CURRENT — recorded on a 1951 Dutch sailboat

In the summer of 2025, vocalist and composer Vivienne Aerts set sail across the Dutch waterways aboard her 1951 mahogany sailboat De Vouw. Over two weeks she transformed the tiny boat into a floating studio, recording new songs and soundscapes that blur the lines between jazz, improvisation, and environmental art. Current captures the sounds of creaking wood, rippling waves, passing locks, and birds in flight, weaving them with voice, electronics, and acoustic instruments. The project explores how humans and water coexist – reflecting both the Netherlands’ heritage of “living with water” and the fluidity of creative life itself.

What began as an experiment in site-specific recording soon became a collective voyage. Aerts invited fellow Dutch musicians: Hermine Deurloo (harmonica), Susanne Alt (saxophone), and Adinda Meertins (double bass) to join her on different lakes and canals, each session shaped by the elements. Ted Steinebach documented the journey for a short film that will accompany the album’s release with help of NYC based Producer Art Jones. The resulting work blends documentary realism and sonic poetry, balancing spontaneity with deep listening, a continuation of Aerts’s long-term dialogue between mindfulness, sound, and community.

Set for release on Spring 2026, Current invites audiences to reflect on the movement of water as both metaphor and environment. The album will launch with floating concerts in the Netherlands and the United States, alongside workshops and talks on creativity and sustainability. Building on Aerts’s acclaimed collaborative album Typuhthâng, Current marks her most intimate project yet, one that flows between continents, generations, and disciplines, reminding us that music, like water, is always in motion.