Stephen Emmer (
/ˈstɛfən/ ''STEF-ən''; born 28 January 1958 in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
) is a Dutch composer, arranger, producer, sound designer and musician.
Best known as a composer for Dutch television and film, Emmer has released four albums as a solo artist, each with a different theme or concept. ''Vogue Estate''
released in 1982, is the soundtrack for an imaginary film; 2007’s ''Recitement''
is a spoken word album of poetry and prose; ''International Blue'',
released in 2014, is a tribute to pop crooners. In 2017 Emmer released ''Home Ground'',
a neo-soul album that addresses social issues related to origin.
Emmer is closely associated with the Dutch Ultra movement of late 1970s and early 1980s.
He was a member of
Minny Pops
Minny Pops is a Dutch, Amsterdam-based new wave/electronic/art punk band, associated with the Ultra post-punk movement in the Netherlands and the Factory Records label in the UK.
History
The vocalist/songwriter/programmer Wally van Middendo ...
and the
Lotus Eaters,
co-founded the music magazine ''Vinyl''
and hosted and produced RadioNome for Dutch broadcasting organization
VPRO
The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more so ...
.
Early life and education
Emmer was born in Amsterdam. His parents are mother Roekie Aronds, actress and ballet dancer
and father
Fred Emmer
Freddy Emmer (23 August 1934 – 24 December 2019) was a Dutch news presenter for NTS and NOS.[Mathilde Santing
Mathilde Santing (born Mathilde Eleveld, 24 October 1958) is a Dutch singer.
Santing was born in Amstelveen, Netherlands. She started receiving national attention in 1981 after she appeared in a Dutch television program called ''Sonja Op Maandag ...](_blank)
and Dennis Duchart.
Music
1979-1984: Minny Pops, ''Radionome'', ''Vinyl'', Vogue Estate
In 1979, Emmer joined
Minny Pops
Minny Pops is a Dutch, Amsterdam-based new wave/electronic/art punk band, associated with the Ultra post-punk movement in the Netherlands and the Factory Records label in the UK.
History
The vocalist/songwriter/programmer Wally van Middendo ...
, an avant-garde post-punk band central to the
Dutch Ultra movement,
and co-founded ''Vinyl'', a music magazine launched in 1981.
In January 1980, Minny Pops opened for
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris.
Sumner and Hook formed the band after att ...
and were subsequently signed by
Factory Records
Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus.
The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Durutt ...
.
In 1981, they recorded their first single for Factory, ''Dolphin's Spurt,'' with Joy Division producer
Martin Hannett
James Martin Hannett (31 May 1948 – 18 April 1991), initially credited as Martin Zero, was an English record producer, musician and an original partner/director at Tony Wilson's Factory Records. Hannett produced music by artists including Joy ...
.
The first Dutch band to do a
Peel Session
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
,
Minny Pops toured the UK several times; Emmer, who had joined the band as a guitarist, performed and recorded on both guitar and bass guitar on the album "Drastic Measures, Drastic Movement". He also hosted and produced radio programs for the Dutch broadcasting organization
VPRO
The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more so ...
, including ''Radionome'', which aired experimental music and live in-studio performances.
Emmer's music was included on ''Radionome'' compilation albums issued by VPRO. In 1982, Emmer recorded ''Vogue Estate'', a soundtrack for an imaginary film. Although mainly an instrumental, it included two songs with vocals: "Wish On" with
Billy MacKenzie
William MacArthur Mackenzie (27 March 1957 – 22 January 1997) was a Scottish singer and songwriter, known for his distinctive high tenor voice. He was the co-founder and lead vocalist of post-punk and new wave band the Associates. He also h ...
(of
The Associates) and "Never Share" with
Martha Ladley (from
Martha and the Muffins
Martha and the Muffins are a Canadian rock band, active from 1977 to the present. Although they only had one major international hit single " Echo Beach" under their original band name, they had a number of hits in their native Canada, and th ...
). Michael Dempsey, formerly of
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member. The band's ...
, played bass on ''Vogue Estate'', which was produced by Emmer with
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
.
Emmer also performed with the Associates in 1982. In 1984 Dempsey and Emmer joined
The Lotus Eaters.
2006 – present: ''Recitement,'' ''International Blue,'' ''Home Ground''
Working with producer
Tony Visconti
Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of many ...
, Emmer composed music to accompany poetry and prose voiced by authors and performers for the album ''Recitement,'' released on the Dutch Supertracks label in 2007. Some were new recordings, made specifically for ''Recitement,'' and others were previously recorded. Its 17 tracks included texts by
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
,
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Genera ...
,
Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American novelist and travel writer who has written numerous books, including the travelogue, '' The Great Railway Bazaar'' (1975). Some of his works of fiction have been adapted as feature films. H ...
,
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wo ...
,
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
,
Ken Nordine
Ken Nordine (April 13, 1920 – February 16, 2019) was an American voice-over and recording artist, best known for his series of word jazz albums. His deep, resonant voice has also been featured in many commercial advertisements and movie trai ...
,
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited ...
and
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic ex ...
, voiced by
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...
,
Richard Burton
Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable p ...
,
Sylvia Kristel
Sylvia Maria Kristel (28 September 1952 17 October 2012) was a Dutch actress and model who appeared in over 50 films. She is best remembered as the eponymous character in five of the seven Emmanuelle films, including originating the role with ''E ...
,
Michael Parkinson
Sir Michael Parkinson (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the U ...
and
Hugo Claus
Hugo Maurice Julien Claus (; 5 April 1929 – 19 March 2008) was a leading Belgian author who published under his own name as well as various pseudonyms. Claus' literary contributions spanned the genres of drama, the novel, and poetry; he also ...
among others.
In 2014, again working with Visconti, Emmer released ''International Blue,'' tribute to pop
crooning
Crooner is a term used to describe primarily male singers who performed using a smooth style made possible by better microphones which picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to access a more dynamic range ...
.
A collection of "lushly orchestrated tales of heartbreak", it featured vocalists
Midge Ure
James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980 ...
from
Ultravox
Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...
,
Glenn Gregory
Glenn Peter Gregory (born 16 May 1958) is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose music career spans more than 40 years. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as co-founder and lead singer of the new wave and synthpop b ...
of
Heaven 17
Heaven 17 are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in Sheffield in 1980. The band were a trio for most of their career, composed of Martyn Ware (keyboards) and Ian Craig Marsh (keyboards) (both previously of the Human League), ...
, Liam McKahey of
Cousteau and Neil Crossley. Gregory collaborated on four of the album's ten songs, including "Untouchable", a "darkly sumptuous" tribute to Billy MacKenzie.
For the Christmas holiday,
Julian Lennon
Julian Charles John Lennon (born John Charles Julian Lennon; 8 April 1963) is an English musician. He is the son of Beatles member John Lennon and his first wife, Cynthia, and he is named after his paternal grandmother, Julia Lennon. Julian ...
recorded a seasonal version of the album's "Sleep for England". ''
De Telegraaf
''De Telegraaf'' (; en, The Telegraph) is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, ''de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief s ...
'' wrote that ''International Blue'' was "the most beautifully orchestrated, arranged and composed album of the year".
In 2017, Emmer released ''Home Ground,'' a retro-soul album inspired by the "music-with-a-message movement of the 1970s", such as
Marvin Gaye's ''
What's Going On''. The album addresses social issues related to "homeground". Commenting on ''Homeground'' in a 2017 interview Emmer said: "Where your own home ground is; is it in your own country, your city or village, your house or is it close to your loved ones or is it in your own heart or head?" A benefit album for the charity
War Child featured vocalists including
Chaka Khan,
Leon Ware
Leon Ware (February 16, 1940 – February 23, 2017) was an American songwriter, producer, composer, and singer. Besides a solo career as a performer, Ware was best known for producing hits for other artists including Michael Jackson, Quincy ...
,
Patti Austin
Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950) is an American R&B, pop, and jazz singer and songwriter.
Music career
Austin was born in Harlem, New York, to Gordon Austin, a jazz trombonist. She was raised in Bay Shore, New York on Long Island. Quincy ...
,
Frank McComb
Frank McComb (born July 15, 1970) is a soul singer and record producer. He has collaborated with Prince, Chaka Khan, Will Smith, Najee, Branford Marsalis, George Duke, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Phyllis Hyman, Gamble and Huff, Patrice Rushen, Lalah ...
and
Andy Bey
Andrew W. Bey (born October 28, 1939) is an American jazz singer and pianist. Bey has a wide vocal range, with a four-octave baritone voice.
Raised in Newark, New Jersey,Adler, David R"Andy Bey" ''JazzTimes'', April 25, 2019. Accessed December ...
.
Review Soultracks.
Emmer is the founder of eStation, a media production studio.
He is the music director for ''Holiday on Ice'', and the
Cartoon Network's live show, which launched in 2018.
The album ''Maison Melody'', self-recorded by Emmer during the
Covid-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...
lockdown, was released for free in 2020 to emotionally support the people financially affected by self-isolations.
Awards
*''Home Ground'', Golden Global Music Award 2017
*Humanitarian Award, Global Music Awards, 2018
Discography
Albums
Singles
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emmer, Stephane
1958 births
Living people
Dutch composers
Dutch music arrangers
Dutch record producers
Musicians from Amsterdam
Sound designers
The Lotus Eaters (band) members