Joost Langeveld: Crossing Boundaries, 1998
Joost Langeveld
Crossing Boundaries
May 1998
The peak of Dutch immigration to New Zealand spanned the years 1951/52/53.
My impression as a child in Holland was that hundreds of thousands of Dutch left the Netherlands for New Zealand in those grim postwar baby boomy years. In reality only around 25,000 Dutch born people live in New Zealand today.
My uncles arrived in 1952 as did 5000 other Dutch people and for the first two years of their residence lived in barracks somewhere out of Auckland with other recent immigrants. Their story always intrigued me with their tales of the struggle to assimilate and having to deal with ’second class citizenship.’
Dutch immigrants wanted to be model migrants, and made a great effort to merge into their new communities. In many cases they were so successful that many second generation Dutch New Zealanders don’t speak Dutch.” We thought the Dutch were special human beings…we were the best immigrants in all the world - we were internationalists, able to adapt and fit into any society with ease.” Jos van Campen
Crossing Boundaries is not intended to emphasise Dutch immigration as a special case, but to add a little brick, a little story to all the other stories.
In Crossing Boundaries my Grandmother sings a song to her children and grand children on the other side of the world, recorded in 1962.
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Joost Langeveld Biography
Joost Langeveld arrived in New Zealand from Holland on the last day of 1979, with his parents and brother. He finished secondary school in Auckland, and attended Auckland University.
Joost began playing music in 1982, teaching himself the bass guitar. In 1986, he first encountered computers and music when working for Rodions Sound Studio in Den Haag, Holland. This led to an audio/visual course at the Vrije Kunst Acadamie during 1986/87.
Since 1988 he has been predominantly concentrating on producing electronic music and his dedication has resulted in Joost becoming a capable sound synthesist.
He has worked in several collaborations such as Nemesis Dub Systems, NRA and Unitone HiFi and released many recordings.
More recently, Joost has been concentrating on his solo effort, TriggerX with a recording due to be released in August 1998 on the German label incoming!
Joost is also working on collaborative projects with classical composer Victoria Kelly and DJs Chelsea and Roger Perry. Proposed self funded releases of these projects are due out before the end of the year.
Joost also does soundtrack and sound design work for film, television and radio including Blinder by James Cunningham, Subduction by Shelley Simpson and collaborating with Victoria Kelly on Claybourne, for Pronoun Productions.