The Tender Humanism of Nits

No-one will deny that the musical creations of Nits developed into the project of a whole life. Their music is narrating the ongoing present of the experiencing of life in the here and now. It is what music does best, it is what music, in a canny, suggestive way encourages the attentive musician to try and achieve. Nits saw this invitation – from early on in their career – when they decided to let their musical creations take on a more thinking pace and let it follow the flow of life. It happened naturally, as a simple way of being.
Looking back at their immense oeuvre – which has a lifespan and a maturation so atypical for many a pop god or goddess – one cannot but notice the gentle sense of history and time that wades through their albums. And what’s more, they never seem to want to go against this soft progressing of time; their relation with time has never been one of struggle. The music evolves, just like the musicians themselves. It changes and Nits let it happen. They know there is meaning in “change” and they embrace it. Balance has always been their motto in this world of excesses. Nits are the kind, accepting sort of musicians, who build their work in the spirit of a true and tender humanism. Their world is one of a generous equanimity.

The Family Premise

I don’t know many (pop) musicians who have made “family” such an intricate part of their musical world. Although Henk Hofstede is an only child, references to a somewhat larger inner circle of brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, nephews, grandparents … abound in his lyrics. They make for a cosy nest for the listener to feel at home in. And as the years went by, this Nits nest became more and more important. The family theme in the work of Nits isn’t however restricted to this intimate, be it personal or dreamed up nucleus of the frontman of the band. The strong roots in a city of water and sky, where the wind blows freely, haven’t prevented this family man to fly out into the world and expand this homey unit into something far more comprehensive.

Of course the Dutch have a rich history of humanism with figures like Erasmus of Rotterdam, Baruch de Spinoza and Multatuli, to name but a few. It’s a story that starts over 2000 years ago in ancient Greek philosophy and literature and which is still very relevant today. The humanist traditions in art and literature hold of course a very central position in the discourse of Nits. The artists and writers looking to understand the ways of the world and their place in it, aren’t very different from Henk Hofstede and the way he portrays the sensibilities of himself and of the band throughout his lyrics. Their music is often reflective, even contemplative and is always in search of life enhancing pleasures to be found in the world that surrounds them, and in the process of composition itself, which is conceived as a rewarding activity of both the hands, and the heart and mind. A pleasurable activity without any excesses in an almost epicurean sense of the word, as part of a happy and tranquil life.

There From Here

Let’s go back to one of the culmina in the oeuvre of Nits, the album Giant Normal Dwarf. In the title song a book is sitting on a shelf much too high. It is the Odyssey by the Greek epic poet Homer, with the story of the one-eyed cyclops Polyphemus who is stabbed with a pole in the eye by Odysseus. Henk Hofstede writes about his place in the world amidst giants and dwarfs as a normal human being and tells the tale of humanity trying to make sense of it all. Rather than looking inward, he is always looking around him, at the surrounding world, places and times. Friendships and relationships are highly valued in his lyrics, the happiness of the individual who is always a part of a larger nest of family and other amicable relations. Living well in a world guided by the imagination, literature and art and by scientific laws of order and disorder, all happily co-existing in the enlightened universe of Giant Normal Dwarf where the Holy War is nothing but a bad memory.

The cover of the album is so revealing in this context: three almost identical-looking men are pushing what seems like a heavy wooden box up a spiralling metal construction around a pole of the same material. It evokes the plight of the mythical tyran Sisyphus who was condemned to rolling a huge boulder up a mountain, only to have to watch it roll down again and to start anew for ever and ever. The story and image were reinterpreted by the French philosopher and writer Albert Camus in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus”. In a somewhat existentialist manner Camus proclaims the absurdity of life and its never ending struggle only to come to the conclusion that surely, Sisyphus, even in those dire conditions, must be happy. It’s an odd supposition he seems to be making here, but one that must not surprise the lyricist of Nits, who, being aware of the human condition, nevertheless keeps seeing the good and keeps feeling optimistic and good-spirited. There’s not a trace of pessimism to be found; the existentialist ideas present in the work of Nits – where man is a project of his own making for ever focused on a future he is the agent of – are – in accordance with the words of Jean-Paul Sartre “L’existentialisme est un humanisme” – nothing but a positive, enlightened humanism. In the world of so called “pop music” Nits take a humanist stance in their way of envisioning and creating music, explicitly referring to their illustrious predecessors and placing themselves repeatedly in an old tradition of artists, musicians and thinkers. In this rather uniform world of pop music they chose not to be determined by it and created their own unique path of free musical wanderings.

Lits-Jumeaux: A Twin Bed of Past and Present

History – in the work of Nits – is not so very far away; it happened here on the same ground where we are standing right now and Nits are but too conscious of this ongoing process: their music is grounded and rooted in a well-defined place and time, you can see where it all happens, it is exactly where it all happened before … And music can bring back those bygone times and connect us to the lives of those who came before us in a never ending stream of sounds. The Nits image of the radio – a strong symbol in their work – as in “Radio Shoes” or “Beromünster” amongst others -, bringing back or reuniting people and times through the sound of music and voices. The angst-song “Radio Orange” is another wonderful example where a brother and sister walk back to their house, the end of the war is near, the radio a token of hope and freedom. Nits man and woman, brother and sister, are a historical being.
The colourful visuals in the writing of Henk Hofstede unite so many different worlds, times and places into a collection of songs. It’s a fascinating world of humanistic images and ideas that form a thread of wonder and awe through the music of Nits, one that reminds us of all the benevolence and imaginative powers of the human mind that are always at hand, whenever we might need them. A world of flowers, trains and buttons, water and ice, trees and shoes, sleeping beauties and an infinite shoeblack, books and paintings. And a music that brings everything together again across time and space. 

The Nits universe is a very hospitable one; it is far removed from politics and narrow ideologies. A natural, spontaneous, humanist vision of life unfolded together with the music that early on had decided to take its valuable time praising the values and sensibilities that make life worth living. A music that speaks to the uttermost sensibilities we have as humans for beauty, kindness, compassion and joy.
“You point your finger at the faces (my family) – On this photograph
This is my father (he looks like me) – On this photograph”
A whole world with its cities, people and objects, became a friend.

The stunning Adieu Sweet Bahnhof song “Vah Hollanda Seni Seni” is a beautiful brother-and-sister song in a denouncing humanist spirit of rebellion.

Joke Roelandt, November 2023