Current - coming June 26th
A floating album about water, stillness, and the art of listening
Vocalist, composer, and producer Vivienne Aerts transformed her 1951 mahogany sailboat, De Vouw, into a floating studio, recording while traveling through the Dutch waterways. Current weaves together voice, electronics, acoustic instruments, and field recordings of creaking wood, rippling waves, locks, birds, reeds, and wind, blurring the lines between jazz, improvisation, songwriting, and environmental sound.
What began as a site-specific recording experiment became a deeply personal and collaborative journey. Dutch musicians Hermine Deurloo, Susanne Alt, and Adinda Meertins joined Aerts on different lakes and canals, with each session shaped by weather, landscape, and the rhythm of the water itself.
The result is an intimate and quietly cinematic album about living with water, listening to change, and allowing creativity to move in its own time. Current invites deep listening and reminds us that music, like water, is never still.
The story behind Current
The journey of this album started a couple of years ago. When the world ground to a halt in 2020, I bought a small 1951 mahogany sailboat to disappear into for a while. I renamed her De Vouw, Dutch for The Fold: a nod to origami, but also to the way water folds and unfolds as you move through it.
During our first outings, I quickly noticed a kind of stillness on the water that could become a living studio. The boat had its own natural reverb. The wood, the hull, the water, and the open air gave every sound a vivid signature.
In the summer of 2025, we set out to record this album on that same little sailboat. I grew up in this region of the Netherlands, and water has always been around us. My husband grew up sailing these waters and knows them like the back of his hand. During those two weeks, I used the natural reverb that had first inspired the project, but I also learned to listen more closely to the wind, the sun, the reeds, and all the different birds around me.
I learned about my own country by returning to its root: the water. And I got to know myself a little better in the process. Who I am. What I need. How my creativity flows. How much of it I can control, and how much of it I have to surrender to.
Just the two of us on a tiny boat in the middle of the lake, surrounded by nature, feeling both free and strangely held in place.
Recording with the water
We traveled from our hometown of Leiden to Lake Braassem, up to Amsterdam, and back again. Along the way, we met saxophonist Susanne Alt near Beatrixpark, recorded harmonica player Hermine Deurloo in a hidden spot on the oldest canals of Amsterdam, and carried Adinda Meertins’ double bass onto De Vouw before drifting into the middle of the lake, where the bass also became an unexpected wind blocker.
The album features field recordings from the journey: waves gently touching the mahogany hull, birds on Lake Braassem and Paddegat, the sound of locks opening and closing, reeds moving in the wind, and the quiet creaks of the boat itself. These sounds are not just background textures. They are part of the music.
The wind, water, and surrounding landscape guided the process. Sunrise and sunset became the clock. The waves became the metronome.
I set out to make an album on the water, but in the end, I made an album with the water, guided by the current.
Because when life becomes difficult, sometimes the only thing you can do is move with it.
About the album
Current is an album, concert, and visual world created on the water by NYC-based vocalist, pianist, composer, and producer Vivienne Aerts. Built from original songs, layered vocals, electronics, acoustic instruments, and environmental recordings, the project explores themes of empathy, deep listening, sustainability, and transformation.
The album brings together an international creative team, including Hermine Deurloo on harmonica, Susanne Alt on saxophone, Adinda Meertins on double bass, Jeremy Loucas as mixing engineer, Maria Triana as mastering engineer, Natalia Olbinski as visual artist, and Ted Steinebach as filmmaker and creative collaborator. NYC-based producer Art Jones also supported the documentary side of the project.
Aerts’ husband, artist and filmmaker Ted Steinebach, documented the journey for a short film that accompanies the album. Together, the music and film move between documentary realism and sonic poetry, continuing Aerts’ long-standing dialogue between mindfulness, sound, community, and interdisciplinary art.
Following her acclaimed collaborative album Typuhthâng, Current marks Aerts’ most intimate project yet: a love letter to Dutch waters, a meditation on creativity, and the beginning of a new chapter in her artistry.
This is me. This is Current.
Concert: New Amsterdam Sounds NYC
Album release concert on the water, June 28, 2026
Two days after the album release, we will bring the music back to the water with New Amsterdam Sounds, a sunset boat concert aboard Manhattan By Sail’s historic Clipper City tall ship.
We will sail through New York Harbor at golden hour, surrounded by skyline views, water, wind, and projections on the sails, while the music from Current returns to the environment that inspired it. A floating concert for a floating album.
The songs
Nothing Needs the World – 4:35 | ft. Hermine Deurloo (harmonica) & Adinda Meertins (bass)
Touching the Light – 2:56
Watch Its Show – 4:28 | ft. Susanne Alt (saxophone) & Adinda Meertins (bass)
Gathered Here – 1:05
Current (Improv 1) – 5:37
When I’m Gone – 5:40 | ft. Hermine Deurloo (harmonica)
Where Is the Sun – 4:50
Closer – 1:06
Water Lock (Improv 2) – 3:27
Reminiscing – 4:30
Outside Inside Out – 5:09 | ft. Susanne Alt (saxophone) & Adinda Meertins (bass)
Full Credits
Compositions, arrangements, production, and edits – Vivienne Aerts
Captain and Producer, Documentary – Ted Steinebach
Executive Producer – Ivo van Oerle
Featuring:
Vivienne Aerts – Vocals, keys, electronics, field recordings
Hermine Deurloo – Harmonica
Susanne Alt – Saxophone
Adinda Meertins – Bass
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Mixing – Jeremy Loucas
Mastering – Maria Triana
Artwork – Natalia Olbinski
Printing – Zbigniew Solarz
Photos/visuals: John Brussel, Sebastiaan Zoomers, Peter Aerts, Ted Steinebach
The artwork
Of course, you can pre-order the digital album. The first track will be shared with pre-order supporters on June 12, and the full album will be released on June 26.
But I also wanted the physical edition to feel like more than just “the music in a package.” I wanted it to feel like an invitation to step into the world of Current. A little travel kit for stillness. So together with visual artist and graphic designer Natalia Olbinski we worked on a collection of things you might need for a journey on the water. Photos by Ted Steinebach, John Brussel, and Sebastiaan Zoomers.
The CD edition comes in a cardboard fold. It includes the music, a water map with all the locations where we recorded, a captain’s log printed on handmade paper, a packing list, bird stickers of the birds we saw and recorded, and postcards you can send to your loved ones.
The vinyl edition carries the same spirit, the boat will float around your record player, with a shiny marble texture, made by Deepgrooves Vinyl pressing plant. I’m very proud to say that Deepgrooves is the only pressing plant in the world that produces their record as Co2(e) neutral as possible. Alongside the record, you’ll receive the water map and the bird stickers, so you can follow the journey while listening and maybe spot a few feathered collaborators along the way.
The Water Map
Alongside the album, Current includes a water map that traces the recording process through the Dutch waterways. Designed by Natalia Olbinski, the map marks the places where songs, sounds, and field recordings were captured: from Leiden to Lake Braassem, Paddegat, Amsterdam, and back again. Each location carries a piece of the album’s story. Some places became recording studios for a day. Some offered birds, reeds, wind, or the sound of waves against the hull. Others became meeting points with musicians, friends, family, and unexpected characters along the way. The map is not just a route. It is a listening guide. It shows where the music touched the water, and where the water found its way into the music. – Zoom in and click on the locations on the map to explore!
Explore the locations, songs, and stories behind the album.
About Vivienne
Dutch New York-based vocalist, conductor, and composer with a focus on electronics, chocolate, and multi-sensory experience design, as well as a clinical psychologist and faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Trailer
Press
“As a Dutch artist, I carry a deep connection to water, we live with it, not against it. CURRENT lets water steer the sound, capturing the movement, reflection, and resilience that define our culture.”
“Sound on the water is unlike any studio; full of resonance and mystery.” – 3voor12 Leiden >> Read more <<
“How many hours are there actually in her day? She laughs, ‘Not enough, by far! I recorded the underwater sounds with a hydrophone and the bird sounds using a field recorder.” – Leiden University >> Read more <<
I found it uplifting to get to know Vivienne’s interdisciplinary approach, rooted in mindfulness… I’m inspired by Vivienne’s trust and hopefulness in the need for us to engage all of our senses and the power of mobilizing micro-communities to support meaningful creative work. – Leah Roseman, Conversations with Musicians Podcast
“We were on this boat for two weeks and recorded the environment—the water, underwater, and above the water, birds—and used a lot of synthesizers, electronics, and loop stations. I recorded my voice in layers. This album sounds a little more electronic than the previous one. So I would say maybe it has a bit of a Norah Jones meets James Blake vibe.” – Make Music Day >> Read more <<
