And Sometimes a Nits Snowflake Even Falls Down in a Desert Far Away from Home

When Hilde Hoekstra (a remarkable painter herself) posted the video of her recording of the new Nits song “Ghost Ranch”, I immediately took to it. I love the way it sounds and the tale it tells. And I like what Henk does with the guitar, ever so gently; it reminds me of The Eiffel Tower and of the sounds of Santa Fe on a visit there a long time ago… I like writing a little Nits philosophy because in my opinion Nits are much more than just another band that makes mostly something you’d commonly describe as pop music. So Ghost Ranch inspired this succinct summary of what I hear in their music.

In the Company of Women – A Story of Kinship

The work of Nits has often revolved around kinship. Kinship between different arts, evidently between the plastic arts and music, but also literature, poetry, and architecture, movies and fashion are leaving their traces in the Nits oeuvre. And perhaps most of all kinship between people, be they artists, musicians, friends or family. The work of Nits is essentially drawing on all these forms of kinship, of relationships that they (re)construct or imagine through their lyrical and musical creations. Nits are a nest of intimacies. A concert hall where Nits are playing feels like a familiar room filled with treasured objects, books, favourite paintings and drawings on the walls, photographs of people and places far away and close by and then three men telling stories that I like to remember, evoking experiences that I want to cherish for ever, some – only a few, like those relating to war events (transcribed in the most sensitive of lyrical languages) – I would rather forget, but all of them part of who they are, of who I am.

I for one have never encountered a band of musicians or solo artists who created such a complete, concrete, visual and intimate world as Nits have done throughout the many years without wallowing themselves in their own little person, without losing themselves in the narrow-mindedness of a self-indulgent ego or putting themselves at the centre of the world. Nits are always being in a world, being with others, true phenomenologists with their eyes and ears wide open, in different places and different times, bringing everything back to a musical present. That’s what I like so much about them. Their music is a perfect embodiment of their way of being, of the attitude and vision they take on in this life. Nits music is a Gesamtkunstwerk, striving for an aesthetic whole which is at one with the experience of life itself, which is rather rare in the pop realm. You can enter and discover a totally idiosyncratic world just by listening to their music. And it’s all very concrete with streets, buildings, houses, mountains, rivers, and cars and trains and boats to navigate the world, rain and snowflakes to drizzle a mood and you are there in the middle of it all, and you look around in a beautiful world created by sounds and words. This is their simple genius.

The story of Ghost Ranch is so telling in this respect. Joni Mitchell wanting to meet this other woman artist whose work she admired and to whom she felt drawn so much that she took a plane to try and see her at her home in the desert. I like this tale so much. Kinship. It’s so important. To feel related, close to someone, to feel affinity, connection to someone’s work, their world, their way of expressing themselves. It’s also admiration of course, of someone’s genius, but more primordially it’s about this recognition of some kindred spirit. Who can express things that I also feel, in the imaginative language of beauty and dare I add truth. A meaning and connection then arise which are almost unsurpassable…

And Henk just casually describes what Georgia is wearing… – her Gaucho hat and her OK brooch – … with the same poignancy as that other bard singing about a famous blue raincoat… Georgia too was very particular about what she was wearing… You’d think it’s of no importance, these small, personal objects, the accessories to her life that she wears so proudly … but as all phenomenologists, you’ll have to admit, eventually, that they are… Ha! the wisdom of Nits. They draw nothing less than an intimate, lived-in portrait of a world. One that fits me, that fits you perfectly. An individuality that is tailor-made. Nits remind me that I live in a beautiful world of colours and forms that I can make mine, with which I have the freedom to play and create a place of my own … and their music boasts the invaluable patience of exploring those. Like Georgia did. They share a sense of places, of their surroundings which is very meticulous and ever-present.

And sometimes a Nits snowflake even falls down in a desert far away from home.

Joke Roelandt, March 2022