Dreamcatcher, Space and Time

Dreamcatcher, Space and Time


L-B

Translated from the local newspaper: For this Dutchman composing is like an opiate. His work equals that of a dreamcatcher, laying it’s ear to listen to the breath of the universe. As Leisure-B, Gerrit Elbrink catches dreams for your ears to listen.

During the daytime the thirty one year old works as a web-programmer for customers around the globe. In the night time, he loses himself in the music: ”At a certain point I lose track of my exact position in space and time. From then on out I’m just there, lost in a feeling of control over the intuitive creative process.”, says the Bachelor of Arts and Technology.

He who takes a long deep look into himself at a lost moment knows what Gerrit is talking about when he raves on about how he catches the melodies before they get lost. To breath life into a certain melodie by catchng it and then creating a fitting sound for it is like catching dreams: ”I just wit untill the right thought passes my brain. Then I catch it and convert it to fit in the composition.”.

When the world around him fades to the background, he feels like an astronaut in a space pod which cruises through space. That’s why the two titles in his current discography are called ”Live In Space” and ”Back In Space”. Leisure also performed his space time continuum music live, for example at the Velvet Club in Frankfurt or in Studio 80 in Amsterdam. At the ”Lowlands Festival” in 2006, with it’s 65.000 visitors, hundreds of people danced to the glitch-hop and electric Jazz rhythms.

Normally musicians start with a local fanbase: For example, they’ll first perform in Porta Westfalica, then Bielefeld, and finally they’ll get big in Berlin. At Humanworkshop it’s exactly the other way around. The internet allows it. He runs his virtual musical platform Humanworkshop.com together with other musicians and producers such as the likes of Daan Hendriks, Remus Ockels and Durk Kooistra. Strangely enough, their music is especially loved by women as well as Americans, mostly from the San Fransisco bay area.

Music is his life blood. But still tthere is something more important: ”My biggest achievement is my relation with my girlfriend” he says. He met his dreamgirl Merle Stürenburg eleven years ago, on a regular vacation to the Dutch isle of Ameland. They talked all night on the night they first met, and immediatly it was clear to them: We belong together.

The tall blond Dutchman with the pleasing smile grew up in Bussum, the Netherlands. He got a saxaphone, along with the obligatory thirty minute minimun practice a day, at the age of six. From the age of thirteen he started playing electric bass, tought by german conservatorium students. While playing in his frst band ”Miep” he first got the feeling of perfect harmony. At that point he knew: ”I’m gonna be a musician.” At the age of twenty four he recieved his Bachelors Degree in Arts and Technology, at the High School of Arts and Technology in Hilversum.

The descision to move to Germany was one based upon love for his girl. Among other activities she sees her work in Vlotho for an organisation which supports disabled people as her true calling. As a webdesigner and muscician he’s flexible as well as content: ”I live the life which I’ve always dreamed of.” he says. Two things are still failing thoug: Horses in the stable and a couple of kids.

He or she who wants to listen to his dreams, can do so at Humanworskhop.com. Who wants to hear him live will have to come visit his performance at the Aqua Magica in Bad Oeynhausen next year.