Ruben van Dijk

Music writer

Netherlands

๐—™๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ (๐—บ๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฐ) ๐˜„๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ-๐—ณ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—™๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜ (๐—ณ๐—ฟ-๐—ป๐˜.๐—ป๐—น) ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฎ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—ฑ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜†๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ด. ๐—ช๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐˜„๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ธ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐——๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฑ ๐—•๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป.

Also available for (artist) biographies, translation gigs, editing, and copywriting (in both Dutch and English). Feel free to shoot me a Twitter DM or reach out at [email protected].

Portfolio
Front
07/27/2022
Infinitely open, Emily Sprague (Florist) is home again

Silence is myth on the fourth Florist album - simply titled Florist - a sci-fi concoction. Because after years of being alone, quiet, and detached, singer Emily Sprague realized that that's no way of living. And so instead, the first full-band album in five years by the New York folk band is a celebration...

Front
04/13/2021
Moments can be monuments: Cassandra Jenkins sees David Berman everywhere

Cassandra Jenkins had only known David Berman, leader of cult favourite Silver Jews, for a couple of days. Berman, her, and a number of other musicians were rehearsing to bring his latest record to life on stage. For at least two months of touring, they would be Purple Mountains โ€“ or โ€˜David Berman and His Handsome Grandkidsโ€™, as he jokingly called the ensemble โ€“ had Berman not taken his own life, mere days before the first show. For Jenkins, this sudden loss, and the events that followed,...

Personal Essay
02/12/2023
Ancient relics

"And the cause that they died for [is] lost in the idling bird calls, and the records they left are cryptic at best, lost in obsolescence. The text will not yield, nor x-ray reveal, with any fluorescence where the hand of the master begins and ends."

Front
02/16/2022
Big Thief is its own ecosystem

After each having had time to reflect and branch off on solo endeavours, the force of nature that is Big Thief reconvened in the summer of 2020 for a months-long series of sprawling recording sessions, fielding a total of 45 finished tracks โ€“ 20 of which now appear on Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You. Having spoken to guitarist Buck Meek, Ruben van Dijk writes about a band that exists on a very different earth.

Front
02/15/2022
Fuubutsushi is listening intently

Fuubutsushi was only ever meant to be a one-off; an album made through Zoom and Dropbox at the height of the pandemic by four musicians - Matthew Sage, Chris Jusell, Chaz Prymek, and Patrick Shiroishi - who had never been in a room together. Just for the sake of it.

Personal Essay
01/03/2022
Time to find a new creature to be

"Time has come now to stop being human Time to find a new creature to be Be a fish or a weed or a sparrow For the earth has grown tired and all of your time has expired" I had been travelling for...

Front
02/01/2021
Everything slowly: Buck Meek finds peace in rituals

Big Thief has always been a unique live band, but with a performance with Stephen Colbert in October 2019, the foursome proved once again how magical the sum of its parts is. Each band member draws the eye in their own way, seemingly living entirely in their own dream world and yet the interplay is unimaginably intimate. After solo albums by Adrianne Lenker and James Krivchenia last year, it is now guitarist Buck Meek's turn to show how his dream world sounds outside the context of Big Thief....

Front
10/25/2022
caroline's seismic sensibilities: "Whatever bleeds in becomes a part of it"

Listen to their self-titled debut album, released in February, and you might pick up traits of folk, post-rock, and Midwest emo, but witness caroline live and you'll find that here is a different beast. We caught up with the London band on Vlieland to discuss their approach to performance, and how it is the space that, more than anything...

Front
05/05/2022
Too many birds: Ben McElroy - How I Learnt To Disengage From The Pack

In his series Too many birds, Ruben van Dijk highlights overlooked albums, new and old, that renegotiate our human relationship to all that is non-human. What can we take away from these albums that might make us look a little differently at the natural world around, and within us?

Front
04/01/2022
No time is of the essence for Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer

Experimental composer / modular synthesiser guru Jeremiah Chiu and viola virtuoso Marta Sofia Honer had been living and playing together for many years, but it took an impromptu adventure to a place without time for the two to finally collaborate on a full-length LP.