Ellen ten Damme

‘Alles Draait’ is the new album by Ellen Ten Damme. It’s already her third album in Dutch. It clearly sounds more ‘pop’ than before. This is not only due to the fact she worked with lyricists Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer and Rob Chrispijn but also because of her singing. Because that is where the focus lies.

Ten Damme likes to decide her own course. Producer Robin Berlin understands that perfectly and plays all the guitars. She herself sits at the piano, the instrument on which she also composed all the music for this album. The rest of the band stands out because of some great strings, drummer Ton Dijkman and keyboardist Diederik Nomden.

Regarding the lyrics Ellen goes back to working with among others the Libris Literature Prize laureate poet and writer Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. A highly successful partnership, which dates back to the gold-winning Durf Jij? from 2009. A drink, a pen and a notebook at the ready. All that together with Ellen on a terrace in Genoa, or this time a beach in Ibiza.

“We talk about the world, how horrifying and funny life can be, I talk, Ilja writes. Themes can be determined. Back in the Netherlands, He sends me the lyrics, I can do whatever I want, sometimes I change something. Ilya then invariably calls the result unacceptable, but – admittedly – much better! The album is autobiographical. It’s about things that touch me. I know I often say that I made my most personal record, but now I’m sure!

Mijn manier is a real My Way, but much more personal than that of Sinatra, “says ten Damme.

Verona van de Leur, about  the gymnastics and porn star, a funny song that is not at all funny. Waterige maan, glances it’s melancholy over the past, a kind of ‘Het Dorp’ by Wim Sonneveld. Lampedusa, a current theme, is almost a kind of Bohemian Rhapsody. The parallels with “asylum seeker bird” Arie the Magpie, Ellen’s famous, now tolerated pet, the listener can make for himself.