.. IT’S ALL ABOUT FREEDOM
About Emiel Scholsberg
Composer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Emiel Scholsberg started composing work of his own around 2004 and has ever since been working on honing his skills in both writing and performing. As a child of a Dutch mother and a Surinam father, he grew up with a lot of different sounds, listening through his parents’ vast record collection. At seventeen, a friend introduced him to the music of Jimi Hendrix. Deeply touched by Jimi’s music, Emiel decided to dedicate himself to the electric guitar and to the music that could be played through it. Thus, making music became a driving force in his life. Inspired by people and their music from all over the globe, his journey so far has made his work evolve into an interesting blend of sounds, ranging from the most tender-hearted to the most screamingly poignant, always in search for sharing stories that touch the heart.
About Frimangron
Frimangron is the name of a historical district, near the centre of Paramaribo, capital city of Suriname, South America. Literally translated it means so much as: “free-mans ground”. This very part of the city got assigned to the first slaves that had become free men. Here these so called “fri man” were (albeit within given boundaries) allowed to live a life of their own, raise their own families and act according to their own customs and beliefs. This is the place where the father of composer/vocalist/multi-instrumentalist “Fri Man” Emiel Scholsberg was born and raised. With his compositions, Emiel created his own “Frimangron”, a place where he can truly be free. A place where he can discover his roots. A home for free spirits, where you can listen, watch, enjoy, inspire and be inspired, free from any form of judgement. A home from where this mindset of being free can find it’s way to other souls and as such contributes to a world in which all beings are connected with the Source of all love.
About the band
Since the release of the first album “Frimangron” back in 2010, “Frimangron” has been the name under which Emiel initiated and brought forth all his creative projects based on his own compositions. During this ongoing quest, he met several kindred spirits that traveled with him through the wondrous world of Sound, sometimes briefly, sometimes over a longer period of time. Eventually, a coincidental last-minute collaboration with two other “fri man”, playing the 2019 Dutch Fretless Guitar Festival, turned out to be a match made in heaven. So Emiel teamed up with Koen Wijnen and Remo van Osch and together they have since then formed this trio, surprisingly going by the name Frimangron.
Remo van Osch – acoustic & electric guitar, bass, keys, FX
Koen Wijnen – drums, percussion, Wizzdrum, FX
Emiel Scholsberg – acoustic & electric guitar, fretless guitar, bass, FX, vocals
About Remo
Remo Vitalis van Osch has dedicated most of his years studying improvisation with a strong emphasis on arranging musical ideas in the moment. Trying to not judge sound in terms of beautiful or ugly, concocting musical frameworks in which the story of a certain improvisation or song has the opportunity to be told in the way it wants to be told. This in an attempt to allow any feeling present to be part of the performance.
Being an explorer at heart Remo found Frimangron to be an ideal playground for him. Allowing musical and personal freedom in a safe space. The perfect environment to boldly go wherever the moment might take us.
About Koen
Koen Wijnen is active as a drummer in various projects/bands and he writes and produces original compositions of his own. His goal is to always create something original and from an ‘out of the box’ perspective. Whenever on stage he likes to experience a constant feeling of creation, which leads him to focus more and more on live improvisation.
Current bands/projects:
- Frimangron
- Eva van Pelt
- AAKi (coming soon!)
- Koen Wijnen (compositions under his own name, see link for a co-write with Eva van Pelt)
- Leonardus Martin (an alias he uses to release the ambient style tracks he writes/produces)
Former bands/projects:
- Sarah’s blue dress
- Shoulders of Giants
- Thomas Pieters
- Cartographer
- Varying session work (from rock to pop to classic percussion to country)
A friend once told me: “When I play, my mind is silent”. His statement has never left my mind. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, producing sound in my experience does lead to the kind of silence a lot of us seem to yearn for. Well, at least I do. Silence makes for inspired art, as art makes for inspired silence. Where there’s silence, there’s room for others, room for sharing, for true connection without prejudice, without egos clashing, without any other things that distract us from the mere essence of our existence. Hence one could say that it’s silence that I strive for with my playing. I’m not there yet, but being on that road fascinates and inspires me ever more and more.
Emiel vdf Scholsberg, december 2016
