The Last Black Flower the new album from Soothsayer Orchestra, the one-man project of Dutch experimentalist Pieter Hendriks, out today via Lay Bare Recordings.
Pieter is a musical solitudinarian who has enough gumption to leave the commonplace behind and only take with him what can enrich his music and performance. There is a certain weight of tragedy in his music. Pieters gravelly voice possesses an uneasy moodiness that reflects doom and despair, which immerses you in the dark side of life. Then, amidst this darkness Hendriks shifts his compositions to newfound hope, warm and flowing, creating a longing, yet bold mood.
In his brand-new studio, fittingly named The Dungeon, Hendriks crawled back into writing mode for new album The Last Black Flower and explored new territory, always looking for new influences. Elements of electronic industrial music and psychedelic vintage rock blend with the dark bluesy foundation on which Soothsayer Orchestra is firmly built. Lyrically and conceptually this album can be seen as a documentation of self-reflection that Hendriks went through during the often hopeless and haunting years of the pandemic. What came out of this is a beautiful and very honest album that lays bare one’s soul and takes the listener on a musically dynamic journey through Hendriks his mind.
“This album is musically a journey with heavy industrial fueled riffing and electronic vibes flowing into small fragile songs and darkblues rocking roadtrip horizon gazers. It is truelly a trip through the brain, as if reading a diary written by a person digging through the deepest vaults of their soul losing himself but also rediscovering themselves and griefing the loss of love and scared of losing control. A moodswing that paints the times we are living in perfectly. A very deep and personal record that people can relate to and find a piece of themselves in, hope and destruction mix with love and death. This is a record that had to be made to stay sane and build a bridge crawling out of darkness longing for light.” – Pieter Hendriks
Buy The Last Black Flower on Vinyl
Born and raised in the early 80’s in a small, isolated town in the south of The Netherlands, Pieter was introduced to music at a young by his parents. With instruments laying around their home and a large record collection which got him hooked on everything from Leonard Cohen and David Bowie to Band of Gypsy’s.
Musically, Hendriks grew up in the gritty hardcore-punk scene of the mid 90’s playing drums in several acts such as Reaching Forward and Born From Pain, touring internationally sharing the stage with names as Type O Negative, Sepultura and Fear Factory. The new millennium brought a musical shift towards southern rock inspired blues in his role as drummer for Black Bottle Riot playing shows with acts such as ZZ Top, Pearl Jam and Ten Years After. All these influences plus his parents record collection create a solid foundation for the diversity of Soothsayer Orchestra.
In 2021 Dutch label Lay Bare Recordings released his self-titled debut album, most lyrics and song ideas were written in an old caravan in the middle of the dark forest of the Eifel in Germany. Isolated from modern temptation, just loneliness and silence to focus on his songs.
For his live performances Hendriks has a tight live band and sound/lighting crew that work close together to bring these at times moody small piano songs and sometimes big heavy riffing songs to the audience as an experience and journey.
