Interview: Rindert Lammers

Paul McCartney, Grief, And Two Glances In A Mundane Mirror

Your life on earth will be, as always, the interval between two significant glances in a mundane mirror.

- F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Beautiful And The Damned” (1922)

Rindert Lammers’ album, “Thank You Kirin Kiki” has five tracks, clocking in at 25:03. With some important exceptions, the ambient, ethereal sounds are created by virtual instruments from musical samples.

It is a modest debut: “modest” in the sense of pure, “modest” as in free from any trace of the coarse or indecent.

This purity is hard-earned, as Lammers created the album in the wake of the tragic deaths of three college friends caught in an avalanche while on a ski vacation. He dropped out of school to deal with the grief and found himself frequenting a nearby cinema as therapy.

It was there that he saw Hirokazu Kore-eda’s sublime “Shoplifters” (2018), about a group of poor and abused people who create a loving family unit within the chaos of contemporary Tokyo.

One moment in the film made a profound impression and inspired …