Since 2001 Marnix Busstra plays the 8-string bouzouki, but he mainly used it as an instrument ‘on the side’, next to his main instrument the jazz-guitar. In 2020, due to the corona lockdown, he decided to use his empty calendar to make a solo-album on the bouzouki: ‘Dances with silence’.
The way he uses this instrument is not in the classical way it’s used in Greek or Irish music. He tunes it in a way it more or less sounds like an oriental instrument and he plays it in his very ‘own’ way. All this creates a very specific sound and atmosphere, there is a lot of ‘silence’ in it. But it’s not the usual ‘new age meditation’ kind of silence, but silence with a lot of melody and expression.
The repertoire is a combination of his own compositions and classics like ‘Norwegian wood’, ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ and ‘She’s always a woman’.
To buy the album Dances with silence, click here.