The Long River Slides

The punk-brass band De Kift has been performing their unique brand of music on the international scene for over 30 years. Their songs begin when the Dutch band’s leader Ferry Heijne sets off by boat along the rivers of North Holland province, searching for adventure and inspiration.

The portholes frame the barren winter landscape. Heijne listens to the stories told by people he meets along the way. There’s the old surfer who lost his youngest daughter, the Iraqi poet who alleviated the misery of the asylum seekers center with what he calls “feeble sentences,” and the seaman who will soon be a father and is preparing himself for life ashore, already knowing that things won’t be easy. Their stories are suffused with the air of loneliness, wistfulness and stubborn determination that characterize the sound of De Kift.

Documentary filmmaker Sanne Rovers shows Heijne developing his original ideas into compositions, rehearsing them with the rest of the band and ultimately playing them live. The atmospheric journey gives an impression of a way of being that’s best summarized by the motto “I struggle and emerge.”