Inheritance is the debut collaboration between the two brothers Tjeerd (PONI) and Sietse (Orphax) van Erve. A brotherly effort to show their love for music.

Inheritance is released as translucent LP mastered by Jos Smolders in artwork designed by Rutger Zuydervelt with photography by Jozef van Erve

About Inheritance

Orphax & PONI (person of no importance) is a collaboration between the two Dutch brothers, Sietse (Orphax) and Tjeerd (PONI) van Erve. Since their early years they share a broad interest in music, fed mostly from their fathers’ record collection, ranging from early blues to Pink Floyd or Beethoven. But also listening to Belgian radio channel Studio Brussels (which during the late 80s and early 90s was a common listening close to the borders between The Netherlands and Belgium), and the late night Dutch radio inspired them in exploring the rough edges of underground music.
An exploration that gave them a common interest in indie and noise rock, but soon enough both followed their own path in music. Tjeerd moving more into underground guitar music, whilst Sietse developed a wider interest in (experimental) electronic and contemporary music. Both as listeners, but also exploring their own interests as musicians.

Now many years later these musical paths cross again in this album Inheritance (with a slight imagination, a translation of their last name van Erve). An album where Tjeerd brings in his dark and noisy lo-fi guitar songs and Sietse brings in his drones and electro-acoustic composition styles.

The album opens with its longest track, “As Received”. This combination results in a slow developing drone, with the intensity and tension of a well build-up post-rock track, that slowly unfolds Tjeerd his guitar layers and vocals. The title of the song refers to one of the PONI projects, where Tjeerd would send rough recordings to befriended musicians who than would rework those recordings without any restrictions which then would be released side by side with the original rough recordings. A project which actually sparked the idea of this collaboration (and that can still be listened to on PONI’s bandcamp-page).

On the flip side of the record, three shorter works give more room for regular song structures. In “Sunburns” this results in slowcore with subdued vocals, melancholic guitars and nasty synth and organ drones. When Tjeerd wrote the basis for the song, he actually had been listening to a lot of Codeine and Bedhead. One does not need much fantasy to recognize the influences of these bands.

“The Tears Are Necessary” is build up around various broken up piano tracks accompanied by moody drones to develop a fragile song.

The album closes with “Lockdown”, opening with silence as a moment of contemplation after the previous work but then quickly develops in a playful song where improvised play on piano, guitar and modular synthesizer create a lo-fi gem that clearly shows that both brothers still haven’t lost their love for Sentridoh or Guided By Voices.
All together resulting in an album that is an ode to the love of music, experiment, and creativity and a celebration of brotherhood.

Reviews

Vital Weekly, Bauke van de Wal

When you call your project Person of no Importance – or PONI when you write the acronym – you kinda put yourself on a lower level. But the music you write is independent of how you see yourself. Because it’s not who you are, it’s all about what you say. Those were a few of my thoughts when I listened to this album by one of my favourite drone artists, ORPHAX and his brother, whom I had never heard of before. What do these two guys who have known each other all of their lives say as a duo, and how do they influence each other musically? Of course, they had the same first musical experience by being raised by the same parents. But after a certain point, their ways went in different directions.
    So here is a vinyl release on Moving Furniture, which holds the outcome of these experiments and mutual compositions.
    The album opens with “As Received”, which covers the whole first side of the vinyl. What triggered the creation of this track was a project by Tjeerd (still available at the PONI Bandcamp https://p0n1.bandcamp.com/) where he would send music to befriended musicians who would rework the rough recordings without any restrictions. The result is a 19-minute composition which opens with a drone (by Sietse, without a doubt) with so many layers and dynamics. It’s so gorgeous! And when it reaches the 7-minute point, the guitar layers of Tjeerd are added, and it gets even better. It’s a perfect build-up if you ever heard one. At the 10-minute mark, entirely in the back, vocals are added as a separate layer. At 12 minutes, the drones/noise and vocals are elevated into a post-rock composition that would be amazing to see live at some point, after which the massiveness is slowly lowered into the clicking of the needle in the final locked groove.
    “Sunburns” that opens side B has an intense post-rock feel and reminds me a bit of the Swans during their ‘Soundtracks for the Blind’ period. “Tears are Necessary” has the same ‘Swans’-feeling. More depressive than sad, with a piano tune leading Tjeerd into doing his vocals in the latter part of the track. With more than enough electronics from Sietse to create chaos in the end. “Lockdown” is a 2-minute little thing to close the very erratic album, but it has its charm.
    The album is not what you would expect from Orphax and probably not from PONI, but it’s worth the vinyl.