Information on the documentary series
Title: De kinderen van de Hondsberg
Director: Roel van Dalen
Originally broadcasted in 1998 on October 5, 12, 19, 26 and November 2 (Mondays).
Located in the Brabantine [1] woods is the rural estate 'De Hondsberg'. This is an institute where specialist help is offered to children who are developmentally retarded. Often these are children with an intellectual handicap who have travelled a long and difficult path. They have been councelled (with or without their parents) by the social-educational services, the family doctor, the specialist, the psychiatrist or other experts. Some didn't get results from working with the social services for years and finally ended up in 'De Hondsberg' to find out what is really wrong with them, whether it is treatable and what else should be done for these children.
Director Roel van Dalen filmed some of the children living in 'De Hondsberg' for almost one year. This resulted in the five part documentary 'De kinderen van De Hondsberg'. The series draws a probing picture of a different, totally isolated world, known only to the people who are (were) directly involved.
[1] A province in the southern part of the Netherlands.
Note: this is a translation from the information available on the website of the TV-station (NCRV) that made this documentary.
Who are Astrid Seriese and Martijn van Agt
All this information was copied from the cd-inlay, except where noted.
Astrid Seriese
Astrid Seriese (Den Haag / The Hague 1957) was educated at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and at the Academie voor Kleinkunst in Amsterdam. Since 1963 she has been working as an actress on stage (Mephisto, 1983) on film (Blonde dolly, 1987) and in cabarets (Tingel tangel, 1983-1984). But more than anything, she has made a career in music. As a singer she started off singing the songs of Bertolt Brecht in 1983, and was a member of Nedly Elstak's Seven singers and a horn. She also formed the Astrid Seriese/Nedly Elstak kwintet with him. In 1985 she met composer Louis Andriesen, the most influential and renowned Dutch composer of contemporary music. She has been performing his compositions ever since then (Kaalslag, De tijd, Y despues). Their most notable collaboration was M is man music mozart. The music was composed by Andriessen for a BBC television film, directed by Peter Greenaway, starring Astrid Seriese. It was rewritten for theatre group Hollandia in 1990, and performed with orchestra De volharding. In 1985 Astrid Seriese was part of the Dutch entry for the Belgian Knokke songcontest. The Dutch team consisted of three completely different singers: Astrid, Julya Lo'ko and Mathilde Santing. They won the contest, and their collaboration was so successful that they toured the country together (The good thing, 1991).
She played and sang in The good, the bad and the fat, based on Marie Redonnet's book Hotel splendid (1988) as well as in the opera-production Fausto by Harry de Wit, about the life of Fausto Coppi.
In 1992 she made her first solo-album Eclipse, which was highly praised by the Dutch critics and sold extremely well. She made two more albums since then: Secret world (1994) and Into temptation (1996). In 1995 she composed and performed the soundtrack of Veroordeeld (Condemned) in collaboration with percussionist Peter Meuris, a series of five documentary films. The soundtrack album Condemned was released in 1995. Her new solo-album will be released in 1999.
In 1996 she was asked to compose music to a theatre production of Euripides' Women of Troy (Zuidelijk Toneel) in 1996. She wrote songs that were performed by her and other members of the cast.
She has toured the country with her own band ever since 1993: the Eclipse-tour, followed by her Secret world-tour (1994/1995), and the Into temptation-tour (1996/1997).
Some reviews and advertisements I found on various websites
- Of all the fine female singers we have in the Netherlands, Seriese may have the most beautiful and sensitive voice (Album review in De Limburger, a regional newspaper)
- She seems to become more beautiful as the years pass and that certainly applies to her voice: jazz in a Kire Te Kanawa-like wrapping with an exotic touch. No raw powerful voice, no voluptuous glissandi, no notes with 'false air'. Technically refined, but seasoned. She says she has a dark-brown voice "Not black. Darker than my skin, but also with nuances like the ochre-yellow color of a ray of sunlight. Singing is of vital importance to me. When I can't sing, I become silted up." Astrid Seriese worked with jazz-celebrities like Nedly Elstak (her 'mentor'), Willem Breuker en Martin van Duinhoven, played cabaret in the Tingel-Tangel troupe of Sieto Hoving and became well-known after winning the prestigious Knokke songfestival together with Mathilde Santing and Julia Loko. She offers an intimate show, in which she melts all musical styles into one voice. (taken from an on-line advertisement for her show 'Weep')
- Astrid Seriese may be the female singer with the most spirit in the Netherlands, who can set the hearts of audiences all over the country on fire. Together with her five other bandmembers she shows, using her own songs and very personal renditions of songs by Tom Waits, Kurt Weill, Mahalia Jackson, David Byrne and Metallica, that temptation can sometimes be irresistable. In a mixture of blues, rock, chanson and jazz Astrid Seriese offers more than just a perfect night out. (another show advertisement)
Martijn van Agt
Martijn van Agt (Nijmegen, 1967) plays the guitar. He studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has been a member of the Astrid Seriese band sincs 1995, and he is part of the Daniel Romeo-band. He played with many important pop musicians, and is currently preparing his first album, which will be released in the spring of 1998.
The CD 'On Children'
![[jpg 17KB, CD On Children]](pic/dokument.jpg)
Today (nov 11th 1998) I received confimation that this cd contains covers of 'Horses' and 'Beauty Queen', performed by Astrid Seriese and Martijn van Agt.
I have some RealAudio and MP3 soundclips available for download at the bottom of this page.
You can listen to a Real Audio soundclip (streaming) of one of the other songs on the CD (track 18, I think). This clip is hosted by the NCRV website.
Track listing
- Horses - (1:50)
- Swallowed Tears - (3:19)
- I'm Stepping Out - (2:33)
- On Children (instrumental) - (2:41)
- On The Loose - (3:15)
- Love Doesn't Frighten Me - (5:05)
- Children Of Light (instrumental) - (0:36)
- The Me Myself Of Me - (1:52)
- Intimacy - (3:08)
- Horses (instrumental) [slow] - (2:21)
- Ashamed - (2:11)
- Quality Time - (2:40)
- Beauty Queen - (0:51)
- Horses (instrumental) [fast] - (2:15)
- Mammy - (1:25)
- Break (instrumental) - (1:58)
- Love Doesn't Frighten Me (instrumental) - (2:48)
- On Children - (3:03)
1, 13: words & music Tori Amos
2, 3, 6, 12: words Astrid Seriese, music Astrid Seriese, Martijn van Agt
4, 7: music Astrid Seriese
5, 17: words Astrid Seriese, music Martijn van Agt
8, 9, 11, 15: words & music Astrid Seriese
10, 14: music Tori Amos
16: music Martijn van Agt
18: words Kahlil Gibran, music Astrid Seriese
Introduction taken from the CD-inlay
In the garden behind the house, fifteen year old Terrence proudly tells us that he's been going steady with Anita, a girl that's playing further down the road. She doesn't know anything of the courtship, but that makes no difference to Terrence. With gleaming eyes, he explains their supposed plans for the future. Later, when they'll have grown up, as he tells us, they'll buy a farm with all sorts of fair ground attractions and they'll make a big pool with killer whales. And there will have to be lots of horses! As soon as the little boy finishes speaking and remains looking shyly to the ground, a golden voice sounds: Exposed by the light, anything exposed by the light turns into light, anything illuminated turns into light.
Singer Astrid Seriese and gitarist Martijn van Agt have composed the music to De Kinderen van de Hondsberg (The Children of Hondsberg): a series of five documentary films in which the lives of several mentally disabled children are reflected. The series was broadcast in 1998 by NCRV-television.
The music of On Children creates a dreamscape of impressions about the feelings of children and about dealing with children. The gentle touching tone, that Seriese and van Agt appear to have found effortlessly, gives the documentary a magical feeling and adds enormously to the end result. On the other hand, the music is completely independent of the series. It doesn't need the documentary to survive. Where many soundtracks lose their power when the accompanying images are not seen, this music loses nothing of its emotional value and its intensity.
Each and every piece of this soundtrack is a little monument for the children that we've been following with a camera for such a long time. I am extremely happy that this music exists.
Roel van Dalen
director, august 1998
How to order the CD
Title: On Children
Artist: Astrid Seriese & Martijn van Agt (most cd-shops only mention Astrid Seriese)
Label: Brigadoon Vocal (a division of Double T Music)
CD-number: BIS 024
Distribution: Sony Music
You can probably order the cd from your local record store, but for those not living in The Netherlands, ordering on-line may be cheaper. Here are a few Dutch/European stores that sell the cd. Shipping costs to the USA are placed in ():
If anyone finds cheaper offers, then I'll gladly add them to this list. I have never done business with any of these shops, so I don't know whether they are reliable or not.
Extra option for those living in the Netherlands
[in dutch]... De CD is te bestellen door f 39.90 over te maken op gironummer 850.000 ten name van de NCRV in Hilversum, onder vermelding van cd 'On Children'.
U krijgt uw bestelling dan binnen drie weken thuisbezorgd.
NCRV Uitgaven: Postbus 25200, 1202 HE Hilversum
Vragen: uitgaven@ncrv.nl
Kijk voor de zekerheid even naar de CD bestel informatie, die de NCRV op haar eigen website heeft staan. (ik maak wel eens een tikfout :)
Let Op: Bij bovenstaande bestelmethode wordt er vanuit gegaan dat het geld vanaf een particuliere giro-rekening via een schriftelijke overschrijving wordt overgemaakt. Alleen in dat geval kan de Postbank de benodigde adresgegevens aan de NCRV doorgeven.
Indien het geld via telebankieren of vanuit een niet-Postbank rekening wordt overgemaakt, dan moet het adres van de klant vermeld worden op/bij de overschrijving.
Download Soundclips
At the start of each of the five documentary episodes, Horses (track 01) was played. The only time I heard Beauty Queen was somewhere in the last episode. I never noticed the instrumental versions of Horses in any the three episodes I've seen.
MP3: Encoded using 24,000 bit/sec, mono (176 KB/minute)
RealAudio: Encoded using 16,000 bit/sec, mono (117 KB/minute)
A note about the Quality: Due to the higher bitrate and the better encoding, the MP3's sound better than the RealAudio soundclips. I can and will not offer cd-quality stereo clips of these songs on this site. The cd 'On Children' is not limited as far as I know, so if you want the best in sound quality... buy the cd ;)