Oscar Jan Hoogland

Improviser Composer

piano, electric clavichord, synth, guitar, record players, tape players, megaphones, crackle box, amplified slot machine

Oscar Jan Hoogland is a leading figure on the Dutch impro scene. Hoogland sprung onto the Amsterdam landscape approximately two decade ago, at the forefront of a new group of improvisers to arrive and simultaneously uphold the tradition of New Dutch Swing even while tearing it apart. 

Hoogland is possibly most notable for his ability to use any and every influence as stimuli for improvisation and adventure. Piano may be his main instrument but he is often seen performing on his highly customised electric clavichord, a variety of old synths, guitar, voice, record players, megaphones, televisions, even an amplified slotmachine…
His art shows the diversity of his interests: Improvisation with Senegalese griot singer Mola Sylla and percussionist Frank Rosaly, sound installation and performance with Practical Music and his Phonograph Orchestra. Cumbia with Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti’s Superinca and the Galactic Green. Ethiopian jazz and Eritrean traditional music with Semer Welday’s Adulis feat. o.a. Ada Rave. He works regularly with Zea, from The Ex frontman Arnold de Boer, with whom he toured Ghana and Burkina Faso to bridge the worlds improvisation and popmusic.
Ensembles and projects that link him directly to the history of Dutch improvising are The Ambush Party “Impossible to predict and impossible to resist” featuring Natalio Sued, Harald Austbø and Marcos Baggiani, LOOT featuring Ab Baars, Onno Govaert and Uldis Vitols for which he composes all the music, the Chicago based 4tet These Things Happen feat. Keefe Jackson, Jason Roebke and Mikel Avery, the Amsterdam Real Book repertoire project, and his duo with legendary drummer Han Bennink. With Bennink he he also performs in the EHBO quartet featuring, next to Han and Oscar, ICP’s Ernst Glerum on bass and Benjamin Herman on the alto saxophone.
All of these efforts accumulate in his largest group Minute Made Music: a modular ten plus group/program led by Hoogland featuring many of the above mentioned muscians that covers a wide spectrum of Amsterdams rich music scene.
New on the Amsterdam scene is the fantastic TAKLAND venue based in a squat in the very centre of town. When in town Oscar can be found there on most Thursday nights. Often in the company of impropunk rocket Jannes Deurvorst with whom he performs as a DIY duo+ all over town.

In all these ensembles, one sees a Misha Mengelberg- like intellect which is just as focused on meta-music and discovering and challenging new ideas as it is on simply providing straight forward musical input. 
Oscar has also been crucial in helping this music reach new and different audiences, constantly finding unusual settings which draw together young artists, dancers, and hip underground party folk.
He has been running many different series and festivals in Amsterdam including, the legendary Eddie and the Eagles evening in collaboration with the Eddie the Eagle museum at OT301, the Amsterdam Real Book bicycle tours, The Impro Train series at Bimhuis and The 2nd Stop is Jupiter at De Ruimte. In 2016 het brought together the scenes of Amsterdam, Berlin and Chicago in the ABC Doek Festival.
Over the years he has engaged, both as composer and performer, extensively in the world of theater in collaboration with o.a. De Veenfabriek, De Warme Winkel and De Nieuwe Tijd. Hoogland is often invited in Amsterdams art house film theaters EYE and Cavia to play live music for film collaborating with o.a. Andy Moor, Mary Oliver and Bjork Semey.
Het Gemeente Museum Den Haag hosted his installation ‘On The Line’: an homage to Piet Mondriaan’s Victory Boogie Woogie that consisted of 12 identical alined record players playing 12 copies of Guus Janssens solo piano record On The Line.

As a teacher Oscar Jan Hoogland is currently on faculty for the composition department of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague teaching the improv lab, the jazz department of the Conservatory of Amsterdam teaching the subject instant composing and the Mime department of the Academy for Theater and Dance in Amsterdam.

Hoogland is co-director of the improvisers collective DOEK and was connected to the Amsterdam venue De Ruimte and runs his own record label De Platenbakkerij.

More info on many of the mentioned groups can be found on http://www.doek.org. On this site many of the mentioned projects are represented by the listed film material and audio. Choose [Watch TV] or [Listen to the music!] in the small menu at the top of this page.

CONTACT:

you can reach Oscar Jan Hoogland by e-mail through: [the same as the name of this website] at hotmail.com