Artists and projects.

The album 'Notebook Living' (release 2008).
Notebook Living is an album based on Wonder's poems, reworked into songs by various producers from Manchester (UK) and Amsterdam (NL). Wonder's storytelling qualities, with her unique, gentle, musical intonation gave her, not only a small following among writers, other performers and artists, but also among some befriended producers and musicians. In 2007 she started to work on the first recordings for the album with musicians and producers from the MCR music scene. And so it became.

The album Notebook Living will be launched on October 26/2008 at the infamous Paradiso with an avant-garde, experimental live set, redefining silence, music and the art of storytelling through songs. Producers who've worked on the album are The Present Occupier, Mild Man Jan, Danny 'Dubble D', Clive Hunte for Busha Productions and DJ Aardvarck, making an album full of distinct flavors and peculiar personal tastes, features artwork by Hotelworldwide.com with cover photography shot by Maurice Heesen. See www.myspace.com/itswonderhere for some of the tracks and the coming updates. Watch out for www.myspace.com/manicmonkrecords for unreleased tracks, video and the whole she-bang…

An attempt at understanding the Universe (December 2005).
An attempt at understanding the Universe is a cross media performance piece commissioned by the PmPLab (Paradiso/Melkweg Production House) for the Milky Way theatre in Amsterdam. The PmPLab approached Wonder with her world of writings and asked her how she would create a performance piece that would challenge the language of the stage as we know it. She scratched her head, swallowed twice (this is how the story goes) and said that she knew little about modern dance but was always intrigued by that specific silent language. If she was to take on the challenge she wanted to create a piece combining poetry, modern dance, new and existing music, a visual landscape and philosophy. "An attempt at understanding the Universe was born'; a rhythmical collage of thoughts and habits, trying to grasp the world around us as a reflection of our thought patterns and finding ways to break these. The piece showed on only four nights (due to the expansive crew and a stage filled with a multitude of second hand fridges made the piece too costly and slightly immobile to travel). With choreography/direction by Klaus Jurgens, dance by Dylan Newcomb, Kelly Hirina, music by Radion, poems and performance by Wonder, featuring songs by Motorhead, Nina Simone, the Talking Heads, Kate Bush and others. For the rest of the crew (from visuals/light design/stage design/costumes etc.), please check the flyer in the news-section.  

Performance piece and recorded album> Desdemona Died (2004/2005).
'Desdemona Died' was once a vague project about love thought up by poetess Wonder. She couldn't decide if it was an ode to love, a warning about love, a documentation on the cycles of love or just a filmic way of making theatre.  

Initially the project started out as a short avant-garde play inspired by Shakespeare's Othello, performed in one of Amsterdam's historical theatre venues for a one-off 'theme night' on jealousy. Wonder re-wrote her own version of the play using beats and samples to tell the story from a female’s point of view (by giving voice to the antagonist Desdemona). Soon after that she started working together with producer mr.vilt, building on this idea and shaping the different phases of love through her thoughts, through interviews about love, through poems, melodies and through his eclectic musical melting pot. And thus the album was born. mr.vilts musical open-mindedness brings out her sensuous sighs in his production, lifting her words and accompanying her fire, as it ranges from hip hop based beats to surreal classical cut up samples and off key piano play. We can proudly say: there is no other album like it. Is it film on vinyl, is it a play through your speakers, is it a long haunting love song? Do answers ever question love? 

Photographer Koen Hauser shot the album cover and writers/poets Sue Smith, Sarah O'Gorman and Iriel Sayeed have contributed their thoughts to the album. Design and art direction for the album were done by Youri Koers. Many more artists have made the project come to life by supporting it and creating from it. Please check out our press section for reviews, media snippets and thoughts on the album.