BuitenSoos LIVE | De Niemanders

Volkskrant: ‘De Niemanders give asylum seekers a voice through unique, moving songs’ ★★★★☆

De Niemanders. Not just any band. They give a voice to the nobodies, the outcasts; people in difficult circumstances. Previously, De Niemanders recorded an album with inmates in Dutch prisons. On their new album (6 September 2024, V2 Records) and in the accompanying live shows, they literally give asylum seekers a platform. The spellbinding and rousing mix of male and female singers, musical styles and many languages will be seen and heard on Dutch stages and at festivals over the coming year. At the first club shows (September 2024), the audience danced to a band with an irresistible groove, whilst the many unique singers and musicians – some of whom live (or have lived) in asylum seeker centres – gave the audience goosebumps. From an Arabic floor-filler to opera and alternative rock. The cliché ‘music is a universal language’ has probably never been more apt.

Between December 2022 and January 2024, the De Niemanders collective visited asylum seeker centres across the Netherlands with a mobile studio, searching for singers, musicians and their music and stories. Guided by their instincts, they created a new album that became a genuine collaboration between the people they met and themselves. A key difference from De Niemanders’ first album (written in Dutch prisons) was that this time the singers and musicians were allowed to be recorded and can therefore be heard on *De Niemanders II*. As a result, the new album is a mix of many singers, musicians and languages, telling the stories of their harrowing journeys, dreams, families, past lives ‘at home’ and their current situation as refugees.

The new collection of songs is a creative melting pot of colourful music that veers between swinging Afrobeat, highlife, desert rock and rootsy psychedelia, whilst the alternative rock of the first album also seeps through. You could say that, with the exception of a single track, every song is a film soundtrack for its lyrics.

The De Niemanders collective didn’t just record an album in asylum seeker centres. Two newspapers were published, written by refugee journalists and creative professionals from asylum seeker centres (distributed nationwide in cafés, restaurants, libraries and asylum seeker centres). The new podcast will be released from November onwards, and they have already organised the Nacht Van De Niemander festival twice (featuring, amongst others, Ploegendienst, Arp Frique and many more).