record will be available digitally as well as on vinyl and CD. Pitou's tracks 'Be Delicate' and 'I Fall Asleep So Fast' also featured on the new EP, received airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X prior to release.

The Independent‘s Roisin O’Connor says:
‘Amsterdam-born artist Pitou has one of the most arresting voices to emerge from this year … she crafts intelligent folk-pop that balances the darkness and light of human emotion.’

Complete Music Update say:
‘If she doesn’t find an audience vastly beyond the already growing fanbase she currently commands, everything in the world will have gone terribly wrong.’

Noisey/Vice NL say:  ’I don’t know exactly how to describe this, but Pitou’s songs reach straight into my soul. Her way of singing instantly brought tears to my eyes. She creates intimate, minimalistic and above all beautiful folksongs, with mysterious melodies that remind one of Alela Diane, Laura Marling or Julia Holter. Not overly sentimental, but intimate and powerful.’

Pitou - Cabin

In 1999 Ebou Gaye Mada, originally from the Gambia, started the group Boka de Banjul from jam sessions with various musicians. After having toured all over the world with his previous groups Ifang Bondi and Mdungu, Ebou decided to focus on Boka. Boka Halat means “joined ideas’ in Wolof. The combination of the various band members, their ideas, their musical background and their shared passion for music became the basis of a platform for positive energy, a platform that continued to develop over the years. 

Now based in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, Boka de Banjul combines the Gambian Mbalax with music from all over the world like jazz, afrobeat, reggae and more. Ebou and his band play with such passion, experience and love for music that the viewer is included in the rhythms and melodies through their infectious performance. Boka will play an array of festivals in 2018, so keep an eye out for live gigs near you. 

Boka de Banjul signed with UK/NL based label Mink Records begin 2018, and released their full 9-track debut album ‘Lu Jot Yomb' ('everything has it's time' in Wolof) during a release show at Rotterdam’s BIRD, on April 12th. The record is available on CD and digitally.

Boka de Banjul - Gambia

'Be Delicate' is track 4 from Pitou's upcoming EP 'I Fall Asleep So Fast', out on Mink Records on May 11th, 2018. As heard on BBC Radio 1.

The music of Amsterdam-born musician Pitou is characterised by her highly distinctive voice, unique compositions and the use of vocal harmonies as an instrument in themselves.

Her highly anticipated self titled debut EP was released on 10’’ vinyl and CD on the 8th of September 2016, during a sold out release show in the Vondelchurch in Amsterdam, on UK/NL label Mink Records. Spotify and Apple Music a.o. placed her songs in worldwide playlists. In 2017 Pitou played across the Netherlands and Belgium, and in Glasgow and in London. She was named one of the 12 talents for 2018 by 3VOOR12, the Dutch national broadcaster’s music branch, and British newspaper The Independent declared her ‘One To Watch in 2018’. Pitou received widespread praise for her performance at European showcase festival Eurosonic/Noorderslag 2018, with 3VOOR12 naming her performance no. 3 of the 25 best shows of Noorderslag. Pitou has been confirmed for The Great Escape 2018.

Late 2017 saw the release of new material: single ‘Problems’ came out on November 17th, with a video premiere at the Independent. The track was featured in multiple playlists, including New Music Friday NL on Spotify. A second single, ‘Give Me A Glass’, will be released on May 4th, accompanied by a video that will be released slightly later. Pitou’s new EP ‘I Fall Asleep So Fast’ ​will be released on May 11th, with a full-band live show celebration on May 13th at Bitterzoet, Amsterdam. The record will be available digitally as well as on vinyl and CD. Pitou's track 'Be Delicate' received airplay on BBC Radio 1 and Radio X prior to release.

The Independent‘s Roisin O’Connor says:
‘Amsterdam-born artist Pitou has one of the most arresting voices to emerge from this year … she crafts intelligent folk-pop that balances the darkness and light of human emotion.’

Complete Music Update say:
‘If she doesn’t find an audience vastly beyond the already growing fanbase she currently commands, everything in the world will have gone terribly wrong.’

Noisey/Vice NL say:  ’I don’t know exactly how to describe this, but Pitou’s songs reach straight into my soul. Her way of singing instantly brought tears to my eyes. She creates intimate, minimalistic and above all beautiful folksongs, with mysterious melodies that remind one of Alela Diane, Laura Marling or Julia Holter. Not overly sentimental, but intimate and powerful.’

‘Under My Skin’, mixed by Darrell Thorp (Grammy award winning producer who worked with Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, Beck, Ray Charles, Jay-Z and Radiohead), is the second single from the Visual's upcoming debut album ‘Moments of Being’, out on UK/NL label Mink Records March 2019. 

Though a relatively new group, The Visual quickly gained interest and support from of a number of prominent Dutch festivals, venues, music tastemakers and press platforms. Features include video premieres on Noisey (VICE),  a full spread interview in i-D Magazine, and features on 3VOOR12 and 3FM radio.  The group played a number of important festivals and stages, including Grasnapolsky Festival where influential ‘OOR Magazine’ crowned them the highlight of the festival. Their EP release in December 2017 at de Melkweg was sold out and received raving reviews from multiple platforms, including The Daily Indie (where the journalist & photographer for the blog was so enchanted by the show that she nearly forgot to take notes and pictures). 

'What a suiting name this Jeff Buckley, The XX, Nick Cave-like collective chose for themselves. Upon closing your eyes to their music you find yourself in the cinematic universe of David Lynch.' (OOR Magazine)

‘Anna van Rij’s voice, cool and evanescent as the morning dew, veers between melancholy lethargy and emotionally wrought upper-register bends. Partner in crime Timon Persoon does his ‘voodoo soundman’ bit on keys, crafting a proper three-dimensional sound landscape at the tender locus of soundtrack and songwriting.’ (Gigwise)

The Visual -  Under My Skin

'Cheating Monday' is the B-side of double single 'Sirens/Cheating Monday', by Blues-Folk trio Avocet, from Glasgow. Released on UK/NL label Mink Records on December 19th, 2018. 

Avocet is a musical trio from Scotland, based in Glasgow. Drawing inspiration from both the psychedelic folk scene alive in Britain during the 1960’s and 70’s, and free form blues, they create their own compositions on harp, guitar, double bass and vocals. Their music has been compared to that of artists like like Nick Drake, Pentangle, and John Martyn.

Signed to Mink Records in 2017, they travelled to the Netherlands to record their debut record 'Borrowed Seed' at the Abbey Road Institute in Amsterdam. Avocet have performed on BBC Scotland, and at an array of festivals and venues including Celtic Connections and Eden Festival. They were the Danny Kyle Celtic Connections Award winners in 2017.

The trio released their debut single ‘Causeway’ on January 26th, 2018. The track received critical acclaim from platforms like Folk Radio U.K., and was placed in a number of Spotify playlists. Their full debut record ‘Borrowed Seed’ was released on May 23rd, 2018, at The Poetry Club in Glasgow. Folk Radio UK said: ‘Listening to the album several times I find I am picking out different sounds, different things each time, building up a rich image to match’. The trio played an array of festivals and venues following their release, including Eden Festival, Celtic Connections, The Hug and Pint, Teviot, Nova Scotia Folk Club, Fyne Festival and Sofar Sounds Edinburgh.

'Sirens/Cheating Monday' is a first taste of new material recorded with support from the Bert Jansch foundation.

Artwork by Keek van Eijk.

Avocet - Cheating Monday (Single, B - Side, Mink Records)

'Return To Form', the debut album by Torii (NL) | out on Mink Records 21 February '20.  Also available on 12'' vinyl. 

When you first listen to the psychedelic pop of Torii, the songs seem to deftly breeze by without a care in the world: warm, wistful and weightless. Multiple listens to the band’s debut LP Return To Form (out in February '20 on tastemaker Mink Records), however, reveal a stark antithesis of that snap judgment: each one of these eleven tracks was written, composed and recorded with painstaking, deliberate care. Founder Domenico Mangione transmutes troubled feelings of trauma, lonesomeness, and alienation into his intricate, spectral production values.

Torii started as a solo project that found Mangione demoing tracks in an abandoned school building. This rather desolate scenery, plus the screeching of the seagulls that terrorized the area, provided the perfect echo chamber for the Dutch musician & producer to find his definitive voice, at his desired pace. Now a steady five-piece ensemble – Mangione, multi-instrumentalist/producer Tijmen van Wageningen, guitarist/lap steel player Willem Oostendorp, keyboardist Jilles van Kleef, and drummer Olivier Schiphorst – Torii began using Mangione’s free-spirited recording methods as the root for fully-realized studio splendor, giving themselves ample time to blur the sharp frontiers in skill and philosophy. Each musician handled Return To Form’s makeup with kid gloves, harvesting wayward sounds in meticulous fashion.

The band’s crisp attention to detail – each drunken lap steel note, glistened vocal overdub or softly applied bass thrum – isn’t anything less than cathartic. Domenico: “We don’t want to be the umpteenth band that reacts to something and becomes mired in the whole guitar rock machismo. I feel people are generally too confined to their own self-image, rather than just making music.” By merit of Mangione’s deep investment in recording and composing songs, he was able to confront some of his greatest demons. While some music is made to channel hardships, Torii opts to enwrap it, nourish it, and fill up those cold barren voids with myriad colors, textures, and vegetation.

The phosphorescent phaser-infused glimmer of ‘Oh Nola’ and the narcotic, Van Kleef-penned ‘Sinuosity’ both illustrate the band’s desire to create an alchemy of pop harmonics and texture that’s somehow anything but intimidating. Domenico: “Tijmen played this wonderful recorder melody on (Sinuosity) that’s barely audible. All four of us love records like that: in which you discover something new each time you hear it. But without it becoming overwhelming.”

Torii shrewdly borrows stylistics and bends them to its whims, like on the sweltering soul melodicism of ‘Heat Lightning’, which thrillingly accelerates into a motorik-indebted slipstream. Then there’s the chiming, tropical mirage of ‘Passing Thoughts’, one of the foursome's more organic strokes of brilliance. The instrumental ‘Tongue Tied’, meanwhile, was recorded in the middle of a half-pipe, its sleepwalking, benevolent daze informed by the setting's contorting acoustics. Torii strays most from its cryptic abstraction on ‘Antwerpen’, a heart-rending push-and-pull exercise between unconditional love and bitter inertia.
Congruently, Return To Form is the kind of singular pop record that treats dissonance and tunefulness as a calming symbiosis, and though the five musicians responsible have traveled radically different paths, they all met halfway within the album’s strange disembodied zone.

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Antwerpen - Torii

Tongue Tied - Torii

Sinuosity - Torii

Heat Lightning - Torii

Pulse - Torii

Forward Retreat - Torii

'Heat Lightning' is the first single released by Dutch psychedelic pop outfit Torii, taken from their upcoming album 'Return To Form' (out February 2020, on Mink Records). 

Torii shrewdly borrows stylistics and bends them to its whims, like on the sweltering soul melodicism of ‘Heat Lightning’, which thrillingly accelerates into a motorik-indebted slipstream.

When you first listen to the psychedelic pop of Torii, the songs seem to deftly breeze by without a care in the world: warm, wistful and weightless. Multiple listens to the band’s debut LP Return To Form, however, reveal a stark antithesis of that snap judgment: each one of these eleven tracks was written, composed and recorded with painstaking, deliberate care. Founder Domenico Mangione transmutes troubled feelings of trauma, lonesomeness, and alienation into his intricate, spectral production values.

Torii started as a solo project that found Mangione demoing tracks in an abandoned school building. This rather desolate scenery, plus the screeching of the seagulls that terrorized the area, provided the perfect echo chamber for the Dutch musician & producer to find his definitive voice, at his desired pace. Now a steady five-piece ensemble – Mangione, multi-instrumentalist/producer Tijmen van Wageningen, guitarist/lap steel player Willem Oostendorp, keyboardist Jilles van Kleef, and drummer Olivier Schiphorst – Torii began using Mangione’s free-spirited recording methods as the root for fully-realized studio splendor, giving themselves ample time to blur the sharp frontiers in skill and philosophy. Each musician handled Return To Form’s makeup with kid gloves, harvesting wayward sounds in meticulous fashion.

The band’s crisp attention to detail – each drunken lap steel note, glistened vocal overdub or softly applied bass thrum – isn’t anything less than cathartic. Domenico: “We don’t want to be the umpteenth band that reacts to something and becomes mired in the whole guitar rock machismo. I feel people are generally too confined to their own self-image, rather than just making music.” By merit of Mangione’s deep investment in recording and composing songs, he was able to confront some of his greatest demons. While some music is made to channel hardships, Torii opts to enwrap it, nourish it, and fill up those cold barren voids with myriad colors, textures, and vegetation.

Congruently, Return To Form is the kind of singular pop record that treats dissonance and tunefulness as a calming symbiosis, and though the five musicians responsible have traveled radically different paths, they all met halfway within the album’s strange disembodied zone.

Torii online:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/torii.theband/
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/torii_the_band/

Live bookings: marijn@blipagency.com
Management: marieke@mink-records.com

Return To Form

Heat Lightning

Torii - Heat Lightning

'Forward Retreat' is the second single released by Dutch psychedelic pop outfit Torii, taken from their upcoming album 'Return To Form' (out 22 February 2020, on Mink Records). Release show 22/2/20 at De School, Amsterdam. 

When you first listen to the psychedelic pop of Torii, the songs seem to deftly breeze by without a care in the world: warm, wistful and weightless. Multiple listens to the band’s debut LP Return To Form, however, reveal a stark antithesis of that snap judgment: each one of these eleven tracks was written, composed and recorded with painstaking, deliberate care. Founder Domenico Mangione transmutes troubled feelings of trauma, lonesomeness, and alienation into his intricate, spectral production values.

Torii started as a solo project that found Mangione demoing tracks in an abandoned school building. This rather desolate scenery, plus the screeching of the seagulls that terrorised the area, provided the perfect echo chamber for the Dutch musician & producer to find his definitive voice, at his desired pace. Now a steady five-piece ensemble – Mangione, multi-instrumentalist/producer Tijmen van Wageningen, guitarist/lap steel player Willem Oostendorp, keyboardist Jilles van Kleef, and drummer Olivier Schiphorst – Torii began using Mangione’s free-spirited recording methods as the root for fully-realised studio splendour, giving themselves ample time to blur the sharp frontiers in skill and philosophy. Each musician handled Return To Form’s makeup with kid gloves, harvesting wayward sounds in meticulous fashion.

The band’s crisp attention to detail – each drunken lap steel note, glistened vocal overdub or softly applied bass thrum – isn’t anything less than cathartic. Domenico: “We don’t want to be the umpteenth band that reacts to something and becomes mired in the whole guitar rock machismo. I feel people are generally too confined to their own self-image, rather than just making music.” By merit of Mangione’s deep investment in recording and composing songs, he was able to confront some of his greatest demons. While some music is made to channel hardships, Torii opts to enwrap it, nourish it, and fill up those cold barren voids with myriad colors, textures, and vegetation.

Congruently, Return To Form is the kind of singular pop record that treats dissonance and tunefulness as a calming symbiosis, and though the five musicians responsible have traveled radically different paths, they all met halfway within the album’s strange disembodied zone.

Torii online:
FB: www.facebook.com/torii.theband/
Insta: www.instagram.com/torii_the_band/

Live bookings: marijn@blipagency.com
Management: marieke@mink-records.com

Forward Retreat

Torii - Forward Retreat

www.mink-records.com

Mink Records is an independent music label based in the Netherlands and the U.K.

Besides overseeing artists’ recordings, management and promotion, Mink Records, founded in 2016, specialises in allround creative assistance/guidance of artists and enhancing the musical bonds between the U.K. and the Netherlands. Mink represents Pitou, The Visual, The Hazzah, Torii, The Mighty Breaks, Moon Tapes, Boka de Banjul and The Stangs in The Netherlands, and Avocet and MONICA in the U.K. Music released by Mink Records has been featured on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, BBC Scotland, Radio X, 3FM, Radio 2, Noisey/VICE, The Independent, Gigwise, NME, OOR Magazine, Clash Magazine, The Line Of Best Fit, God Is In The TV Zine, The 405 and many more influential platforms. Mink releases are distributed by [PIAS].

Known for label nights and release shows in special places like the Vondelkerk, OT301, Bitterzoet (Amsterdam), Indigo Beachclub, Beergarden, PIP, de Grote Markt (The Hague), V11 (Rotterdam), St. Pancras Old Church (London), Cottiers Theatre, The Poetry Club and Broadcast (Glasgow), Mink attributes an importance to live as well as recorded music – treasuring the community building up around these nocturnal gatherings. 

Mink Records is inspired by a whole range of musical genres, from classical to jazz, old school hip–hop to punk, from folk to indie, from world music to psychedelic rock… great music isn’t genre bound, so Mink Records isn’t either.

Genuine intentions with a driving force motivated by the vision of having good music heard.

Mink Records

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