Bernard Kleikamp

Male

Leiden

Netherlands

Profile Information:

About me:

I can at least answer the question how I got interested in music. I think it runs in the family. Apparently my granddad (father's father) was an amateur musician in his bachelor's days. He then lived in the village of Tudderen in Germany, near Sittard in the south of The Netherlands, and was playing the flute in a sort of local flute and drum marching band. And during carnival he would play the accordion and sing songs. I got this information from my 84-year old aunt the other day, who told me that after he married, my grandfather was never seen performing music again... My grandma (mother's mother) lived in West-Frisia and was a singer. I think she was one of the informants of Dr. B. Veurman and Dr. D. Bax in their classic folk song collection "Songs and Dances of West-Frisia" ("Liederen en Dansen uit West-Friesland" published in 1944). My mother was a singer too, all her life she was an alto in a fairly reputed choir in the town of Hoorn, where I was born. She taught me all the songs that she had learned from her mother. And I was always interested in music, I went to music school, had piano lessons, but at an early age decided I did not want to be a performing musician. I felt much better at ease off stage than on stage. After secondary school I went to university (in Amsterdam), studying drama and ethnomusicology, and got involved in the organisation of the local folkclub and folkfestival in Leiden (where I live since 1969). And from there it gradually expanded. There's a story about the early years of PAN Records and how I got to be its owner in the liner notes to the Crooks CD (PAN 151), the CD is sold out now, but will eventually be available again via digital distribution.

I have a special interest in overtone singing and the music of Tuva, Khakassia, Mongolia, Altai, and Bashkortostan. As far as I can tell, PAN Records (the record company that I own) was the first company in the West (there were already a few LPs on Melodiya) to release a CD with overtone songs from Tuva (maybe with the exception of Smithsonian Folkways, I am not sure when that one was released). My company was also the first to organise tours with overtone singers from Tuva (1991), and I also brought them to the USA and Canada (1992 and 1993) where later they became world famous as Huun Huur Tu, but I wasn't involved then anymore, as the band had split up and I decided to stay loyal to Gennadi Tumat (see PAN 2090), whom I thought to be the more talented. He was also the most whimsical, and for years we talked about making a solo-CD, but he could never find the discipline to do studio work for long periods. You can read all about that in the liner notes to PAN 2090.

I am actively promoting the traditional music from Holland, and there are quite a lot of such CDs in the PAN catalogue (PAN 2004, 2025, 188, 157, 159, 179, 191, 192, 204, 205, 208, 210, 211, 214, 216, 218, 220).

As a band we are:

member of / connected to the following organisations:
ICTM
Folk Alliance International (formerly North American Folk Alliance)
Muziekinstituut van de Kathedraal St. Bavo
International society for performing arts research Arnold Bake
The Leiden University Buddhist Studies Network

Instruments:

Piano, recorder, vocals

Influences:

Singing: Ma and grandma.
Music in general: J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, Pink Floyd, Planxty, Kolinda, Muzsikás, Khunashtaar-ool Oorzhak, T.L. de Victoria.
Ethnic music: the high-pitched grassland songs of north Tibet, mugam from Azerbaijan, mouth-bow music, khöömei, Russian accordions, harps in Venezuelan dance music, Sicilian "Settimana Santa" songs.

Homepage:

http://www.panrecords.nl

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