Ensemble Pittoresque

1977, these were the heydays of punk, glam rock and the maximum comfort of Western living. The Sex Pistols, Kraftwerk, Can, Faust, Fripp & Eno, Pere Ubu and a wide variety of mainstream artists pounded the world with their personal pinnacles of artistic brilliance. These were the sale-days of endless series of poly and monophonic synthesizers, arpeggiators, sequencers, drum boxes, digi modifiers, metal distortions, big muffs, Nikkei exchange rates and inscrutable trade-in values. In the heart of The Hague, at a squatted anarchistic stronghold called “Bamboulee” Paulus Wieland and Richard Neumöller hooked up with whiz technician Ton Willekes. After they had moved to the dunes of Wassenaar, these "music crazed, angry young men", on the 12th of august 1978, founded a company called Ensemble Pittoresque. At their squatted cottage near the coast, they created sounds and scapes, which at first mostly pleased just themselves. 

However, after some public try-outs and side projects, they set their minds on an independent release of their own. From the latest ideas of about twenty hours of material, they compiled their first album, ‘For This Is Past’. At the heart of three of the recordings, “Reichsdorf Room 6”, “Building Brains” and “Auratorium” an ingenious invention of Ton Willekes allowed them to use one of four tracks to trigger the TR-808 and TB-303. This way it became possible to combine "three track tape loops" with “live” playing electronics, so only vocals and guitars had to be added during mastering. 

After a long wait, the three friends rode of to Belgium to get their firstborn home. From then on things picked up. They hooked up with distributor Boudisque and the record got airplay. Interviews added to publicity, bookings paid better money and overall live conditions improved. With bigger fees came better PA’s and publicity. To overcome a lack of dynamics on stage, Neumöller and Wieland turned to three fellow musicians: Ed Van Hoven, Marion Prinz and Biko. 

From then on, the music was backed by real live performance and many times, public response confirmed the band’s enthusiasm. The gruesome throbbing “new funk bass of precision” that Ed Van Hoven played opened new ways for Ensemble Pittoresque to explore. At home, Richard Neumöller used “the sync system” and his Sony TC-D5M to combine pre-fab tracks with several different drum patterns and triggered synths. This way the outline of new songs would be prepared in advance and the band could develop them, performing on stage. Touring the alternative clubs of Holland the group turned into a tight act and layed ground for several songs on their second album.

While the group was busy working on their second album 'Frequenz', their manager booked them for a group presentation called D-Day, in ‘Paradiso’ Amsterdam. So, on day four, in the middle of the recording sessions, the group was supposed to pack their gear, get on the bus, briefly sound check and perform, alongside two of the youngest, promising, non electronic Amsterdam live bands of that moment (one of those bands being Claw Boys Claw). They were the first act. Murphy’s law struck like clockwork. The error levels couldn’t have been more ominous. Because of one faulty connector in the sync system the whole band stood like frozen on stage. The audience became impatient and the mindset of the band hit rock bottom. Beer was thrown, the crowd smelled blood and something snapped. The reviews that followed burned Ensemble Pittoresque to the ground. After the release of ‘Frequenz’ which got pretty good reviews, they set out to promote the album at the youth centers of Holland, but something had changed. From the initial enthusiasm of the band, very little was left. Wieland, Willekes and Neumöller had drifted apart musically and couldn’t take the step to a more professional approach together anymore. The band officially split up at the end of 1984. [SOURCE: ENSEMBLE PITTORESQUE.NET]