To celebrate 20 years of DNK we are organising some special events through the year. The first of these is at Willem de Zwijgerkerk with the support of Occii.

We have invited the inimitable Alasdair Roberts in duo with a new DNK favourite Fredrik Rasten. DNK Ensemble will play works by Koen Nutters and Seamus Cater. All happening in this beautiful and little known church close to the Vondelpark in Amsterdam Zuid.

Alasdair Roberts (SC) & Fredrik Rasten (NO)

The Scottish/Norwegian duo of Alasdair Roberts and Fredrik Rasten fuses their respective work with traditional music, folk song and experimental minimalism. Their first encounter was in the septet ‘Alasdair Roberts og Völvur’, which released the LP «The Old Fabled River» on Drag City Records in 2021, featuring Roberts-originals and a blend of Scottish and Norwegian traditional songs. In duo, Roberts and Rasten have so far focussed on traditional Scottish narrative ballads, often with long durations, and where slowly evolving musical materials build up throughout the strophic verse-structure to emphasise the storytelling.

The duo employs both field recordings and printed sources of traditional song as the basis of their interpretations, often evolving new original compositions and always resulting in a meeting point between time-honoured and contemporary forms of musical expression. Both musicians sing and play a variety of instruments, Roberts’ clear and unadorned vocal delivery blending with Rasten’s sensibilities of just intonation tuning and timbrel qualities of sound.

DNK Ensemble

André Avelas – electronics
Anne La Berge – flute
Seamus Cater – concertina and voice
Koen Nutters – double bass
Germaine Sijstermans – clarinet
Aimée Theriot – cello and voice

The longstanding DNK Ensemble will perform two pieces especially written or arranged for the church setting by Koen Nutters and Seamus Cater.

OCCII ON TOUR x DNK 20 Years! – Alasdair Roberts & Fredrik Rasten + DNK Ensemble play Nutters and Cater

Thurifer Promotions & World’s Appreciated Kitsch present a night of pure darkness and skull-crushing violence, featuring three rising forces in the underground metal and punk scenes.

FINAL DOSE (black metal / punk, UK)
London’s Final Dose brings their chaotic fusion of black metal and punk to Amsterdam, ready to celebrate the release of their new LP “Under the Eternal Shadow”, delivering ferocious black metal for the punks and punk for the blacksters. Before surrendering to complete despair and nihilism, give Final Dose a try.
https://finaldose.bandcamp.com

CONIFERE (black metal, CAN)
Hailing from Montreal, Conifère delivers their signature blend of melodic and atmospheric black metal, evoking ancient struggles and frostbitten landscapes. Great songwriting combining melancholic folk passages and blasting triumphant melodies echoing the legends of old tales, forever enshrouded in the icy embrace of Québec.
https://conifere.bandcamp.com

BOMBSTRAP (terror punk, NL/UK)
Bombstrap is a brand new vicious four-piece band hailing from Manchester and Rotterdam. Often referred to as Rotterdam terror punk, they prefer to lay on the weirder side of hardcore. They’re nasty and they’re coming to hit you with their politically charged homicidal rage. As their anger transforms into a visually dangerous and conceptually subversive show, they invite you to explode with them.
https://bombstrap-rotterdam.bandcamp.com/

FINAL DOSE (UK) + CONIFERE (CAN) + BOMBSTRAP (NL/UK)

Geregeld Ontregeld presents: Die Verlierer & Desintresse for a night of post-punk, coldwave & eggpunk for fans of Pisse, Warsaw & Molchat Doma

DIE VERLIERER
Berlin-based bunker punks Die Verlierer resurface wielding another round of Earth-scorching recordings with their sophomore LP, Notausgang. After a game-changing debut LP, the band continues to craft tuneful yet wiry jams that are well-informed by prodding, proto-punk archetypes and our gloomy, motorik post-punk ancestors; think Warsaw, Crass, and The Stooges.

The performances have a gritty live feeling: the sound of the recording is warm and organic, captured in analog tape glow. Die Verlierer are the real deal—’70s punk artifacts dropped into modern times.
Notausgang by Die Verlierer: https://dieverlierer.bandcamp.com/album/notausgang

DESINTRESSE
Desinteresse is a Dutch coldwave band consisting of Bart (bass), Joppe (drums) and Sem (vocals/synth/guitar). The band comes from the southern province Limburg and was officially formed in November 2022. The band started out as a duo, but has been functioning as a three piece since 2024. Their latest release is the 7” single ‘Grijze Dromen’ (August 2024). All releases up until now have been released on their own label ‘DECADENCE’. Their aim is to recreate the sound from a past era, using only analog equipment, seeing this as a form of art, identity and expression.
Cold, abandoned and non-existential feelings mark the melancholic and gloomy atmosphere on stage. Still sounds and voices are not primary – though the message is.
Grijze Dromen by Desinteresse: https://desinteresse.bandcamp.com/album/grijze-dromen

Geregeld Ontregeld Presents: Die Verlierer (DE) + Desintresse

De Nieuwe Nederlandse Naïviteit komt naar OCCII voor een bonte avond vol eigenzinnige muziek. Eerder dit jaar verscheen van deze verenigde groep outsiders, dissidenten, tegenstrevers en andere non-conformisten een compilatiealbum met daarop zestien Nederlandstalige nummers die samen de strijd aangaan met een dagelijks dreigender wordende wereld. Kom kijken hoe deze ridders van de eeuwige jeugd hun plastieken zwaarden en waterpistolen oppakken, en een frisse, ongewisse toekomst tegemoet gaan!

Verwacht een ongebonden totaalprogramma vol poëzie, muziek en performance. De optredens volgen elkaar in rap tempo op, niet gehinderd door podiumconventies of de klok. Tijdens deze avond zijn onder meer de volgende artiesten te zien:

De kraters (analog synth wave uit Amsterdam) heeft genoeg aan een tafel vol toetsen, schuifregelaars en draaiknoppen genoeg om eenieder mee te nemen naar tijden die minder vergankelijk blijken dan gedacht. Ontdek hoe de analoge beats en minimale melodieën die ooit een veelbelovende toekomst voorspelden achteraf gezien de actualiteit moeiteloos hebben ingehaald.

Piet Leegwater (outsider indie uit Amsterdam) beschrijft een veelomvattende planeet in eigenzinnige bewoordingen en ontregelende melodieën. Luister naar harmonische gedachtekronkels waarmee hij de opbouw van een plastic binnenwereld kunstig begeleidt.

Huub Prins (synth wave uit Groningen) laat intimiderend de luisteraar dichterbij komen, maar de binnenwereld blijft een mysterie in zijn duistere dansmuziek. Laat je overweldigen door een show vol intense 80s-beats en een etalage vol schier-onnavolgbare emoties.

DOMTUIG (outsider indie uit Den Haag) bekijkt een verfomfaaide wereld door een bril die orde zou moeten scheppen in een onkenbaar universum. Met ontregelende beats en een diversiteit van stemmen geeft het drietal krachtig inhoud aan de strijd tegen de voorspelbaarheid.

Buurtbeheer (punk uit Rotterdam) ontstond als punkdrietal uit woest ongenoegen tegen misstanden in volkshuisvesting en andere nare kapitalistische uitwassen. Voel hoe de rauwe emotie zware drums en bassen dirigeert en de luisteraar overdondert.

Thor Kissing (indie pop uit Den Haag) is niet alleen dé indieweirdo; hij is ook een platenbaas die produceert sinds hij boterhammen smeert en het nieuwe muzikale normaal dicteert. Maak je op voor absurde humor en eclectische beats die zijn muzikale meesterschap omlijsten.

Drroomgordijnen (indie pop uit Amsterdam) drroomt zijn liedjes voor ze hem ten dele vallen als wereldvreemde werkelijkheid die voortsluimeren in het onderbewuste. Laat je meevoeren in de nachtelijke beeldtaal van zijn aanstekelijke liedjes.

Kwartet Niek Hilkmann (indie rock uit Rotterdam) maakt aanstekelijke liedjes over geneugten als zwierige kermisattracties, Tino Martin en tobben over topsport. Laat je vervoeren in het prettige tempo van de stadstram van waaruit Niek en de zijnen de schijnbare alledaagsheid verheffen tot het exceptionele.

Voor meer info over deze nieuwe beweging, ga naar:  https://www.nieuwenederlandsenaiviteit.nl/

Volg ze via:  https://www.instagram.com/nieuwenederlandsenaiviteit/

De plaat is hier te beluisteren en te bestellen: https://petrolcandy.bandcamp.com/album/nieuwe-nederlandse-na-viteit

Beelden van het Nieuwe Nederlandse Naïviteit Live 2024 zijn gemaakt door Saenyo:
Nieuwe Nederlandse Naïviteit Festival in de Bovenkruier 19 oktober 2024

Nieuwe Nederlandse Naïviteit: avond vol poëzie, muziek en performances

Embrace your own imperfections and the chaos that life brings: this cannot be wrong. And if you love music that constantly surprises, the second album WE CAN’T BE WRONG by I Believe In My Mess is a true treat. Expect a unique mix of indie, afro-beat, dub, electronic, and krautrock that will leave you in awe time and time again. On this record, I Believe In My Mess rides its own winds more than ever, rarely sticking to plans, and confidently improvises with every discovery. This approach has resulted in more room for melodies and hooks. The band’s own vocals play a more prominent role, often overshadowing the quirky dubs and stem samples.

The album is dynamic, chill, confident, modest, and funny. It reflects I Believe’s journey from obscurity to global attention, always driven by the beauty of imperfection. WE CAN’T BE WRONG stands for confidence, solidarity, and urgency, but also for stubbornness, overconfidence, and doubt. It is a beacon of sincerity for anyone open to musical and human experimentation. We can’t be wrong… can we?

WE CAN’T BE WRONG is an ode to a musical sense of freedom that you won’t want to miss. I Believe In My Mess at the controls!

I Believe In My Mess is the project of Frank van Praag and Geert de Groot, both also active in the Amsterdam band Scram C Baby, with backgrounds in bands like Bauer, Solex, Claw Boys Claw, and Fatal Flowers. Since 2016, IBIMM has been releasing music from their own Messy Sound Studio under their own label, Filthy Good Records. WE CAN’T BE WRONG is the follow-up to the well-received debut album Do Unto Others. This album was praised by the likes of Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe (BBC Radio 6), Michael Bradley (BBC Radio Ulster), Michele Colomer (WFMU), Pinguin Radio, KINK Radio, OOR, Lotje IJzermans (VPRO), and Klaas Knooihuizen (Trouw). The duo has also mixed dub tracks for acts such as De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig, Hallo Venray, Canshaker Pi, Fatima Yamaha, and Meindert Talma.

Quotes on the early singles of WE CAN’T BE WRONG

“As if Captain Beefheart had an unhinged Krautrock phase before going off to explore indie dance and dub.” – Here Comes The Flood
“Everything is in that record. I love that!” – Michael Bradley (BBC Radio Ulster)

I BELIEVE IN MY MESS + MORE TBA

World’s Appreciated Kitsch celebrates 2 years of shows in Amsterdam with a stacked line-up on Saturday 25th January

PLASTICS (UK)
BRIGHTON F**KING PUNK
Four muckers on a rampage for fun and chaos. “With a sound that is as incessantly catchy as it is pissed and snotty, the Brighton-based quartet’s Plastic World EP is a motherf**ker of a record.” – No Echo
https://plasticsrockers.bandcamp.com

PARASITE (BE)
Risen from the ashes of Dead Stop, Rise & Fall and Justice, Parasite brings you up-tempo D-beat punk hardcore from Belgium with some melodic guitars. Think Discharge, Tragedy with a pinch of punk rock.
https://parasitearmy.bandcamp.com

DESIRE LINE (DE)
Münster/Bielefeld based Desire Line (members of Tides Denied, Suspect & Sunveil) are back with their new 12” EP ‘Life’s between us’ casting their dreamy, melancholic sound introduced on their 2022 demo in a much gloomier light.
FFO: HC kids playing alt rock/emo. Think Texas Is The Reason, Sunny Day Real Estate and the likes.
https://collectivememoryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/lifes-between-us

SNAKE EATER (NL)
Snake Eater is here to kick colonial ass. With their brand of in-your-face grindy hardcore punk, they’re a fresh face in the scene. Consisting in part of ex-members of melodic hardcore act To Live Among Wolves, they’re here and ready to fight. Their first demo is coming soon!
https://www.instagram.com/snakeeater.zindabad/

32ELEPHANTS (NL)
Amsterdam based emo-outfit 32elephants seduces you with their raw energy and sincerity. Their music packs an undeniable punch, bearing uncompromising sun-kissed riffs carefully drawn on a rainy backdrop. Taking you to a place you vaguely remember, but never were able to let go of.
A mishmash of influences and a lot of complaining; You know, just a really good emo band.
https://32elephants.bandcamp.com

PLASTICS (UK) + PARASITE (BE) + DESIRE LINE (DE) + SNAKE EATER + 32ELEPHANTS

New traditional music by Legiana Collective, Trikosis and DJ Wortel.

Legiana Collective is a modern folk band that plays their original compositions and traditionals from all over the world. The focus is on the harmonic blending of the singers voices, accompanied by acoustic instrumentation. Legiana’s live shows are always lively, theatrical and danceable, breathing a love of sharing their surprising music with the audience.

Trikosis is a Bohemian Zombie Killing Superfolk band, inspired by traditional European and North-African music, especially from the Balkan and klezmer culture, but also from Italy, Morocco and Turkey. A combination of self-written work and our own arrangements of traditional music, mixed in with some clowning and punk, with the purpose of getting everybody to dance like crazy.

DJ WORTEL – een kanjer van formaat, bij wie plaatjes draaien even vlot als tappen gaat. Muziek van hoge gronden en donkere dieptes. Zoet, maar rijk aan stevige bites, uh beats. Niemand die ons meer opzweept dan hij. Gandalf is er nagenoeg niets bij.

The New Tradicional presents: a night of crazy folk for crazy folk by crazy folk

Doors open: 20:00
Showtime: 20.30
Damage: 10 euro

Ela Lung & Lola Lola
The long lady is a surreal creature, a projection, an extension. She’s usually known for putting up a show, and will be attending Occii on the edge of labor. This time, not only releasing piled up emotional material, but also delivering a little surprise for the audience. The long lady has been put up at several occasions, ranging from events at the cph venue ‘Mayhem’, in the circus scene and is most recently featured in Vogue Scandinavia. The Long Lady has been created by the sisters Mona and Lea Dyreborg Wagner and will be performed by the two cph-based artists Lola Lola and Lea Dyreborg Wagner.

Lola is a circus artist, singer, actor, costumier and artist, with a background in the Bristol cabaret queer scene. Through humour and mastering their craft, they often bend the common understanding of physical possibilities, celebrating the absurdity of reality.

Lea Dyreborg is also known as a musician under the name Ela Lung, often mixing folk, electronic music, pop and performance. Storytelling is a keyword to describe her songs, which often takes place in alternative parallel worlds. To dream, to confess or to simply take a little break from reality, that is for the listener to decide.

Villads von Posselt
is a Danish guitarist who has been widely active in the Copenhagen underground for the past decade, both solo and in a variety of groups. He focuses on the abstract side of the electric guitar, using it as a conductor of pure electrical sound through playing with feedback and high-intensity bursts.
Together with Lasse B. Ondesen he runs a CDr label called “Andres Arbejde”, specializing in handmade artist-editions, and has performed at various experimental music venues and art institutions in Europe, such as WORM (Rotterdam), Mayhem & The National Gallery of Denmark (Copenhagen), West Germany & Trickster (Berlin), Kampnagel (Hamburg).

Lasse B. Ondesen
Noise artist running the CDr label called “Andres Arbejde” with Villads von Posselt

Meisje D
Meisje D (she/her) is having fun with noise! Experimenting with performance, interaction, big sounds and stories. She’s playing around in Amsterdam mostly doing collaborations figuring out what works, what’s fun and what’s craziiii. xoxo

22stain
Origin: divorce
Background: the floor
Presence: just left
Future outlook: returning
Occupation: as always rarely
Body shape: strong legs, weak upper body
Facial features: ugly
Gender: business plans defect
Sexuality: numbers on rocks
Hobbies: hanging out
Pets: yes
linktr.ee/22stain

Kiki Kazimi
Performer, Noise, kinks and needles

Koolrocce & Hancelot presents

Big Toilet Radio is a freeform online radio station based in Amsterdam Nieuw-west.
The event PLOP will be a festive night celebrating the farty energy together with all the flushers in our big toilet.
With a fully booked program,
we will bring you to the deep heart of the sewage system
and find that soft sound of something solid dropping lightly into the
temple of constemplation.

-line up:
Toilet surprise act
schoco mune
Linus Stiefel
gloria del mal
COW shift Z
and with various Dj sets by Big Toilet family

PLOP

A night of electronic music and visuals combining live-coding, concrete sounds, synthesis, analog electronics, computer generated graphics, generative music, and more! All deeply rooted in improvisation. Presented in collaboration between OCCII and Netherlands Coding Live (NL_CL).

\unexCoder
\unexCoder is a composer and computer artist from Argentina. He uses programming languages to develop and build hybrid performance systems that combine live coded algorithms with analog devices and computer generated graphics. His audiovisual pieces push the viewer into a deep abstract volumetric aural and visual experience. He has performed in festivals and concerts in Argentina, Spain, Germany, France and Netherlands.

Bandcamp: https://unexcoder.bandcamp.com/album/rem

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unexcoder/

Website: https://www.unexcoder.com.ar/

eerie_ear
eerie_ear/ Sebastian Pappalardo is a sound designer and digital artist. His multimedia project eerie_ear explores audio visual generative art, using live coded interactivity to create sound and pixel synthesis, audio signal and sample processing through a prism of multiplicity, feedback, geometry, glitch-art and noise manipulation.

Motivated to contribute to the creation of a more holistic approach in the arts and technology landscape, he focuses his music and video production process on the concept of “systems of growth”. In a passionate and mindful conversation with generative algorithms, his art evolves in haphazard rhythms and intervals, inspired by timbres and tensions present in abstract art, contemporary composition and cinematic sound design. He produces challenging and intricate acousmatic sonorities, some such experiments combine granular synthesis tidalcycles functions with dreamy midi devices, to create complex multi-instrument sound textures and patterns.

Sebastian is also an AV professional, specialized in film sound post-production, and an educator, focusing on media in the context of socio-cultural environments and the relation between the audiovisual and educational processes.

IG: https://www.instagram.com/eerieear
Live Sets: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkxzJSA7SW8-8-_9WnXrmg8H32O8k4wUn
Bandcamp: https://eerieear.bandcamp.com/

Saskia Freeke
Saskia Freeke creates generative, computational art on a daily basis. Both her works and her practice stand out by their distinctive playful characteristic. By creating her own rules and playfully adapting these as she goes, Saskia applies a notable evolving narrative to her work. The act of live coding provides an awesome complementary context to her discourse – for it is the realtime exercise amongst and in conjunction with creative peers that make her contemporary artistic principles come into full play.

https://www.instagram.com/sasj_nl/
http://www.sasj.nl

Sonologico
Sonologico (Raphael Sousa Santos) is a composer, visual artist and programmer from the Northeast of Brazil based in the Netherlands. Using sounds from traditional instruments, synthesizers, recordings, and audio processing, he uses keyboard instruments, his own programs and live-coding to build soundscapes that range from ethereal still harmonies to distorted pulsating noise.

As a composer, his music has been performed in concerts throughout Brazil. As a performer (both solo and as part of an ensemble), he has performed audiovisual electronic pieces in independent concerts and in events and locations such as the GOGBOT festival, the Oude Muziek Utrecht festival, WORM, and the Orgelpark. He has also performed and produced visual pieces and projections in collaboration with musicians or presented in fixed media.

https://sonologi.co

Cinematic Algorithms

Doors open: 20:00
Showtime: 20:30
Damage: €12

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS (US) – ‘THE DISSONANT FIST OF MODERNISM STRIKES AGAIN’

Support Band: MAGASIN (Gronningen, art-punk/art-pop, FFO: Lizzy Mercier Descloux/Rosa Yemen).

Magasin is a music group that bounces around on the playful side of no wave and post-punk. Multilingual lyrics and layers of musical notes are folded in half and stapled at the fold. Imagine Lizzy Mercier Descloux or The Raincoats accompanied by the rigid minimalist pulse of The Normal. Magasin’s music is quirky and fun in a detached, slightly absurdist way.

The Flying Luttenbachers, pioneers of chaotic sound and uncompromising energy, are embarking on a European tour this April 2025! Known for their explosive blend of avant-jazz, noise rock, and relentless improvisation, this band has been pushing the boundaries of underground music for decades.

Formed in Chicago in 1991, moved to California in 2003, disbanded in 2007, reformed in New York in 2017, then relocated back to Chicago in 2022, The Flying Luttenbachers recently completed a crushing direct support slot on 8 dates of Japanese Noisesters Melt-Banana May/June 2024 headlining tour. The latest trio formation of the Luttenbachers is a tight, intense, wild beast executing complex compositions with visceral showmanship and presence. The music is hypercomposed BRUTAL PROG – not your grandpa’s “prog rock”, but an intricate, detailed assault fueled by punk, no wave, free jazz, and extreme metal. As documented on the recent live-in-studio, no bs EP “Spectral Warrior Mythos 2”, today’s band is on fire. The new proper Flying Luttenbachers’ full-length “Losing The War Inside Our Heads” is released on LP/CD/download in July 2024 and the band will be supporting the release with US touring this Winter and a European tour in early 2025.

Since erupting forth in 1991, the seminal punk jazz/brutal prog/no wave band The Flying Luttenbachers has steadily deconstructed music, reason, and all notions of sanity on 20 releases and more than 400 live performances around the world. Predictably unpredictable, the Luttenabachers’ fierce, modernistic approach draws from inspirations like No Wave, Free Jazz, Death Metal, Noise, Modern Classical, Free Improvisation, Punk and the blackest humor possible. (The universe has been destroyed a few times during the course of the cryptic plot running through the releases.) During the initial runs in Chicago and the Bay Area of California, some of the prominent musicians that came through the ranks included: Ed Rodriguez (Deerhoof), Mick Barr (Krallice), Hal Russell (NRG Ensemble), Jonathan Hischke (Dot Hacker), Alex Perkolup (Cheer-Accident), Fred Lonberg-Holm, Ken Vandermark and many others. After a ten year break, a now NYC-based Flying Luttenbachers emerged again in 2017 and made a week long tour of France, performing an hour long set of classic material from the entire catalog and culminating at the Sonic Protest festival in Paris.

https://theflyingluttenbachers.bandcamp.com/

The new-era albums “Shattered Dimension” (harmolodic skronk), “Imminent Death” (an angular tribute to ‘70s Miles Davis), “Negative Infinity” (a brutal prog highwater mark), and “Terror Iridescence” (bizarre outerspace minimalism) continued the group’s diverse agenda of organizing dissonance and energy. Never tame or predictable, The Flying Luttenbachers continue to assault musical mediocrity. The latest incarnation of this iconoclastic unit heads in yet another bold new direction . . . After the four full-length albums and numerous shows and tours with the New York-based lineups of the band (featuring various combinations of Tim Dahl, Matt Nelson, Brandon Seabrook, Katie Battistoni, Alex Ward, Wendy Eisenberg, Henry Kaiser, Chris Welcome and Evan Lipson), erstwhile leader and founding member Weasel Walter decided to change up the scenery by heading back to the original ground zero – Chicago. The latest formation is a stripped down power trio featuring Mr. Walter on guitar, bassist Luke Polipnick, and drummer James Paul Nadien.

The Flying Luttenbachers, Live at Fine Line, Minneapolis, MN (5/30/2024)

🪩 Party

OCCII

THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS (US) + MAGASIN

Adam

Maggie

Christie

Eric

Anna

Standard

guestList

OCCII is an independent music venue. Situated in a building complex which was squatted in 1984, legalized in 1992. OCCII has since developed into a unique social centre for alternative music and other arts. 
 
OCCII provides a cultural program that is hand-picked for those drawn to a wonderful and wide range of subversive sounds and music genres: global beats, noise, punk, folk, improv, rave, avant-garde & electronic.
 
OCCII is not in it to make profit. We aim to be a home to all kinds of subcultures and non-commercial collaborations. At OCCII we want to create a space where all feel welcome and safe(r), regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, ability, sexuality or otherwise. Our venue is wheelchair accessible.
 
In addition to live music, OCCII also hosts Kinderpret: a series of Tuesday & Wednesday afternoon theatre performances and workshops for kids aged 2-12 years. OCCII is part of De Binnenpret, a social center consisting of a variety of cultural and political collectives.

COMMUNITY

We are part of a community of musicians, artists and audience from Amsterdam and beyond: an active group of volunteers to connect music, people and other venues in the city.

This community and our volunteers are the ones that continuously bring new music and new developments to OCCII. Many of them are not native Amsterdammers. OCCII has a staff of two who coordinate the program, volunteers and other tasks needed. Together we try to contribute to creating space we think is crucial to the social fabric of Amsterdam. To (re)claim a place in the ever gentrifying city center and to continue our radical, non-commercial way of hosting musicians from all over the world.

We are dedicated to support anyone who would like to organize an event or become a volunteer – please read more about that here!


THE BUILDING’S ARCHITECTURE

People often ask us: What is the story behind the eclectic facade of OCCII? The venue was once part of a larger complex (built in 1883/84) which functioned as horse stables and a depot for trams – that’s why OCCII’s main entrance has such tall doors! The architect was Abraham Salm, he based his design on the Russian National Style, inspired by a painting of a clock made by Viktor Hartman.

For many years, the facade was in disarray (very punk..!). In 2010 we were able to restore the exterior facade to its beautiful original state, with help from Monument Zorg and OCCII volunteers!

Other significant buildings in Amsterdam designed by Abraham Salm and his father G.B. Salm are (what we now know as): Paradiso and de Melkweg. It’s a wonder that all three buildings have transformed into the most important venues for live music – and the squatting movement in Amsterdam is to thank for that.

Read more about the history of the building on the website of Binnenpret, this blogpost we wrote and this article by ArchiHis.

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(Text and Image)
https://occii.org/info/