Eh ringt
Artist : Tom America Date : 2006.07.08
Genre : Non - music Length : 18
Tom America began the punk/new wave band Gasphetti in 1977. During the eighties he made several albums with the group MAM. He wrote in 1986 the very personal MAM song Maternité which contains the funny “ready made” phrase:
” Mam, weet jij nog wanneer ik voor het eerst een boterham met kaas gegeten heb?”.
The Dutch politician Elco Brinkman provided the lyrics for another ready made piece called “Die tegelijkertijd evenwel nauwelijks”.
1996 Gave birth to Tom’s solo album “tjielp tjielp”, an ode to the poet Jan Hanlo.
During the nineties Tom America started composing on spoken word mostly with the help of a computer (ATARI!) and a sampler (AKAI!).
Since 1998 he made audiovisual odes to European cities like Tilburg, Amsterdam, Brussel, Oostende/Dover and Siena.
In 2003 he had a co-operation with visual artist Rob Moonen. Together they made an ode to Berlin called Tempelhof.
Forthcoming projects with Moonen are the odes to Aix-en-Provence (la Montagne Saint Victoire and Paul Cézanne), Vienna/Budapest (“Rudolf”) and others.
He also composed music for the films Tilburgers and Roermondse Adel (Joost Seelen) and the ballet GOeD by choreographer Jack Timmermans.
Director Frank van Osch portrays Tom America and his ready-made-composing method in the documentary “Zanger zonder stem” (2005). www.tomamerica.nl/ (dutch)
