Epirus Music Lab on SoundBetter

Instrumentation Deluxe - acoustic and electric guitars, and other more obscure string instruments. Earthy Grooves, Mysterious Sounds and Enchanting Countermelodies, for a large part done with acoustic instruments

Hi There! My name is Michiel. I live in Greece, and I'm a guitarist with a fondness for characteristic sounds. I have degrees in Jazz and Classical guitar but have spent the past 20 years looking beyond the things I learned in school, creating sounds and instruments of my own.
I have been playing all kinds of rootsy music, ranging from Western rootsmusic, to old Tango, Greek Rembetiko, Balkan, Swing, Musette and even Afghan music. I love Trip Hop and related styles, and these days I get a kick out of blending all these influences together.

I would love to hear any music you want to throw at me, either for just adding some extra instruments, or taking on the complete production, including mixing - which I do on a compact Hi End set of gear.

A great example of what I do is the album 'SIX DAYS LOVING' I did via SoundBetter with Zulya Kamalova, an amazing award winning artist from Tatarstan, who blends traditional Tatar music with anything that takes her fancy.
The track 'FIFTH DAY' consists entirely of my instruments: I played the drums with a brush and a bare hand on a single kickdrum and added electronic accents. The bass is another of my instruments, the Claude Viol. This is used also with a bow for the bowed string motif. The track was enhanced with a number of found object sounds, and features some of my acoustic guitars playing riffs and melodies.

Click the 'Contact' above to get in touch. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Credits

6 Reviews

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by Zulya K.
Verified
I was incredible to make an album with Pindos Music, Michiel did an amazing job as an arranger, musician and producer. Incredible playing, great arrangement ideas, a lot of patience and a very generous soul. There are so many talents Michiel has, he plays countless instruments, he also makes his own completely original instruments which gave the recording a unique sound. I found working with Michiel very enjoyable and easy. I recommend him whole-heartedly for any creative projects!
by zlaya loud
Michiel is one of those producers who packs an incredible set of skills. He is an accomplished musician and performer with passion and quality simply oozing out of every note he plays. I had a pleasure of having him feature on one of my projects (film score for "American Jesus") and his contribution had proven invaluable. He's an incredible sound engineer with a keen ear for detail and character essential in giving a piece of music a mix it deserves. As a producer, he's got this very unique approach that sets him apart from many, many others. At that, incredibly nice fellow to work with.
by Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen
Michiel is an amazingly accomplished and creative producer and audio engineer, as well as a thoroughly educated musician with deep knowledge of all aspects of music. He recorded, mixed and co-produced an audio book which I made together with the poet Han van der Vegt. Thanks to Michiel's unexpected and out-of-the-box ideas and suggestions, the end result was so much more involving and interesting than it would have been without his input. He really made the sound of the album come to life. Michiel is also easy to hang with: relaxed, tolerant and with a keen sense of humor.
by Zulya Kamalova
Miсhiel has a great ear and fine attention for detail. He is also a man of good taste, open mind and much creativity. So all these qualities combined make for a great artist/engineer/producer. Did I mention his great communication skills (absolutely vital in making a record!)? No wonder I want to make a whole album together after we've just recorded one song. Really looking forward to it!
by Kamal Hors
In every collaboration with Michiel Hollanders I discover a new world of sounds. Michiel is very generous in applying his knowledge and creativity to a project. He is a very talented and communicative musician and producer. I enjoyed very much doing my last composition assignment 'Maalem wa Dhilal' together with him. Very professional
by Dan Tuffy
Michiel is a fantastic producer. Thinks totally out of the box and is extremely musical - can play almost anything and can implement that virtuosity easily when a mix or track needs that something extra. He also knows his gear and knows how to play it to the advantage of the mix. It really is world class what he can bring to a production and totally out of the ordinary. The gear he uses is mint and his ideas are free and original. Loved working with him on my Big Low albums. He created exceptional mixes, was a great communicator and was a defining factor on the sound of those BL records

Interview with Epirus Music Lab

Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: A project for a Dutch band called Snowapple. This is a collaboration with a US based brass player and arranger called Gregg Moore. He has made these fantastic imaginative arrangements for a series of songs. I make guide tracks for him to record over and work out what other parts need to be recorded. It is an online project with people working on it from Amsterdam, California, Mexico and me in Greece. Very exciting.
Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?
A: Yes, Zlaya Hadzic, very talented and interesting guy who is more at home in Indie styles etc. He is also one of my favourite mastering engineers. Great fun to work with.
Q: Analog or digital and why?
A: Digital, it is a lot more flexible than analogue and I challenge anyone to tell me what doesn't sound good in my recordings. It's also cheaper.
Q: What do you like most about your job?
A: The people I get to know.
Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?
A: The fact that I say I work for singer songwriters often leads people to imagine the typical western style of singer songwriter. Which I could work with but I tend to get different sounding projects.
Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?
A: Where do you want your songs to go? Which are your inspirations for this project?
Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?
A: Any acoustic guitar
Q: Can you share one music production tip?
A: What has helped me is to not be worried about mixing different styles and influences which I like. I used to do very separate things, like play traditional Greek Music but also work on more electronic things. From the moment I decided to just mix it all up, I got more interesting results and better feedback.
Q: What type of music do you usually work on?
A: Singer songwriter but in more 'World Music' genres, soundtracks, various acoustic styles of music.
Q: What's your strongest skill?
A: Playing my instruments and coming up with nice parts
Q: Tell us about your studio setup.
A: I record with mics from Brauner, Josephson, AEA and Gefell (and some more lo-fi ones) into a Crane Song Spider. I mix hybrid, using Crane Song, Neumann, Chandler and SSL analogue processing as well as a load of plugins. I use the analogue equipment where it seems to bring something extra, but some plugins of today are just very good.
Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?
A: Musicians from traditional backgrounds inspire me a lot, but I like to use these influences outside of their tradition. Many great producers around these days, I feel music production has really developped into an artform. Specially in the whole remix and hiphop arena's some incredible talent has shown up. From the big name mixers Tchad Blake is one which I have always liked.
Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?
A: I have been doing this for about 20 years although I was never doing it fulltime. I studied music production and guitar, but then went into playing other styles (balkan, tango, musette) which were not part of my studies. During the music production studies we just learned the basics of recording a pop band or an orchestra, non of which I have been doing much since then. The creative part of recording, arranging and producing I have been doing for about 15 years now.
Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?
A: Some years ago I mixed an album for Belgian / Australian singer songwriter Carl Cleves. The music was mostly done except for a few tunes, which I enhanced with some extra parts. There was one song however, by the famous singer Jacques Brel, which Carl had recorded singin along to a guide track. He gave me only the vocal, no click, no guide, nothing else - as somehow the original file had been deleted by accident. As he was travelling the world while I was working on it, he couldn't redo it neither. I loved the song however and I created a very atmospherical track to go with his vocal. It turned out fantastic and makes the song sound even more dramatic than the original. Matter of taste too but I'm quite proud of that one. The album got nominated in 5 categories for the MusicOz awards.
Q: What do you bring to a song?
A: Colour and character. A different twist. Sometimes other musical influences. If it is a song I always try to highlight the lyrics either by supporting or by contrasting in the sounds and arrangement.
Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.
A: Dressing up songs with added parts by me, sometimes complete arrangements, and making it all work and sound good.