Kabouter Chismus was a short-lived project of Dutch singer-songwriter Nico Denhoorn (who died last year), who also made a private pressing solo album during that time, and singer Minneke Walstra. Nico Denhoorn later also became a writer of Dutch marginal literature.
This record represents a certain Dutch hippie movement that started out in the early sixties called Provo. Provo in Holland was one of the first worldwide movements of youth culture created in 1964 and in a way precedes many of the later proper hippie movements of America. It was very much influenced by Beat Generation writers, Marquis de Sade, Dada and anarchism. The Provo generation were one of the first generations to question environmental problems, challenge conservatism and advocate for women emancipation and progressive acadamic innovations in post-war Europe.
When the provo movement somewhat vanished in the same way Dada had decades earlier it gradually transformed into a movement in which people called themselves Kabouters, meaning Gnomes. basically the Kabouters took the provo mentality further into the years to come. They called The Netherlands Oranje Vrijstaat, which means Orange Free State, opposing the monarchy and wars western countries were engaging in during cold war. During that time Amsterdam was globally regarded as a liberal hippie capital. Its reputation of freedom to smoke weed and absolute freedom for gays is also rooted in this era.
Kabouter Chismus is a band that incorporates all these countercultural elements from Holland. The songs are sung in Dutch and English and deal with emancipatory subjects of the sixties. It's a combination of typical pop songs and acid folk songs. A real counter-cultural pearl from The Netherlands with an emphasis on Amsterdam as Kabouter City.
Get it HERE
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