When Nits’ Playhouse Burned Down 

     (On the album Tree House Fire)

The heart of the album “Tree House Fire” houses a tree and a bird. The third and innermost song of “Tree House Fire” is called “The Tree”. The third song of the album “Giant Normal Dwarf” was named “Boy in a Tree”. We find ourselves once more in an animated Nits world as in a La Fontaine fable populated with animals or animated beings and objects, where a small trombone thinks about the big world outside, a periscope snake speaks and shoes whisper with their strings. The fierce fire that raged through the Nits world was not an end nor was it the beginning of something new; it was an unending. When the old Globe Theatre of London – which was built to house the performances of Shakespeare’s plays – was destroyed by fire in 1613, it wasn’t the end of the world of Shakespeare’s genius of play. Continuation is a characteristic of all universal tales and the story of Nits inscribes itself seamlessly in a narrative that holds meaning for different generations.
Fables or fairytales are an unusual form in pop music. But Nits tried to fabulate the destruction of their beloved music home into something that would have the power of beauty, wisdom and goodness to bring consolation and strength not only to themselves and their immediate entourage, but also to those who love their music and the world it has built for 50 years now. Unlike The Globe Theatre of London, De Werf of Amsterdam won’t be rebuilt, because Nits have always operated on a tiny stage away from the masses, in a universe sweet and enchanting like a fairytale, in a modus operandi almost inconspicuous, and hidden away in a far away corner of a city of water between trees and highways. De Werf was very much like those fairytale houses nobody knows of, mostly lost in a forest where only an occasional wanderer would stumble upon it just as Snow White did when she tried to escape and by chance discovered the charming little house of The Seven Dwarfs. When you saw De Werf from the outside, you wouldn’t have a clue of the musical magic that was happening inside. It was a world of its own. It was the home of musicians of a different breed, called Nits. De Werf was theirs. 

Spring was at its rosy-blossom height when disaster struck this discreet little building. The soft intro of Month of May with its echoing gong sound suddenly changes into something more haunting just for a few seconds before  a steady, reassuring and optimistic drumbeat takes over. The album opens in the kitchen: everything has lost its colour. The remnants of the agenda filled with Nitsplans still on the wall, broken cups and a mural painting by Henk Hofstede immediately lead us into familiar territory: still, amongst the ashes of De Werf we encounter what Nits have always been so aptly communicating through their music: the subjectivity of a world. De Werf with all the Nits things it housed, all their memories, recordings and instruments, used to smile back at us with a human face of two windows and a door. It was a friendly world of belonging. The opening song’s mood is one of patience and forbearance, mildness, a character trait of the Nits sound we’ve come to appreciate over the years. No hysteria or panic, the music follows its natural path of understated elegance and emotion even in sorrow and distress. A sound of beauty is laid bare between the black and grey of ashes. The instruments softly mourn the loss of their home, they tread carefully, each and every one of them bringing its tribute to the notion of home where musical miracles were performed over the years. “Big Brown Building Burning” intimates a sober burial procession led by the drums and their earth-bound sound. I am reminded of The Garden Centre – a Knot song in memory of the mother of Henk Hofstede – where an equally sad but beautiful procession formed by musical instruments makes its way through an inner landscape of sorrow and loss. The intimacy of Nits and the houses they lived in is a well-known motif in their work. Tree House Fire is not a break with the trilogy that preceded it, quite the contrary. It bathes in the same spirit of loss and letting go, of remembrance and renewal, of connection (with references in the lyrics to Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Nick Cave) and contemplation. Instead of hanging on to the popular notion that Nits are a band that keep on choosing a different path through music, forgetting about the(ir) past achievements in order to do something completely different, I would argue that the consistency in their work is a major aspect of it. I’d always recognise that typical Nits sound in whatever form. The observed differences in their work are nothing but a natural evolution sparked by an enduring curiosity and they are in accordance with the life stages they all go through. The themes in their work are of a universal nature: the theme of houses and homes is a central one: “The House Of Jacob”, “The Concrete House” and Henk Hofstede’s “Het Draagbare Huis” are just a few examples of this continuing thread. “Big Brown Building Burning” is a song about a cherished building with a personality of its own, that is no longer. The “buildings we love” trope is one of Hofstede’s most endearing. It speaks of a love of home which might offer an escape from existential isolation. A sense of a warm nest, both sheltering us and enchanting us, is at the core of Hofstede’s poetics, be it on the smaller scale of family or the larger one of a homeland community in a European spirit of togetherness. Near the end of the song “Big Brown Building Burning”, Henk Hofstede identifies with the Nits home, feeling the fire burning inside him. Nits and their world are one in a phenomenological sense: “world” is part of who they are. In all the intimacy that their music provides, Nits always see the bigger picture. Their music has learned to adopt the pace of a belonging to a natural world that keeps on changing with the seasons of life. Nits know how to reconcile the permanent state of flux of music with the impermanence of human life and its material elements and constructions. In his poetical souvenir of the big brown building Hofstede seems to acknowledge somewhat bewildered and still grief-struck how much it was a part of him and his world. The female choir sustains his voice in a soft embrace; the piano in a reminiscing, zen Ryuichi Sakamoto manner can only reflect on the beauty of all that was.

What follows next, nothing short of re-enchants the world of “Tree House Fire”. In “The Tree” Nits celebrate the beauty and the good in life. It is a long overdue love song that rises from the ashes of a building. The glow and the pain of the tragedy of the fire are diverted and intertwined with the story of a love that has stood the test of time. In a tale of colours of red, green and black, Hofstede sings his love for his wife and lifelong companion. In a  song formed by an equally lifelong search for perfection of the aesthetics of love, Hofstede finally wrote “The Tree”! “It took a long long time”, he confesses. But worth the wait. For once the fire can symbolise the wild fire of love. It is a moment that is both unexpected and cathartic. The boy in the tree from the innocent fantasy world of “Giant Normal Dwarf” became the tree, the tree that survived the destructive fire and basks in the glow of life and love. The music wears an elegant attire, a dress created by the wife of Nick Cave, a partner in sorrow and loss.The female voices add touches of a glimmering light and hope, they wear a light, flimsy dress that waves in the wind. Henk Hofstede sings with the calmness and reassurance of one who found a home – and the peace that comes with it -, not made out of stone, but in the presence of an enduring love. The music’s composition is of a natural elegance that goes almost unnoticed; the music became the seamstress of a perfect love song with an attention to detail and a dedication to simplicity that one cannot but admire: the true signature of Hofstede.

In “The Bird” Henk Hofstede’s voice becomes fragile like the little one-winged creature it personifies. It’s a fable-song where a sweet bird tells its story as a witness of the fire. The bird tells of its misfortune and how he made the best of what was left him. It’s like an animated children’s story that you can see unfolding in front of you in subdued pastel colours. “When the days were old and grey and muddy” brings us to a time of sorrow or hardship where all fairytales find their origin. The variety of voices in the birdsong turn it into a tender, discursive melody of a trusting worship of life even in dire circumstance. The reverberating choirs have the touching charm of the whimsicalities of an old acquaintance, “The Infinite Shoeblack”, trying hard to restore some shine to a darkened world.

“The Attic” initiates a brutal ending to the fairytale world of the tree and the bird. Grief and alienation set in with a music that falls apart into fragments of what once was a whole, and loses its enchantment. Reality takes over. Nits have lost a body and soul. The sly electronics of Neon have returned with the grinning expression of the Wurlitzer. The objects stored in the attic are perceived as the brother and sister who once owned them. Objects and instruments that take over the soul of their proprietors, voices of friends who are gone, echoes of songs that lingered through the attic space. But Nits feel betrayed. By the elements that once were a reliable part of their lyrical world: the wind, the rain, the fire, the sky. The harmoniously complete sound of “The Tree” is gone, on “The Attic”, there is a sparse, fragmented, restless, hammering noise of destruction in process with a disturbing sound of static of a lost unity. The instruments are in disagreement, they lost their sense of symmetry and accord. They have taken on the sound of devastation and ruin. In some of his most meaningful wordings – “The wind had no clothes – The rain had no shoes” – Henk Hofstede captures his disappointment in the forces of nature: their lack of empathy with the frail world of mankind, the lack of humanity with which they invade and destroy anything manmade. The sky had no windows through which he could detect a caring soul and of course “THE FIRE HAD NO HEART”. The clothes and the shoes are some of the favourite accessories in the Nits world. Hofstede chooses them carefully and diligently; their aesthetics of comfort and panache, of elegance of style and warmth or quality of texture, the finesse of their design are just a reflection of what the music of Nits is like. The danger spell of “A shirt is waving in the meadow” has come true. But the danger was not in the water…

The epilogue “The Wind Has No Clothes” continues the metaphor of dress. Our clothing is the closest thing we wear next to our body and our heart, it serves us as an element of shelter and protection against the world. But of course in the universe of Henk Hofstede dressing is not only a metaphor used to distinguish us from the animals (except from those in fables and fairytales) or as a symbol of “humanity”. He has an obvious affinity with clothes and shoes, with hats. Dressing can be a subtle art or craft form, a way of expressing ourselves through shapes and forms and colours. It’s a tactile art form we wear close to our skin. And these pieces of clothing surface in his lyrics so now and then in meaningful ways: the shirt waving in the meadow is a clear and wonderful example that can be interpreted both as a symbol of unity with nature or as a bad omen of being a plaything of the natural elements. But now the wind has no mercy. The last song of “Tree House Fire” is bitterly cold despite the flames. The dark side of this allegorical fairytale of the tree, the bird and the house reminds me of the cinematographic work of Ingmar Bergman. The latter also uses nature – as a main protagonist in his movies or a witness of the life of man – and clothing – in often dark and heavy materials that contribute to determining the themes of the movies – as a way of picturing the mood of his characters. But most of the time Bergman’s actors and actresses were an aesthetic joy to watch in their refined and sumptuous outfits with a sense of style that is not unfamiliar to the “Vogelman” of Nits.
The wind has left the Nits home totally unprotected, indifferent to its fate. Only one verse lightens up this last song: “I see my childhood in your eyes”. Love takes the lyricist back to his younger days. This reference to childhood days comes as no surprise. Just as the work of Bergman, Hofstede’s writing and musical fantasy often hark back to his early days. It was the case throughout the whole of the trilogy angst/Knot/Neon and it resurfaces as a major theme in the fable like form of this album. Treehouse could also refer to a playhouse of children. Ingmar Bergman too places childhood experiences at the centre of his work. A famous quote of his is: “I am forever living in my childhood”. And I cannot but think that Henk Hofstede might perhaps feel the same way.
Continuity and renewal are at the heart of the Nits universe in “Tree House Fire”. It’s their way of Being-In-The-World. The musical trail that leads to the Dutch Mountains has never been more clear.

Joke Roelandt, March 2024