Instruments
Luuk uses not only traditional instruments but also all kinds of surprising objects. He discovered and bought some of his flutes from flute builders at folk festivals. Because Luuk played their instruments so beautifully, a fun interaction developed: Luuk learned all sorts of things about the beautiful craft of flute making, and the makers were eager to know from him how the flute felt, played, and sounded!
Sometimes he just stumbles upon a unique sound object in a toy or pet store, and then the creative wheels start turning. Peeping chickens and grunting pigs always have something irresistible about them! Or he receives a flute as a gift from someone who has had an instrument lying in a corner on the windowsill for years and thinks: 'Well... what am I supposed to do with it... and what even is it?... Well, I'll just give it to Luuk... Who knows, maybe he can do something with it...' Well, that is often the case! Always welcome!
Nowadays, Luuk also discovers special instruments via the internet. After all, the internet has become one big digital festival. Yet, you won't find everything there. The real surprise is often found in places where musicians and builders are doing their thing. And sometimes Luuk goes looking very specifically for that one special sound... or an instrument that you can only play with your right hand or left ear. Unfortunately, he hasn't found the latter yet...
View below a selection of Luuk's instruments that he uses for concerts and in the recording studio. All these instruments can also be heard on his latest albums 'Het Groene Woud' and 'De Eilandroute'.
The piano accordion is actually still a very young instrument. First there was the harmonica, based on a similar principle, and thousands of years before that there was the Chinese sheng. By now, the accordion is a widespread instrument, and not only waltzes are played on it by Grandpa Harry, but also flashy tangos, polkas, popular hits, jazz, classical, and world music. What I like so much about an accordion is that you can walk around with it, stand, or sit, and that you have a complete arsenal to play rhythms, chords, melody, and dynamics. You can even take it with you on the bus. Sometimes, though, you do have to play a song before you are allowed inside...
The shruti box is an Indian instrument and means sound box. In India, it is usually played with the hands to accompany singing. By adjusting valves and moving the bellows, you can produce different drone sounds. I play it with my feet (and a foot pedal) to accompany my flute playing. In European folk music, you also often hear drones as accompaniment; think, for example, of the bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, and dulcimer.
Years ago, I once went with my parents to a large ceramics market in Swalmen. Endless stalls full of little pots and vases and plates... pff... But then suddenly, from a distance, I heard the unmistakable sound of a flute! A flute maker from Germany was standing there with homemade ocarinas, whistling behind his modest little stall. It was from this man that I bought my very first ocarina. An ocarina in G. Vielen dank.
This beautiful owl flute was made especially for me by Mexican flute maker Osvaldo Padrón for my 2023 album 'The Green Forest'. The owl flute originates from ancient Mexico. Animal flutes and many other types of flutes were developed thousands of years ago by indigenous civilizations such as the Mayans and the Aztecs. The mouthpiece is located at the back of the head, the two eyes also serve as the finger holes, the body forms the sound box... Ooh-hoo!...
Something else fun for the feet: the foot tambourine! Very fun and effective for accompanying yourself. People sometimes see all sorts of things in it, like a tree frog or an old wooden skate. If you take this onto the ice rink, it is sure to be a groundbreaking show...
The sound of these hollowed-out, dried nuts sounds like a group of people clapping their hands. Dried nuts and seeds have been used to make music for centuries. These specific nuts and seeds originate from Indonesia, from a tree called pangi. They are boiled, then buried in the ground for forty days with banana leaves and ash. When they are dug up and hollowed out afterwards, there are people making music with them again, like me!
These two little pigs always steal the show at concerts. I found them in a dollar store once and I really couldn't leave them behind. And luckily so! Would you like to see what I do with these cute little pigs? Then come to my concerts and you'll see for yourself! Oink oink! PS: here they are posing together on a fairytale-like wall at Het Aardbeienland.
This little bell, actually very small, is part of a long string of bells. I often hang it on a microphone stand. One little tinkle at the right moment can sometimes work wonders.
I heard the koshi for the first time during a meditation concert. Inside this small gong, small rods in different tones are attached. By making rotating movements with the cord from which the koshi hangs, a small stone touches these sound rods. In this way you create a sound bath with heavenly sounds while rotating.
These two tin whistles are the whistles I play most often during my concerts. Tin whistles are often associated with Irish music, although the system of a whistle with 6 holes is found almost everywhere in the world. My first introduction to the tin whistle was through the music of The Dubliners. Little eleven-year-old me wanted one too! I have since taped half of one of the two whistles shut with tape. This way I can play two whistles at the same time.
A special concert once took place in an old water tower in Arnhem. Four flute makers and I gave a one-off flute concert in this immense tower. It was an unforgettable experience! Partly because it simply sounded beautiful down there, but certainly also because I have never had such a fear of heights! Oof. Both the audience and the musicians had to climb down from the very top via a thin ladder. Fortunately, we all survived... I wasn't entirely sure about it for a moment! Listen to the ocarina here.
Ocarina is Italian for little goose. This often ceramic instrument can be found in many shapes and sizes and in many countries: Italy, the Balkans, Peru, China, Austria... and these come from Nijmegen! The ocarina on the left, the Balkanocarina, has a Balkan scale and was created during an experiment together with flute maker Hans Houkes. The second is a double ocarina.
Bornia is a beautiful piece of nature in the province of Utrecht. I once filmed a music video here, all in just two hours, including a long walk with all the instruments and two people with cameras! Listen and see the ocarina, Arabian shepherd's flute, shruti box, dvojacka, tin whistle and footnotes, while the wind rustles the autumn leaves.
Kazoos and bird whistles, simple and often very effective! I was once commissioned to play bee music during a bee symposium in the government building in Maastricht. I made bees out of yellow kazoos, complete with stripes, legs, eyes, and all. I even had electric shavers with me! In between the important meetings, I provided lighthearted, buzzing bee music. At the end, all the mayors and councillors were handed a bee kazoo as well, and we improvised a bee song together! Three years later, I ran into someone at a train station who said: "Hey, you're the bee man! That was fun back then!" And all that with a few kazoos...!
I once found this little music box in a vegetable garden allotment in Utrecht. Perhaps a truly Utrecht music box, as it is fully decorated with dancing Miffys. A few days later, I decided to put the thing into practice immediately during a concert. Behold my Afro-Utrecht-Limburg-music-box improvisation!
Here you see the Utrecht music box in all its glory, proudly displayed in the Wilhelminapark, Utrecht.
In this video, I play two tlapitzallis simultaneously. The word tlapitzalli comes from Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) and literally means "that which blows" or "wind instrument". This tubular flute is made of clay, has 4 finger holes, and the head of a god at the end. The flute was often played during ceremonies, but was sometimes also used by warriors as a powerful signaling instrument on the battlefield. I don't really like battlefields, so I just take them to the stage.
What a picture. A percussion dog, made from a wooden shoe, a few billiard balls and ping pong balls, a bee puppet, a flamingo, a whistling kettle with a little water in it and a rubber duck. You can make music with anything! Listen here to 'Fluitketeleiland', played on a splashing whistling kettle, recorded for 'De Eilandroute' from 2026.
Playing the piano and tin whistle at the same time is one thing. To also create a beautiful light show while playing using piano keys, projected directly onto the Dom Tower of Utrecht, is another! Thanks to this invention by Mr. Beam, to convert live music into a light show, I played the stars on the tower on a winter evening. The touch of tin whistle added to it was my personal cherry on the cake.
The ping-pong bat and ball always come with on stage. Combined with a harmonica, kazoo, and other hand and foot instruments, they often elicit 'oooohs' and 'aaaaaahs' from the audience. This fragment is taken from the CD 'Bosduif' from 2017.
The low whistle is the larger variant of the tin whistle. Its deep, warm, and melancholic sound is widely used in traditional Celtic music. Here you can see all kinds of tin and low whistles in various sizes, materials, and keys.
These two ocarinas have become a permanent feature of my concerts. Both ocarinas were made by Hans Houkes from Nijmegen at a time when he was still making small whistles. The little white ocarina is even so small that I have to be careful not to swallow it! Both whistles can be heard extensively on my album 'Het Groene Woud' from 2023.
The overtone flute is literally nothing more than a hollow branch with a small mouthpiece. No finger holes, and yet you can get many tones out of it. How? By blowing softer and harder (overblowing). To create even more tonal variations, you can hold the opening at the bottom of the flute alternately open, half-open, and closed with your index finger. This overtone flute was made from a yellow dogwood branch by a flute maker from Ghent. These instruments are common in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
The Arabian shepherd's flute is a bamboo flute with an Arabic scale. The husky sound when blowing gives you the feeling of being carried along on a warm desert wind.
Sometimes I receive a flute as a gift from someone who has been traveling. This beautiful hulusi, a Chinese flute, is an example of that. By blowing through an opening in the bulb, you can play no fewer than three flutes at the same time. The middle flute is for the melody, and the two side flutes are for additional tones. While playing, you can open and close the side flutes with a kind of cork. A remarkable sound!
I once came across this little hulusi, a Chinese triple flute, in a carnival shop in Zeeland. And it sounds good, too.
The kalimba is a melodic percussion instrument played with the thumbs. That is why it is also called a thumb piano. Listen to the sounds of the kalimba and imagine yourself lying under an African palm tree in the rough grass...
Look how they shine in the sun: the table bells! These colorful, clear-sounding bells are invariably the radiant centerpiece of every concert. The green squeaky hedgehog completes the show.
Take a tube with an opening at the bottom and a spring at the top and you have a thunderbox! Ideal for a concert on Thursday? Whether you like it or not, with this you will actually make it storm on stage. When the spring moves, no one can get out of it. Thunderous applause guaranteed!
The instrument photos were taken by:
Lisanne Koopmans, Iris Schram, Leon Lenders, Peter Lenders and Luuk Lenders.