Mark Ritsema (born 8 March 1962 in Amsterdam) is a singer, guitarist, songwriter, journalist and writer from the Netherlands. During the eighties and nineties he fronted cult bands Spasmodique and Cobraz and currently he plays with

Raskolnikov Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Родион Романович Раскольников, Rodión Románovich Raskólʹnikov, rədʲɪˈon rɐˈmanəvʲɪtɕ rɐˈskolʲnʲɪkəf) is the fictional protago ...

. He also performs as the solo artist

Nightporter "Nightporter" is a song by English new wave band Japan. The song originally featured on the band's fourth album ''Gentlemen Take Polaroids'' in 1980. However, it was then remixed by Steve Nye and released as a single in November 1982. The singl ...

and plays guitar for John Sinclair, Vera and

Mecano Mecano was a Spanish pop band formed in 1981 and active until 1992. Mecano became one of the most successful Spanish pop bands of all time. The band is still the best-selling Spanish band, with over 25 million records worldwide. They were consid ...

Early years

Ritsema, born in Amsterdam, grew up in Zwijndrecht and

Maassluis Maassluis () is a city in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of in and covered of which was water. It received city rights in 1811. History Maassluis was founded circa 1340 as a se ...

, suburban towns near Rotterdam where he moved with his parents in 1974. After teaching himself to play guitar, Ritsema started writing songs in the late seventies, inspired by the punk and new wave movements. He formed a duo with drummer Reinier Rietveld called Evil a.k.a. Puberpunk. Around 1979 the pair (with Ritsema now on bass) joined singer/guitarist Arjo Hijmans, and guitarist Ed Versloot, to form their first serious, but short lived, band .

Bands

Spasmodique

In 1981 Ritsema began to work at a psychogeriatric nursing home in Capelle a/d IJssel. Here he met bassplayer Martin Doctors van Leeuwen and drummer Bob Stoute, who had just disbanded their band Slum. They joined forces, with Ritsema on lead vocals and guitar. Soon after their first show in a car-park in Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel in 1982, they were joined by Reinier Rietveld on drums and Arjo Hijmans on guitar. In 1983 Stoute left. In this (classic) line-up Spasmodique remained active until 1990, gaining a solid live-reputation in the Netherlands and releasing a few cassettes during the first half of the decade. They released their first mini-album in 1986, followed by four albums, a mini-album and two singles. The quartet toured intensively throughout the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia. After Hijmans left in 1990, they worked with guitar players Niek den Brave, Hans Brussee and Raymond Gerrits, and finally broke up in 1992. In 1998 the classic line-up of Spasmodique reunited. They recorded the soundtrack for the short movie ''In Forced Perspective'' by Favola Film (Rino Gouw and Hugo Goudswaard) and performed live in the Rotterdam club

Rotown Rotown is a music venue and a bar-restaurant in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is located close to the city centre, on the Nieuwe Binnenweg. It is housed in a former Chinese restaurant and has been, although a small one, Rotterdam's main venue for r ...

under the name Villa Delirium. Spasmodique started recording new material they had written around 2000. The album ''Villa Delirium'' was finally released in 2002 and the book ''Cellar of Roses'', about Spasmodique, edited by Jean-Paul van Mierlo, was launched at the same time. After a lengthy Dutch tour Ritsema decided to leave Spasmodique, which meant the end of the band.

Cobraz

In the early nineties Ritsema started playing and composing with multi-instrumentalist

Willem Cramer Willem () is a Dutch and West FrisianRienk de Haan, ''Fryske Foarnammen'', Leeuwarden, 2002 (Friese Pers Boekerij), , p. 158. masculine given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, G ...

. Cramer had just left the Rotterdam-based multi-cultural band East Meets West. They soon recruited more (ex-)members of this band – percussionists Alex Eind, Daniël Bloem and John de Wit – to join a 1992 tour of the Netherlands with East Meets West and Hi Ho Silver, called Rotterdam Olay I (De Rotterdamse Daad). They were joined by Martin Doctors van Leeuwen on bass and changed their name to Cobraz. A CD was issued, featuring three tracks by each band on the tour. Most of the band members left after the tour, so Ritsema and Cramer were joined by percussionists Joke Hamminga (East Meets West) and Coen Aalberts (Willy Nilly), and drummer Ron de Bruijn. This line-up debuted in Rotterdam at the Metropolis Festival in 1993. Doctors van Leeuwen left to be replaced by Chris Grem. This sextet recorded Cobraz only studio album ''Sato Bar'' (produced by TC Matic guitarist and producer

Jean-Marie Aerts Jean-Marie Aerts (Zeebrugge (Bruges), 25 May 1951) is a Belgian guitarist and producer, best known as the guitar player for TC Matic. Aerts was a session musician who had worked with Kaz Lux, Raymond van het Groenewoud, and Plastic Bertrand when ...

) in 1995, and disbanded the following year.

(Mark Ritsema & Trio) Raskolnikov

In 1997 Ritsema formed Last Side Show with Jean-Marie Aerts, Chris Grem and Coen Aalberts (replaced by Ron de Bruijnduring the first Dutch tour ) but the band broke up before the end of the year due to logistic problems. Live and studio recordings were made but never released. In 1998 Ritsema was asked by the local radio station Radio Rijnmond to play during their weekly talk show Studio Gloria. Initially Ritsema reunited with Grem (on piano) and Aalberts, calling themselves Trio Raskolnikov. After a few radio shows, double bassplayer Peter Jessen was recruited and the band name was changed to Mark Ritsema & Trio Raskolnikov. Combining Ritsema's new songs, written each week, with jazzy improvisations, they rapidly became an established band that began playing throughout the Netherlands. With the financial help of Radio Rijnmond and

they also released a collection of radio recordings on CD ''Studio Gloria'' (1999). In 2001 they were part of the music, dance and film performance ''Dorst'', with Regina Magnus (choreography, dance), Sanja Hasagic (dance) and Favola Film (visuals) for Rotterdam Cultural Capital. In 2001, together with members of the Q-Club from Hoorn, Ritsema founded UNSOUND, an organisation and record label that established the musical freedom of its members in a lengthy manifest
UNSOUND0001
, which is partly an indictment of the commercial, tunnel visioned, music world. In 2003 UNSOUND released new albums by both Q-Club and

(with Aalberts again replaced by De Bruijn), and the two bands also shared the stage during the theatrical music show UNSOUND0007, with visuals and video footage by Favola Film. The recording of the on-line-only album ''Portrait of Raskolnikov As A Young Man'' was financed by a group of Raskolnikov fans. During 2007/2008 Raskolnikov was fairly inactive, due to Ritsema's solo-activities, Grem's work for

Charlie Dée Renée van Dongen, professionally known as Charlie Dée (born 1977), is a Dutch singer-songwriter from Rotterdam. She won De Grote Prijs van Nederland in 2004 and released her debut album ''Where Do Girls Come From'' in 2006 and a year later ''Lo ...

and Jessens's growing activities in the classical/ avant-garde music world. New live shows and recordings are being planned for 2009.

Solo

From the early nineties on, Ritsema performed solo, accompanying himself on

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

. Between 2003 and 2007 this repertoire, and some new material, was recorded in Vale The Lobos Studios and Bed & BreakFast Studios in Portugal, in collaboration with producer Jules Otto, Portuguese singer/guitarist

Rui Veloso Rui Manuel Gaudêncio Veloso ComIH (born 30 July 1957) is a Portuguese singer-songwriter and musician. Commonly called "The father of Portuguese rock" (Portuguese: ''O pai do rock português''), Veloso was a major figure in the boom of Portugues ...

and Belgian/Dutch guitarist Dany Lademacher. ''In A Valley of Wolves'' was released in late 2007 under the name

, followed by performances at Crossing Border Festival and NuMoon Fest in 2008.

Collaborations

Between 1998 and 2000, Ritsema participated as guitarist in the making of several sound sculptures, with the British artist/photographer

Craigie Horsfield Craigie Horsfield (born 1949 in Cambridge) is an English artist. In 1996 he was nominated for the annual Turner Prize. Horsfield described his work (photographs of the environments and people around him) as, "intimate in scale but its ambition is, ...

. The works (mostly edited in length, to suit the opening hours of the gallery) were exhibited in galleries in Middelburg, Stuttgart, Brussels and London. In 2001 Ritsema played for the first time as guitarist for the American poet and writer John Sinclair. They debuted at the Crossing Border Festivall in Amsterdam and continued playing together in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and England. At the same edition of Crossing Border, ''Waltzing The Storm'', the second short movie by Favola Film was shown, with a soundtrack that Ritsema composed, sang and performed at the recording studio Studio 2X2. In 2005 Ritsema joined the reformed, Amsterdam based, new wave band Mecano, playing mainly in Greece and France. He also performed as a duo with Mecano singer

Dirk Polak A dirk is a long bladed thrusting dagger.Chisholm, Hugh (ed.), ''Dagger'', The Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. VII, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (1910), p. 729 Historically, it gained its name from the Highland Dirk (Scot ...

in Athens. Currently Ritsema and Polak are writing songs together, calling themselves The Polar Twins. In 2005 Ritsema produced the first demo of the young singer/songwriter Vera Juhrend and continues to play guitar in her band (with Peter Jessen and Ron de Bruijn). They recorded Vera's first album ''Leave A Line'' in mid-2008 with Dirk Polak as producer. In 2008 Ritsema played guitar for Dutch writer and columnist

Carrie Carrie may refer to: People * Carrie (name), a female given name and occasionally a surname Places in the United States * Carrie, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Carrie, Virginia, an unincorporated community * Carrie Glacier, Olympic Nati ...

in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam). Words and music were inspired by, and performed in front of, the painting Shooting Gallery by Pyke Koch.

Writings

Ritsema is also a journalist who regularly contributes to the cultural monthly magazine ''Uit Agenda Rotterdam'', and the

Lowlands Festival A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise (commonly called Lowlands or Lowlands Festival), is an annual three-day music and performing arts festival, held in the Netherlands. The festival is held east of Amsterdam in Biddinghuizen, at Spijk en Brem ...

newspaper ''Daily Paradise''. In 2008 Ritsema wrote a brief history of the Rotterdam underground scene in the eighties/nineties for the book ''Antiscene'' by photographer Carla van der Marel. He has also written introductions to the Spasmodique book ''From the Cellar of Roses'' (2002) and The John Sinclair reader ''IT'S ALL GOOD'' ( Headpress 2009). With visual-artist Arno van de Pol he created the graphic novel ''In A Valley of Wolves'' which accompanies the deluxe edition of the

album of the same name. They continue working on new chapters, the second being published in the

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...

'' Passionate'', which has also published Ritsema's short stories and poems. He has appeared in the poetry magazine ''Krakatau'' and is currently working on a novel.

Discography

References

1
Mark Ritsema begrijpt en bezingt de nuttelozen van de nacht
at AD.nl (in Dutch) 2
Mark Ritsema: ‘De woede uit mijn eerste songteksten is er nog, maar het is breder.’
at Passionate (in Dutch) 3
RED SUN RECORDS online MUSIC store
4
IT’S ALL GOOD: A John Sinclair Reader (with introduction by M.Ritsema)
5

by Koen van Wijk (in Dutch) 6

by John Sinclair 7

(in Spanish) 8. ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110611140912/http://www.vpro.nl/programma/cantina/afleveringen/37790404/ Mark Ritsemaat VPRO (in Dutch) 9
Carrie Jansen & Mark Ritsema
in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (in Dutch) 10
John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema : Criss Cross
at

CD Baby CD Baby, Inc. is an online distributor of independent music. The company was described as an "anti-label" by its parent company's Chief Operating Officer Tracy Maddux. The CD Baby music store was shut down in March 2020 with a statement that "C ...

11
Valley of Wolves
at muziekweb.nl (in Dutch) 12

at musicfrom.nl (in Dutch) 13

at absolutearts.com 14
Doe jij het op muziek, met Mark Ritsema
at 3VOOR12 (in Dutch) 15
Festival Internacional de Spoken Word
(in Spanish) 16
Graigie Horsfield
17

(in Dutch)