Dutch guitarist Eelco van Zanten isn’t one for doing things the conventional way, resulting in a number of albums that, partly thanks to his keen sense of melody, are surprisingly listenable and enjoyable given how strange they are. Van Zanten has been experimenting with both electronics and playing with actual musicians. According to himself, his new album ‘Eel Fusionkasteel’ is a longtime dream come true: a fusion album with a fantastic band.

“I have known bassist Nathaniel Klumperbeek for a very long time, and he played on my guitar tunes twice before”, Van Zanten explains. “He senses where my music wants to go like no other, and beside an amazing sense of groove, he has a beautifully lyrical sense of melody in his basslines as well. Not every bass player has that. That may actually be a result of him having a background in singer/songwriter music, just like myself. Having him involved is never anything short of an enrichment of the music.

He also plays bass is Yoràn Vroom’s Group of Friends, and when I saw them play, I immediately became a fan of the sound and the playing style of Itai Weissman on the Akai EWI – or Electronic Wind Instrument. I truly love that instrument. Itai is a real EWI professor. Apart from various synth modules, he also uses super-advanced Respiro software on a Macbook Pro, which turns the EWI in one of the most expressive instruments available. He also samples centuries-old flutes from museums and collectors to literally breathe new life into these instruments for his project Digital Revival.”

Something for Eternity

“Nathan connected me and Itai, and when I heard that he was open to working together, the cogs in my head started turning immediately, and I started writing songs in September of last year. It didn’t take long until I had a demo version of more than ten new pieces. Secretly, it has been a dream of mine to make a fusion album for thirty years. And the time was ripe for that album.

When I compose songs, it is very important to me that nothing sounds like I was trying to look for something. Instead, it should sound like you have found something. You can always let a couple of crazy sections follow each other, but that doesn’t necessarily turn them into a cohesive whole. What I want to happen is that the song tells a story that guides the listeners from A to Z, and surprises them in the process. Preferably in a catchy, memorable manner.

The songs should be short and concise, to the point. And they have to connect up well. Most of the pieces on the album are about four minutes long, which is relatively short for fusion songs, but I thought that it made the whole thing sound a little more modern.

Solos need to have the same qualities as the songs, in my opinion. On the record, I never play any licks that I tend to play often. When you’re making a record, you’re making something for eternity, so everything should be special, and everything should hit the mark. Basically, all phrases you play need to feel like they were made for each other.

Sometimes I sit around, improvising for hours, until suddenly, there is a moment when I hear something that I feel really hits the mark. That has to do with the note you play, but also with the way you hit it, the expression, and the X factor. On the guitar, you sometimes end up playing notes that are almost impossible to replicate the exact same way later. That’s what I’m looking for. Endlessly.”

Part of the Compositions

“The songs were largely sketched out before the recording sessions with the musicians started. However, I do think playing together is part of the compositions. So in that sense, none of the songs was truly finished until everything was recorded. That’s also what the “Fusionkasteel” (Dutch for “fusion castle”) in the title refers to. I see this album as an adventurous, creative piece of construction.

With Itai and Nathan on board, I thought: how amazing would it be if Yoràn Vroom would be willing to play along as well. He’s a super drummer. There was a documentary about him that was released recently: ‘Master of Drums’. After I contacted him, I started losing hope a little bit when it took him a few days to get back to me, but then suddenly, his reply came in, and he was interested in playing on the album!

I planned a couple of sessions with Itai and Nathan between December and June, as we are all very busy. Sometimes together, sometimes separately, and always three or four songs per session. In February and March, I did two sessions with Yoràn. During these sessions, I tried to let all the musicians do their own thing as much as possible, with minimal instructions.”

In Reverse Order

“The drums were recorded at Split Second Sound Studios in the north of Amsterdam. I thought it was a cool idea to approach the drums in reverse order. Traditionally, the drums are recorded first. Allan Holdsworth, for example, would memorize the entire performance from his rhythm section in order to reach an optimal sense of musical interaction for the solo sections.

Instead, I thought it would be really cool to have a drummer like Yoràn react spontaneously to the themes and a majority of the solos, which were already recorded at the time. In two sessions, between bringing his kids to school and picking them up from school, he recorded thirteen of these intricate fusion pieces that he didn’t know beforehand.

I did give him a few charts, but he is really good at playing by ear, exceptionally fast at learning structures, and a master in musical interaction. Also, he doesn’t just have an incredible sense of groove, but also a palette of styles that is basically a dream for fans of fusion drums like myself. There are no drum solos on the album, but there are plenty of sections where he is allowed to let himself go.

Both Itai and Yoràn are completely at home in the world of fusion, and they barely need any instructions to deliver. They can honestly dream stuff like Weather Report, Tribal Tech, Allan Holdsworth, Yellowjackets, John Scofield, and Pat Metheny.

There barely are any pairs of songs that were recorded in the same order. Sometimes, the bass was recorded before the drums, some pieces have been recorded by two of us together. And there were some solo sections that were still completely open by the time we started recording the drums. Also, I let Itai pick whether he wanted to play the first or the second solo in a couple of songs. I have at least four takes from every musician of all songs.

Ultimately, putting everything together was quite a puzzle. But I enjoy doing that a lot. It requires a lot of creativity, and there are plenty of challenges and learning experiences along the way.”

Tweaking Guitar Sounds Endlessly

“Among the guitars I used on the album is a Strandberg Boden Standard, for which I had the bridge pickup replaced with a Lollar humbucker by Chris Kikic in Almere earlier this year. Other guitars you can hear are my Squier Strat with DiMarzio PAF Pro humbuckers from the nineties. My Eko 4V Trem from 1963 also makes an appearance on the album, as well as my new Kauffman ’63 Sonic Blue Strat.

There are a lot of layers that I recorded with an acoustic guitar, various types of hand percussion, and vocals, in order to give the results both a live feel and a produced sound. I did all the keys and synthesizers myself. One of my favorite VST synths is the GForce Oddity 2. I have used that one a lot. But a lot of Arturia as well, and a Roland Zenology for the cheese.

I like the Valhalla for its spaciousness, as well as Fabfilter, Airwindows, and a lot of stock plugins in Logic. Everything was recorded in Logic on a Macbook Pro, through Amplitube and Tonex by IK Multimedia. These options give me the possibility to tweak the guitar sounds endlessly. For one of the tunes, for example, I used the Monster Fuzz from Logic to create a Pat Metheny-like trumped sound with my guitar. I’ve got a tutorial on my YouTube channel showing how to do that.

While mixing, I use Beyerdynamic 770 Pro headphones, Focal Alpha Speakers, the aux in my car, and iPhone earbuds. The Dutch Chickenpick Badazz and Shredder are my go-to picks. They play really comfortably, and they are indestructible. I am very happy with their support, and proud that I am listed as a CP artist on their website.”

A Creative Passion Project

“Playing live with this particular line-up is something I would absolutely love to do, but I have to be realistic, and I don’t think it will happen anytime soon. For one, it’s not doable financially. I tend to see this as a creative passion project, as well as a great one-off. However, if the results appeal to a lot of people, and the requests will start flooding in, it will definitely be something we will consider.”