Remy in Residence: Atlas

As winner of the GrachtenfestivalPrijs 2013, harpist Remy van Kesteren is serving as Artist in Residence for the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam 2014. That means he’s been given carte blanche to plan three concerts.
Wait until you hear the results: three wildly differing programmes featuring three genres in diverse combinations. Van Kesteren and saxophonist Ties Mellema founded the five-person band Atlas, which played its first show at the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam’s last Winterspecial.
The two men prefer concerts with a distinct pop flavour and have surrounded themselves with adventurous musicians who dare to break the rules of classical music: Rob Dirksen on bass and contrabass, Ramon Lormans on percussion, and Vincent Houdijk on drums and percussion. Atlas’s performance at the international club People’s Place won’t look like a typical classical concert with neat rows of chairs, much less a programme booklet. Playing their own compositions and arrangements, Atlas invites the audience to come along on an exploration of the boundaries of music.