Montan & Lauwerends

Anna Montan vocal, Indonesian percussion
Patrick Lauwerends acoustic and electric bass

Since 11 years they play their jazz & blues repertoire as a duo. Besides this, they developed a keroncong-jazz repertoire.
During live concerts the public is welcomed by old blues and, early jazzsongs, towards their cross-over of jazz + keroncong from Indonesia.
In the meantime they also perform with guests on flutes, kendang, plus if possible completed with Javanese/modern dance. This so called CINTA 3.0 project offers the opportunity to play more freely with each other on stage which leads to the ‘particular sound of free jazz with ethnic elements’.
Montan& Lauwerends & guests,
featuring Rodrigo Parejo Mateos flutes & (n.t.b.) kendang

How it began…
Anna explored the keroncong music from Indonesia, arising from her Indonesian background. Patrick already was familiar with the special rhythm and tones. This lead to a unique product: their fusion of jazz and keroncong.
In 2011 their CD “CINTA”  was released, the CD that echoes their love for music.

Anna: “After we played in my jazz 5-tet, bassplayer and composer Patrick suggested we’ld create a ‘Indonesian repertoire’, to be able to plaite keroncong elements into our  jazzmusic. In my Indonesian family I hardly notices any keroncong music; my grandfather listened and played jazz.
A ‘Keroncong-study’ was what happened next, amazed and fascinated as I got by the the extended tone system and the typical rhythms. In early 2011 we did the recordings in the studio.”

Montan & Lauwerends presented this repertoire at the Tong Tong Festival in 2009 for the first time; succesfully! read more, review G.Dankmeijer 2010
Thereafter the duo was invited to open the festival the next year, followed by a concert in the Bintang Theater at the festival.

Their cooperation with author Reggie Baay, leads to a live performance during the program OVT of VPRO on RADIO 1. Live broadcasted from Studio Desmet in Amsterdam, 16 may 2010.

For the documentary ‘Tuan Papa’ (J.Helwig/A.Wietsma), about born-warchilds in Dutch East Indies ’45-’49, P.Lauwerends composes the music and soundtrack. The docu was broadcasted on television, in the program Andere Tijden Special, NPS, 1 juli 2010. The soundtrack “Tuan Bapak” was recorded later on their CD “CINTA”.

They rearranged repertoire of composers from Indonesia and of P. Lauwerends
The release of the CD “CINTA” took place at the Tong Tong Festival 2011 (formerly the Pasar Malam Besar) at The Hague, supported by live performances on national radio 1 and 5 (progr. Dichterbij Nederland). Radio 6 presented the CD to the listeners in their programming (CD in ‘Luisterpaal’ and the program Hotel Central). Besides the CD has been reviewed by the world music radio presenter Mattie Poels.
So, the CD-release “CINTA” (2011) got very good reviews of the big eurasian Tong-Tong-Festival  and national Radio 6. read more, review Radio 6, Mattie Poels

 In 2012 Montan & Lauwerends composed the music for the presentation of author Reggie Baay‘s new book “Gebleekte Ziel” at the Tong Tong Fair. read more about the presentation of the book

A dynamic mix of East and West, by how the plaiting of both styles sounds together: Keroncong from Indonesia and Jazz from the West. Source: interview by Florine Koning, De Sobat, 2011
Anna and Patrick ‘verkrontjongd’ jazz-standards and they ‘verjazzed’ krontjong-classics. That ain’t easy because of the difference between the Asian and European scales. In fact these scales have nothing in common, except for the interfaces at five spots in the scales, that results in ‘pentatonics’. Asian music knows a lot more tone frequencies. Krontjong itself is fully mixed already: it is built on originally European harmonies (and so it’s a western scale), but during history many Javanese and other native songs have been incorporated, what made the krontjongsongs sound pentatonic. Patrick: “So as a composer and performer one has to understand what is happening in this music to be able to create the plaiting.”