(Lost In a Sea Of Sound) When receiving music from both Public Eyesore and Eh?, there is always some trepidation to the sounds these releases will hold. One aspect centering around this thought is how talented the artists are and the tenure they have had. For this release titled Joyous Junctures, Jaap Blonk has gone far away and survived with labor and skills from his own measures. Stunningly these creations are more than just subsistence in a perplexingly world, more like vignettes of a completely alien aspect. Each creation held with reverence by a stream consciousness current planetary vibrations do not resonate at. Yes, sounds from a dimension only a select few understand, now here with hopefulness of connecting with those willing to venture into the thresholds. Joyous Junctures is uplifting, challenging, curious and just plain amazing. Voice, electronics, samples mixed with an onslaught of experience and creativity, these are words feebly describing sounds in the nether reaches of descriptions. Think of a one person Haka that simultaneously delights and sends shivers of fear from lack of understanding. Computer generated voices in rearranged patterns, mimicking the English language with indecipherable twists. Jaap Blonk a soothsayer with a ghastly timber forewarning of the Ides of March. There are many tracks denoted on the cassette fold out card, but when listening, these selections seamlessly transition together. Concentration with intent of trying to comprehend is like hearing successive fractal patterns. The details are products of the entirety, thoughts are lost in the depths or reaches depending on each listeners perspective. These words are from an outsider trying to describe a direction someone has been traveling for a good length of time. Two paragraphs can not encapsulate this composition, but hopefully they will catch a flickering aural glimpse. As mentioned in the opening sentence, this is a release on the eh? label. Copies are available from the eh? website here. Also explore Jaap Blonk's extensive bandcamp page here. - Robot Rattle

(Vital Weekly) On a strictly personal level I can see some relationship between Jaap Blonk and Sindre Bjerga. I saw both of them play concerts on numerous occasions; in recent years hardly from Blonk and lot more from Bjerga. They are both tireless performers. In the case of Bjerga that leads to a lot of releases, taping every concert and finding labels to release (a selection at least) these. Blonk, on the other hand, is someone whose music has a broader range, from solo improvisations with the voice to heavily computer treated studies. His releases might not always (or rather: rarely) be derived from concerts. Still speaking on a personal level, I think both gentlemen deal with a form of sound poetry. In the case of Blonk clearly when he is using his mouth to generate sound, in Bjerga's case a bit more covered up. He uses various means, in which pre-recorded tapes with spoken word (perhaps found sound; maybe not) are played on an old Walkman and Dictaphones, something feeding the sound down a metal pipe to alter the sound. On his 'Hesitation Marks' cassette, he has a live recording from The Hague and Berlin, both within the space of one month in 2017. Both pieces are quite different. The one from The Hague is all about garbling up voice tape, along with contact microphone abuse on rough surfaces, sometimes leaping towards a bit of feedback, which he keeps well under control. In Berlin, the circumstances might have been a bit different as Bjerga stumbled upon feedback, metallic percussion in a non-rhythmical manner and it all sounds mildly more aggressive than what heard on the other side. It culminates in a dirty drone excursion that lasts some eight minutes and it takes his voice poetry to the most abstract level. Sindre Bjerga does what he does best and he does a great job at that. Jaap Blonk is a bit older than Bjerga and has been going since the late 80s with a wide range of musical interests, all of which involve his mouth, producing sounds and words (or vice versa). Sometimes harking back to the early days of Dada, improvising with other musicians, going all computer; anything goes, it seems for him, and this tape is a wild ride along many of these interests. Even when there are no other players listed here, it sounds at times like there are instruments at work here, but everything and that is really everything, went into the computer here and along the lines, various bits and bobs of software are transformed. Maybe live, on the spot? That was at least the impression I got from this cassette. Blonk uses words, voices, gestures of/by the mouth, singing, humming, moaning, sighing or whatever else, and then feeds it into the computer where it slides up, pitches down, stretches, compresses, bend and shaped with granular synthesis. All of these tracks are quite short and to the point, and somehow one fades into the next, even when they all have individual titles. Along with all this voice stuff, there is also the sound of the piano, percussion or strings. I have no idea how these fit into the picture; where do they come from? Are people playing these instruments along with Blonk (but why no mentioning of them on the cover?) or maybe these are midi-controlled instruments that Blonk has full control over as he plays them along with using his voice and controlling the software to process that voice material? Hard to say yet it does make up some fascinating listening. It is very poetic but with these occasional musical instruments also crazy, slightly messed up form of improvised music, that also goes out to the world of electro-acoustic music. It's a one-hour wild ride and it is great to see a new sign of life for mister Blonk; happy as always we this happens! - Frans De Waard

(Cassette Gods) Jaap Blonk is a friggin’ weirdo, but that shouldn’t matter to any of you who read any of this because you’re probably just as big of a friggin’ weirdo if you like all this outsider crap. And I include myself among that number, because I’m writing about all this outsider crap, like all the time. So does it even mean anything to refer to Mr. Blonk as a “friggin’ weirdo” even? I’m not sure it does. The Netherlands’ answer to … I can’t even think of a contemporary. The Netherlands’ answer to No One, then, Jaap Blonk does a lot with his mouth, making noise, intoning passages, incanting spells. I don’t understand a word he’s saying, because Dutch is not even remotely a second language to me. Which turns out to be fine as the meaning often ruins the whole deal for me. Here, on Joyous Junctures, we get the vocalizations overtop synthesizers, random noise bursts, other baffling instrumentation, and it’s all an incredible ride on the roller coaster of Blonk’s madness. Did I mention there were 27 tracks on this thing, and that it lasts an hour? That’s an awful lot of Blonk, and an awful lot of fun. In fact, it’s so fun that I wouldn’t hesitate to refer to it as space alien music encountered by the crew of the starship Enterprise throughout their intergalactic travels. Plus, Blonk’s been around so long, I bet he’s been to outer space himself at some point. Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. - Ryan Masteller

(Disaster Amnesiac) Recently at the high school were Disaster Amnesiac works, our World History class has been delving deeply into World War I. Along with marveling at just how much of a waste of people and resources that debacle was, I've also been thinking about how dada was really the only sane response to such an absolutely insane pursuit. If you're thinking that Joyous Junctures, the recent cassette from Jaap Blonk on eh? Records, also has Disaster Amnesiac thinking about dada, you'd be right. The playful, willfully skewed nature of the music on this release is certainly worthy of the moniker. The ways with which Blonk bends computer sounds, voices, and tones from other sources has my mind pinned to the existential floor as I imagine those that experienced the ontology emanating from Cabaret Voltaire must also have felt. Approached for a more linear vantage, Joyous Junctures may not do much for a listener, but if heard with a bit more of cyclic one, the songs on this cassette having the kind of surreal atmospheres and modes that really are delightful. Electronic squiggles merge with whirring and burbling tones. Metallic sounds scrape and trill. These then find themselves serving as the backdrop for vocal experimentation from both human and AI. Glossalalia and written texts are both found and explored by Blonk and his robots, sometimes within the same piece. It all adds up to an hour of delightfully odd, fun and often quite funny sounds. If you're in need of escape from the every day mundane, Joyous Junctures will surely do the trick. Its dada will likely have you laughing and marveling simultaneously. It's art for the living, so spend some time living with it, human! - Mark Pino

(Sound Projector) Jaap Blonk is the Dutch maestro of Dada-inspired vocalese noise who has long ago arrived in a space which only he can occupy; Sindre Bjerga, though good, is still striving to get there. On Joyous Junctures (EH?107), Blonk combines his familiar outrageous voice hoots and nonsensical flappery-barks with various forms of fragmented, doodly electronic music and percussive snippets, making a much richer record than if it was just him and a microphone. The echo effects, used boldly but tastefully, also lift the performances into extra-trampoline mode. I scanned the titles for further evidence of Jaap Blonk’s semi-lunatic outlook on life, but in this instance the words used are mostly delightfully prosaic and utilitarian, some of them not far away from titles which might have been selected by a Satie or a less vengeful Alfred Jarry. On some tracks, it’s evident Blonk still can’t shake off the ghost of Kurt Schwitters (one of Blonk’s earliest releases was a version of the Ursonate), but that’s a good phantom to be carrying around in your mental pouch. As title promises, this is indeed an album full of joyous sounds and happy coincidences, a trip in a balloon that makes absurdity and madness seem like great fun. - Ed Pinsent

(Chattanooga Pulse) Many years ago, this writer and certain friends had a form of micro-humor, involving attempts to crack each other up by uttering just a single carefully selected word, such as “oval” or “trousers”. It wasn’t the word’s meaning that mattered—it was the sound of the word and the delivery. This came to mind while considering the work of Dutch vocalist Jaap Blonk, who was profoundly influenced by early 20th century sound poetry from the Dada art movement. In particular, Blonk had a fascination with Kurt Schwitters’ ever-evolving “Ursonate” (excerpt: “Lanke trr gll / Pe pe pe pe pe / Ooka ooka ooka ooka”), which Blonk recorded in 1986 and performed when opening for the Stranglers, receiving a less-than-warm reception of taunts and thrown beer containers. Blonk’s new hour-long, 27-track album Joyous Junctures, released on cassette and digitally, hits the listener from a dizzying array of angles. Occasionally accompanying Blonk’s daredevil, nonsensical vocals (singing both real and invented words) are strange synthesized tones and noises, seemingly attempting to match the oddball nature of Blonk’s vocals, and peculiar duets form, including “Agreeable Argument” which features Blonk’s vocals mirroring a weird synth onslaught—or is it the synth mimicking his vocals? “Debate Rising” sounds like a mounting conversation between R2-D2 and a man panting and desperately gasping for breath, and “Hidden Skirmishes” is confrontational and abrasive, with Blonk providing an insane assortment of feral mouth sounds along with sharp, piercing tones. When staying in a hotel room, sometimes the muffled conversations from next-door inhabitants can be heard, and from the tone and manner of the voices, it’s often possible to understand what is being communicated even if the words themselves aren’t discernible. This type of implied communication comes through on several tracks on Joyous Junctures, from the guttural growls of “Morning Ghosts” that seem to be part of a sinister invocation, to others that drift by in a meditative reverie. Blonk’s pieces are bewildering and wildly unconventional, but like Dada art, there can be a comical joy in being lost in the depths of absurdity and confusion. - Ernie Paik

(Raised by Cassettes) This cassette begins right away with vocals. This isn't your typical type of singing though as the sounds being made aren't always words but are rather sounds. In a large way, I like to think of this how comic books can have various sounds present but they are always for actions rather than words. Or, if you're older, it can be like the original Batman series with Adam West and how they always put up graphics with sounds on them as well. There are minimal electronics behind this as well, at least to start. The e lectronics begin expanding and really just taking over before the vocals come back as more of a whisper. While the music begins to just sort of vibe, the vocals come through like that of a language I do not understand. It's not just that the sound is created in a way which makes me think of actions but it's sometimes like a word but just not a word I've heard before. So there is this sort of alien language feeling to this cassette as well. It could be a matter of creating your own language, but it also does still sound like a Batman fight.A piano comes in with the trill now and this one feels a bit more classical. I'm thinking about how some musicians incorporate the sound of their voice plus an acoustic guitar. It reminds me of that but only because it is this voice- which might have just said "buckle" or might also be speaking backwards- with the electronics. I would not want to be the one putting the words onto the screen if this was on television in a closed caption setting. With the electronics fading, the voice becomes darker, evil, as if it is a warlock casting a spell upon us. This also feels like a nod to Gollum, which makes me think of "Lord of the Rings" vibes all over. We trill now, like the rolling of a glass bottle. A different voice comes in now, possibly speaking a language I just do not understand and it also sounds like it could be a computer voice such as Siri but not quite Siri. Now I'm wondering if anyone has ever made music and just used Siri as their vocalist. Clangs come through and make me think of a guitar being plucked, somewhat like Primus but a little bit more violent. The voices definitely are talking about "stew" and sometimes say just random letters (I heard a J) That guitar sound is really just blasting away in here as well. Singing comes through now more like a moan and it makes me think about how this could some sort of holy hymn type of song more than anything else. A slow electronic rattle is behind this and if it was in a church setting it'd make sense. The vocals come through more like speaking now and it sounds like words are being said, like "Follow unto me", but I just don't fully understand them. I definitely heard "lover" and "never again" but I can't seem to piece together any lyrics otherwise. I also feel like I just heard "I'll hurt some know this may be for" and then I'm not sure. Louder, sharper electronics now, hit like laser blasts but have a different feel to them. This is a slow, step by step electronic song but it is so good. Deeper bass synths come in as well and this one is just that alien feeling but also something which relaxes me even with the sharp edges. A motor drive turns into a burst of sharp static and the vocals seem to be making strange sounds over this, like an explosion of the distorted electronics and mouth. To some extent, these vocals also sound like Donald Duck. It sounds like the radio station is being changed and then I feel like drum sticks are hitting each other before it is the ringing like a phone. It feels like there is a lot of beeping now, something monster screaming from the trash and then just this overall sense of destruction and trouble. This takes us into an organ number which almost begins to feel like a sea shanty. The sound is of broken guitars being strum now. The vocals begin to sound as if someone is choking, as the electronics swirl around like droids. The vocals also just sound terrified. It's really just become this electronic swirl now. The vocals have faded. The electronics also eventually fade, as a rocket becomes quieter while it shoots into space. On the flip side we open up with the pleasant ringing of glass tones. The vocals- though they still don't quite make words- remind me of some artists I've heard but don't always remember by name. Xiu Xiu comes to mind right away. I think he just said "how I wish her clothes fall apart" but I can't be sure. The frequencies whirr and change. The vocals come through like a whisper but in an angry way as the electronics revert back to droids like R2D2 once again. I hear car horns now as well. Deep bass expands like footsteps now. Words feel like they are being spoken by a computer but they also feel like they are typed up as not words. It does sound like they are talking about June. It's that deep creaking now, like a haunted basement, and I like how it feels like random not-really-words are just being typed up by the artist and read by the computers. This takes us into a song which has more pleasant melodies and feels like it could almost be a dreamy island number. A quiet rattle and hum as this sounds like nature, being in the woods with bugs and such at night time. It feels almost as if the vocals are glitching as the jungle noises make me think we are on some kind of wild ride. Notes come in one by one now and it has a spaced out rock way about it. The vocals feel haunted like a ghost and I know they said "gaga" as the pianos play all the keys. "I'll hatch you a lovely" and then I'm not sure what the next words are. There is that feeling once again of radio stations being tuned and at that same time I feel like the vocals are scrambled. I also feel like at times I hear "Go, Chaka, go!" which makes me think of the "Land of the Lost" movie. A strum now, like an old acoustic western song. A very robotic computer voice comes on to say something. This turns into footsteps and an engine warming up. Quieter now, but the frequency changes like Pole Position. A sharpness and then it feels like metal rattling. And then I feel like everything just accelerates and blasts off into space. There is a little bit of a melody to the vocals, though I still cannot make out a word, as this one seems to just fade into the galaxy, electronics and vocals all the way. - Joshua Macala