Johan Borger
(1984) pretends to be a singer-songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist. All these talents are really in service of something else, which can't easily be defined by words: the quest for sound. Borger is a musician who paints with words and music. As a musician he feels at home in literature, including as regular accompanist to the poet Ingmar Heytze and member of the band Asfaltfeeën. As a librettist and composer his roots lie in Americana; his creative blueprint includes Ry Cooder and Gillian Welch as well as Steinbeck and Robert M. Pirsig. With narrative songs and instrumental miniatures on electric guitar, Borger creates a uniquely colourful world that passes through your mind like a film. He also put out two well-received solo records. The title track of his debut was named "song of the year" (2011) by 3voor12 Utrecht. Zwart Glimmend Chroom (Blackly Glinting Chrome), an album by Asfaltfeeën, was released by Excelsior Recordings in 2021. Borger is currently working on a wholly instrumental album.
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Wall to Wall
With: Ingmar Heytze, Johan Borger
Musical poet Ingmar Heytze and poetic musician Johan Borger found each other in the winter of 2010, on either side of a black Fender Stringmaster during a rehearsal in an ice-cold, deserted venue. Their shared love for lap-steel and vintage guitars, Americana, Gillian Welch and Robert M. Pirsig evolved into a friendship - a small universe of music, poetry and the quest for quality.
Their program "Wall to Wall," seen and heard on 17 June 2022 in the Nieuw Waldeck Library, is a catchy and continuous conversation between friends from different worlds. It's a road trip for the mind, an intimate show about conscious living and the quest for the meaning of the concept of "quality". Above all, it's a meeting of music and literature.