Recording music for Postiljon

This is a theatre group that Martijn Bos (the piano player for Ixion) is a member of. It is a small ensemble that performs for young children (aged 9 till 12) on their local schools. They write their own plays, write their own songs and lyrics. All the singing in the play is live, the music comes from a backing tape. So once a year this backing tape has to be recorded. And that is done during one weekend in November or December. That weekend the home of Ruud and Anneke Bos is transformed into a recording studio and musicians from all different backgrounds and from all over Holland come to Hoorn for a weekend of fun and music.

All music is played from scores and the musicians have not heard the songs before, so a lot of improvising and hard work.

In the past everything was recorded directly to stereo, but now we switched to recording and mixing to a couple off ‘stems’, so we have groups like, drum, saxophones, piano and some extra channels for solo players.

All songs are recorded live and without overdubbing, so all musicians gather in the living room and we just set up an awful lot of microphones trying to capture their work.

We record a lot of different instruments those weekends: drums, piano, saxophone, flute, violin, trumpet, hobo, double bass, trombone, guitars, bass-guitars, percussion, and the list goes on.


The control room, upstairs in a small room, everything neat and tidy.	And the engineer has everything under control.


Have you ever tried to cram 12 musicians and their instruments into a living room?	Mirek the recording floor manager (and trumpet player) trying to talk some sense into Irma the Violin player.


Walter, Mirek, Manon and Irma.	Manon, Linde and Irma (Both Linde and Irma also play on the Ixion albums).


Jeroen S., Peter and Martijn.	Mirek wondering where this will end...

The play is about a water-spirit or water-ghost that lives in a well in the garden of a castle. And it rains a lot. So what do you do when the need a lot of rain?


You use a huge (and heavy) rain-stick!	Wrong! The wind blows from the other direction, do it again!.

And don't think you've seen it all yet, because when a song requires some special percussion (played by robert), we work hard to get it right:


This didn't sound quiet right,...	...this did.


When a song calls for bells and whistles, we record: bells... Jack, Anneke and Ruud on pots and pans	...and whistles.