Lewsberg

***The fourth album from amazing Dutch four-piece Lewsberg. Since forming in 2016, Lewsberg have gone from strength to strength. Despite never really considering themselves as a ‘productive band’, together they have released three LPs, one EP and a series of cassettes and 7”s including 2022’s "Six Hills" which was released via Speedy Wunderground's singles series.

Lewsberg are named after writer and fellow Rotterdammer Robert Loesberg, famous for his dangerous novel Enige Defecten from 1974. This is one of the band’s main sources of inspiration: the counterculture and big-city cynicism of the 1960s and 1970s. Yet there is also a softer side to Lewsberg’s music and lyrics. On Out And About, this side is more present than ever. Rudimentary pop and rock songs are deliberately kept bare, only occasionally embellished with a violin or organ part. In the lyrics, the tendency towards existentialism and black humour is nuanced with an almost naive openness and engagement.

Recorded in Amsterdam in Spring 2023 with producer Yulya Divakova, Out And About sees founding members Shalita Dietrich (vocals, bass guitar), Michiel Klein (guitar) and Arie van Vliet (vocals, guitar, violin) joined for the first time on record by drummer and vocalist Marrit Meinema, who joined the band in the Autumn of 2021.

Out And About embraces a collaborative spirit, allowing each member to contribute their unique songwriting talents. The result is a collection of tracks that capture the band's collective creative energy and their individual perspectives. The lyrics for "A Different View" were written via a text exchange between Arie and Marrit, Arie being responsible for the first half and Marrit for the second. “It was a bit intimidating but also a very gratifying experience to write something for a band whose lyricism you have admired for quite a while,” she says.

Compared to their first three albums, Out And About feels lighter, calling to mind the The Feelies, Marine Girls and Young Marble Giants, whilst remaining distinctly Lewsberg.