My name is Fieke van den Hurk, and I am a recording engineer, mixing engineer, music producer, passionate accordion player and sometimes a composer and photographer. I was born in a little village in the south of the Netherlands, to lovely parents who provided the space, tools and trust for me to create and explore whatever I could imagine. Once I set out to study Visual Art first, and Celtic Languages and Cultures later, I would find out how small my world still was…
After finishing a study in Music Technology at the Utrecht School of Arts, my career in music started right at the famous Wisseloord Studios in The Netherlands in 2012. Under the wings and invaluable guidance of Ronald Prent, Darcy Proper and Rob Sannen, I worked as an assistant to various great engineers and artists from widely ranging genres, including The Common Linnets, Alain Clark, Remy van Kesteren, Fuse and many others. Starting from around 2014 I worked in Wisseloord as an engineer myself, on projects for Ozark Henry, Claudia de Breij, Iranian kamanchech master Kayhan Kalhor, Di-Rect, Heilung, as well as bigband ensembles, big string sections and jazz & world music ensembles. For a couple of years I combined that with working at Reyn Ouwehands The Church, engineering for artists such as Qeaux Qeaux Joans and Anna Rune.
In 2014 I also opened my own studio and called it Dearworld Studio. This grew to be a musical playground with a widely praised atmosphere and an eccentric range of instruments and microphones. Here I worked with many bands in the neofolk genre, as well as some other artists such as Cesair, Contrebrassens, Gayle Skidmore, Fiona Rüggeberg, Nanna Barslev, Emilie Lorentzen, Kingfisher Sky and many more (do check my portfolio for some highlights). After 9 years of engineering both in Wisseloord and Dearworld, I was ready to leave my studio space behind.
PRODUCING
Engineering in the beautiful STMPD Studio 4 control room
Today I focus more on producing, and exploring creative ways to make the record-making process add value to the composition and more importantly: the message behind it. My equipment now lives in cases which I often load into the back of my car. I can record anywhere, and happily make use of interesting spaces, bringing the atmosphere with me wherever I go. However, when a good studio room is needed, I still gladly work in other studios such as Trypoul (the Abbey Road of the south) and STMPD (with an amazing team of driven colleagues).
ECLECTIC COLLECTION OF INSTRUMENTS
My biggest love is the chromatic button accordion. I started playing since I was 7. Currently I am taking accordion lessons with the remarkable accordionist and composer Merima Ključo. While I’m studying mostly Balkan music with her, she has turned my accordion-world upside down - and with it changed the way I listen to music and how I think about playing an instrument. My other instruments include an upright piano (and some years of classical training), a beautiful tenor hurdy-gurdy (much less training, but a lot of love), a hammered dulcimer, an Array Mbira (very big thumb-piano with 5 octaves!) Juno-60 and then some more…
BANDS & LIVE MUSIC
Playing with Eivør on Castlefest 2018. Photo by Coen Halmans
As a musician I played accordion, hurdy-gurdy and hammered dulcimer in Cesair from 2008 to 2016. I’ve also been a part of TVINNA in 2019-2021, alongside Laura Fella and Fiona Rüggeberg, writing and producing the music together, and playing synthesizers and accordion (with guitar pedal effects). As a guest musician I have played several shows with Eivør, also on effect accordion. And more recently a couple of concerts with Lindy-Fay and Dei Farne. Even though I love the studio, there is something about playing music for an audience that keeps calling me. I will keep responding and hope to play more in the future.
MUSIC AND THE OCCULT
I am researching and exploring where magic and music meet, and what the value of recorded sound is in this context. This results in experimental field recordings of ceremonial singing, natural elements and atmospheres. I’ve spoken to various people who use rhythm and the voice in their spiritual practice - entirely outside a “performance” or “art” context, but also I have started talking to musicians about the use of ritual and magical thinking in relation to their art. The results of this research I apply in my work as a producer, but there are also some still unreleased very special recordings. I’m soon going to start recording my conversations and publishing them as a podcast, while I also write my findings down in book-form.