A Song For Mother

The eighth shape is mum’s dress with the yellow flowers

It was ten years ago – and on another anniversary celebration – this recording of Nits’ song for mum. 
The album “Wool” is of a classic beauty and I mean classic as in a prototypical, authoritative epitome of cultural expression. Like the Venus De Milo is, or the poetry of Pierre de Ronsard, like the character Ophelia that Shakespeare created, like Dickens’ novels are or a minuet by Mozart, a scene by Vermeer. Yes I took some examples from the top shelf because the scope and universality of the themes and musical forms laid down in some of the “Wool” songs are quite exceptional and can entail a similar, profound reaction in the listener – when listening closely – as do these famous works. Like in many wonderful, much-loved expressions of artistic nature, simplicity and recognisability are paramount and that is precisely what Nits excel at on the album “Wool”, in a masterful, musical language with a restrained command of musical skill. The music sets its own tranquil pace wherein the lyricist can savour the moments of memory.

The universal theme of “mother and child”, “mother and son” in the gentle flânerie of the song that is “Walking With Maria”, is such an example of classic musical writing, but then in a contemporary outfit. The mother and son in the song – Henk Hofstede and his late mum – appear as humble characters just going for a walk through different seasons of life, unhurried, dressed in retail clothes; a river, seagulls and butterflies, stars and a moon are their natural companions as they are for so many people. It’s not a special walk, it is quite ordinary in fact, as are most daily walks, in easy, comfortable retail clothing. But there’s nothing retail about this song, there’s nothing ordinary about the flow of the river, there’s nothing ordinary in the flow of the music that accompanies mother and son on their stroll. It’s a theme as old as mankind – the religious portraits of “Madonna and child” are iconic representations in most cultures – that can’t be ignored in any humanistic tradition either. Henk Hofstede always standing with one foot in a long line of humanist artists who look at life through the lens of poets and writers, of painters and musicians who believe in giving meaning and shape to their lives by way of rational thought and aesthetic expression. 
The cyclic nature of the song which spans a whole lifetime from birth to death is expressed in the most beautiful poetry, sensual and liquid. And the music just follows these instincts, inspired by sensory pleasures, sensual memories. A song in beauty born, liquefied in the water of the river, in mother’s milk, a berceuse almost, softly swaying – following the path of the river – offering shelter, protection, nurture in its haptic, close-to-the-skin colours and caresses. “Walking With Maria” appears at a moment in the Nits history when girls abound in the band. Their tender blondness and musical finesse, their undeniable, feminine touches are a godsend for this tender mother-son song. They help the band to infuse a sense of calm and reassurance into the music, Arwen and Titia know how to appease and soften the sounds, the rhythms soothing and shushing.
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The swimming pool of the world of Jacob resurfaces in the lyrics, its water both calming and frightening. But the lyricist has overcome the nightmare of the tragedy suffered by Skakespeare’s heroin Ophelia. His mother taught him how to swim; the melodica still remembers everything. Not so long before, another pop son wrote two songs for his mother, albeit in very different circumstances: John Lennon composed two tributes to his mum who was only there for him for a very short time, “Julia” and “Mother”. Listening to them, I am once again struck by the close resemblance between the voices of John Lennon and Henk Hofstede especially in the recording of the song “Julia”. But what’s different is the sense of harmony that wades through the whole of “Walking With Maria”, the harmoniousness of the universe of Nits, the acceptance of all the good and bad that happened, all wrapped up in a song that is a memory and a tribute to a mother’s love and a token of a love for mum. One yellow moon for ever watching over them.

Joke Roelandt, June 2024