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Great Parade EP with Jolé out now
Christof’s debut album 'Empty Handed' (2018) arrived shortly after supporting Bon Iver at the Hammersmith Apollo and ahead of joining Joan As Police Woman, Nick Mulvey, Lisa Hannigan, Talos, Willy Mason, Bear’s Den, S. Carey and Mikaela Davis as main support on selected UK and EU dates in 2018. After tirelessly releasing and touring his own music and navigating hectic schedules as a touring member of Bear’s Den, You Were The Place sees Christof shed his previous masks to produce a work that is distinctively personal. It’s an album that immortalises our collective anxieties, making it one of the most comforting and reassuring records about sudden solitude in recent years. The cover for the album was created by artist Kathleen Lolley, whose work ‘Wild Flowers’ sums up this lonesome territory with a beautiful, poetic proclivity: "It’s about shedding masks and being ones self,” she explains. “Letting growth happen, even if it’s painful."
You Were The Place was recorded with Brighton-based producer, engineer and bandmate, Marcus Hamblett (Villagers, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, This Is The Kit, Bear’s Den). Christof also worked with musicians Jools Owen (Bear’s Den), Tommy Heap (Matthew & The Atlas, Wildwood Kin), Tommy Sheen, Emma Gatrill (Matthew & The Atlas, This Is The Kit, Rozi Plain) and Andrew Stuart-Buttle (Lucy Rose). Despite the melancholic undertones of the album, these collaborations allowed Christof to create an instrumental landscape that gives us room to breathe and digest this new world, one that frames heartbreak in a softer focus so that it’s not as daunting as we once thought: “I think for people who've found themselves in this situation before, they can listen to the album and find that it helps them through a tough time,” Christof says. “If that's something that I can do with this project, I'd be very grateful. And who knows, it might lead them to their own story.”
In 2020 re-recorded some songs from his albums and EP in his bedroom during lockdown and out came the Reworks EP. It was at the same time, he started co-writing songs with Jolé and started a new project called Great Parade.
Great Parade is a collaborative project between Christof van der Ven and Jolé. The two met through a mutual friend and started writing music together in London back at the start of 2020. Both are artists in their own right and have toured the globe supporting the likes of Bon Iver, Nick Mulvey, Bahamas and S Carey.
Collectively they have over 10 million streams and amassed support from Line of best fit, DIY, Wonderland Mag, BBC introducing and Clash Magazine.
Their self-titled debut EP, set for release in the summer of 2021, is a labour of love that touches on missing loved ones and old memories. Taking influence from Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers, Beck and Sharon van Etten, they create a soundscape which combines their love of folk, indie and electronic music.
