Outpourings / A look back / and also the first biannual Newsletter
Ibiza, 24-11-07

Dear everybody,
And hereby finally the 1st newsletter as my answer to the request of various sides. Initially I just couldn’t get down to it because as a musician you are always busy with future projects. And particularly enjoying the present often simply goes down the drain. Not to mention a reflective glance backwards because due to the speed of your life you forget everything that has happened and you hardly have the time to learn a lesson from this. It is simply the necessary evil to have to make up your mind a year up to 1,5 year beforehand what program, with what musicians and in what period of the season you are going to offer to the theatres, clubs or festivals. So be it. It's all part of the game. I think that every artist has to deal with this phenomenon and is affected by it because it hinders your creative powers of the moment. Because say it yourself, ‘How can you determine a year or two beforehand what you “really” want to be busy with’? Within a year you can already outgrow what you are busy with now. Etc etc.
Be that as it may! Just a short retrospective of the last 7 years with regard to travelling (which since 1991 has left a clear mark on my life and my artistic development), the projects which originated from it directly or indirectly and the musicians who I had a chance to work with. N.B. When I was ready with this 1st episode it turned out to be even more obvious how difficult it was for me to try and see these 7 years again in my mind's eye. I have forgotten so much again! I intend to learn a lesson from it and to start living a life of even more awareness. My son Bright is by the way already 2,5 years old….

The Year 2000:
In the early spring of this year my daughter and I first travelled to Dharamsala where I had the honour to visit KARMAPA after the spectacular escape from Tibet.
An extraordinary visit because at that time hardly anybody was permitted to see him. And this due to the tricky political situation India was in with regard to China after granting asylum to him. But the fact that I wanted to present the “Tibet Impressions” CD to him in person (where he sang a mantra for me then as a child of 4 in Tsurphu) finally ensured the go-ahead. After that we visited Thailand, Burma, Laos and Cambodia. Each country an adventure of its own. Burma was an exceptionally unusual experience. The friendliness of the inhabitants (not to compare to the friendliness of any Asian country), their perception of Buddhism, the charisma of the monks, the breathtaking beauty of their temples, the landscape.., and all this in a sharp contrast with the tough military regime which had recently made the headlines of the world papers, made a deep impression on me.
I also collected a lot of audio and video material there. I hope one day I will be able to do something with it. After that 2 weeks in Bali to recover..

The Year 2001…
Now I visited Vietnam and then the Philippines. I found Vietnam interesting especially because of the confrontation with the battle fields of this country on the one hand, and the equanimity with which the people deal with what has been done to them on the other. Almost unreal. I didn’t get down to video recording as a biker racing by stole my video camera in no time. The experience which was a serious warning to me with regard to audio recordings, and as a result my fancy to do much about it was finally gone.
Whereas the Philippines produced wonderful material. And being a beach man I could really let myself go also in this respect.
Back in Ibiza I produced the CD “Zen The Fire Within” in July / August.
After that we made a theatre tour with the same name in October. In December I had my 1st Vipassana sit for 10 days in Zwarte Woud / Germany.
Not allowed to speak for 10 days! A breath of fresh air!

The Year 2002:
My journey to… No, there was no journey… no time… What nonsense really…
This year was marked by the “RESURRECTION” of “The Chris Hinze Combination” after the absence of about 7 years. The CD “Akar Akar” was produced in summer and was followed by a theatre tour in October and November. The “Chris Hinze Combination” with Monica Akihary (vocals) among others and the German cello talent Stephan Braun, was a fact after a long absence.
Senegalese singer Mola Sylla also participated in this tour.
The 1st 5 SOLO”VisualConcert” Tibet Impressions concerts (Try outs) followed in December with famous German top photographer / globe-trotter Kai Uwe Kuechler. These concerts in, 2xBerlijn, Hamburg, Wiesbaden and Nuremberg were a resounding success and formed the basis of the future tours.

The Year 2003…
During my trip to Ladakh (also named small Tibet) in July I really imagined myself in Tibet. Already on the first day upon my arrival I was happy to attend a “teaching” of Dalai Lama. Thousands of people were present there.
And there I had the possibility to collect wonderful audio and video material.
On my way back I managed to attend an evening “speak session” of the Indian philosopher and writer Ramesh Balsekar. Extremely unusual..!
October and November were also marked by a theatre tour with the CHC. Now with a completely changed cast. With Coen Molenaar Keyboards and Remco v.d.Sluis drs, Eva v.d. Poll cello and German jazz singer Susana De´ who won the Jazz vocalists price in our country that year, we had a fantastic group of people together. The reason to continue with it for another year. Mola Sylla was again of the company but Indian singer Sandhya Sanjana was also often our guest.

The Year 2004…
Once again no trips this year…Oh shame!.. or melancholy…kicking the habit of a travelling addict…
The “Back on the Map”CD & DVD recordings + 2 concerts in Ibiza in April.
Not only Sandhya Sanjana and Mola Sylla took part in the work on it but also flamenco dancer Marga Molino, flamenco guitarist Marcial and flamenco singer Rinchi.
Also a concert in the completely sold out Can Ventosa theatre in the city of Ibiza and then a midday concert on the crammed beach near my favourite (winter) restaurant “Yamanga”(Cala Jondal).
After that some festivals and finally the theatre tour in October and November.
Sandhya was our guest 3 times but The´Lau also participated in 3 concerts.
Before that The Lau and I had a period of writing and composing which we put in at the last moment in Ibiza. These three days were not only fruitful but could also be called hilarious with a fairly high alcohol content.
That evening during our TRY OUT concert in Cuijk I wanted to go through the complete program which we had made with The Lau and Sandhya Sanjana. The broken public tried to catch the last ship / train after 3 ? of the concert upon a standing ovation.

The Year 2005…
This year was marked by the birth of our son BRIGHT on the 27th of May.
Plenty of superlatives…A son!....Under the motto: “never too late” Ah, what should I say.. Joy all around!
Before that I went on a journey to Brazil and Mexico in February / March. In fact I made hardly any pictures or recordings there. Partly because I was alone and due to it I found it too dangerous to hang around in public outside with audio and video equipment and to record sounds and impressions. It is simply better together. Still I wasn’t afraid nor was I threatened. Quite on the contrary. It was very relaxed and I had a fantastic time. I think it is a wonderful country and the people are extremely nice.
Rio de Janeiro and Bahia are fantastic cities. In the late afternoon in Rio I would watch football games in the sand on the beach of Copacabana for hours with a bottle of beer in my hand. Games were played every 200 meters.

Back home rapper Raymzter asked me to participate in the work on the single and the clip “Fighting in the schoolyard” which eventually resulted in booking for a theatre program “Serious matters” for the season 2006/07.
The CHC “Multimedia” theatre tour followed in October / November. It was a wonderful tour where CHC got more homogeneous with each concert and where Hans Meijer put up a fantastic performance as a VJ with both the previously programmed “Visuals” and with life mixages of pictures of the group taken by 8 video cameras.
A compilation of it recorded by three camera men and audio recordings on Protools by technical expert Rene Kuipers during three concerts will soon be finally released on DVD/CD.
I also went on my 1st big tour of all of Germany with the “Tibet Impressions” Visual concert and top photographer and traveller Kai Uwe Kuechler from Berlin.
This tour was very successful. That is why a tour of the Netherlands and a reprise for Germany lies ahead for the season 2006/07.

The Year 2006:
The pilgrimage of Santiago de Campostella! In March the time came. St. Pied de Port was my starting point in France. On the 1st and at the same time the hardest day (with a 14 kg backpack) I had to go over the Pyrenees to Roncevalles. The road goes often steep upwards and there was a strong icy wind against me which rather seemed to be a constant storm. A storm so violent that I was literary blown off the road which again resulted in a fall of several meters, a gash in my left hand, some scratches and a nose dive of my cap back in the direction of France. As for the rest, it was ok. There lay snow at the last portion and at a certain point I had to go down a small glacier on my tail to reach the other side of the road. Finally, it was already dark when I reached the first inn in the form of a wonderful monastery. 28 kilometers further and 13 hours on the way in most severe weather conditions…
Later it turned out to have been the most difficult day of the journey. I was exhausted but satisfied!
Luckily there was a good restaurant with excellent cuisine and a good glass of wine.
The journey continued. Day in, day out, on average 16 to 22 km a day, you entered a kind of a loop trance from 8 o'clock in the morning (often still dark and foggy) till the late afternoon surrounded by an overdose of beauty around you. Plenty of wonderful churches and cathedrals and sometimes interesting encounters and exchange of “life stories” in the evening enjoying a good glass of wine. And then quickly back to the inn where you had to be before 21.00.
Until the curtain fell in Leon. I walked my knee dead and had to stop. After I had walked about 450 km of 800 km which I had to cover. I got enormously peed off.
Disillusioned I took a bus to Santiago to visit the cathedral there in any case and to have some rest. During the flight back to Ibiza I firmly decided to walk the way to Santiago up to the end some day.
In October / November I went on an extensive theatre tour with “Tibet Impressions” Visual Concert round the Netherlands and Germany. It turned out that Dutch public was also very much enthusiastic so that it seemed necessary to plan a REPRISE tour for October 2007.

The Year 2007:
It was marked by Africa but it started in Barbados in this January.
After that there was a theatre and club tour in April with rapper Raymzter and Dutch / Moroccan singer Rajae el Mouhandiz and of course the basic cast of the CHC with Coen Molenaar and Remco v.d. Sluis. A tour to which “The World Keeps on Turning”, BNN and an emancipation program of the VARA paid extensive attention, to this cooperation of Hinze with a Rapper, which still seems strange for many! The public, the press and the TV were enthusiastic but the proceeds were scant. Most regular visitors of mine didn’t show up. But neither did those of Raymzter. Why does the humankind in general often so rigidly hold on to “The celebration of recognition” and avoid the musical adventure??? Why should we as musicians fit in all those corners and preferably get stuck there for life??? But even musicians among themselves sometimes tend to denounce a colleague who wants to continue his carrier not following the style, the genre or the category he was once placed into. I really think it's a pity...
So much for it. The preparations for my journey to Africa started after the tour.
They were not so simple. I grew out of my DAT 2 traces era. The fact is I wanted to be able to record with an Apple laptop, a Protools with at least 6 microphones while everything had to remain portable. It required certain research but in the end I found the ideal combination of the M-Box together with the Motu traveller. Besides, 2 video cameras, a camera and naturally all the tripods, cables, microphones and whatever it may be... On the 19th of June we took off in the direction of Namibia together with my colleague / sing&songwriter Paul de Graaf.
Approx. 5000 km in a Toyota 4x drive, 2 tents on the roof, working and/or travelling days of 15 hours on average, while registering everything which was of any interest on video&audio.
This varied from dazzling landscapes (for example Sususvlei sand mountains), street scenes, wild animals, the church choir of the town Ship, preachers delivering a speech, school choirs, street musicians to professional music and an incredible talent for dancing. Our professional portable home studio enabled us to record virtually everywhere. Ranging from a smallest room (a 4x4 office) to a live concert in a cultural centre and the jungle where the Bushmen or the Himba’s lived.... Not so bad, is it? This brought a lot of hilarious moments. We have made various video specials and material for clips of me at sunrise and sunset surrounded by amazingly beautiful nature, but also in the icy morning cold because it was winter in Namibia. I think I was the 1st flautist who had recorded a “special” with Protool and video equipment inside a 700-year-old BAOBAB tree.
I really have to say what a wonderful 4x4 Toyota all-terrain vehicle we had. I had already had the experience with the stripped version in Tibet. We also crossed rivers there, often with a truck full of barrels of petrol under tow. Top player!!
After the 3 ? weeks spent in Namibia we went further to Cape Town in South Africa by a night bus. Almost right away we had a contact with a music scene, which also resulted in recordings for my future projects. (CD/DVD, theatre tour.
Multimedia solo project etc.2008/2009/2010) We have definitely agreed with some musicians both from Namibia and South Africa to organize a joint tour next year.
Back in Ibiza I started filing 87 hours of video material!! for Final Cut Pro and 40 GB of audio material on the HD’s of my studio.
In the beginning of October the theatre tour with Tibet Impressions” Visual Concert started again and was this time even more successful than the previous one. The combination of pictures (the impressive photos of Tibet by Kai Uwe Kuechler) accompanied with music appeared to produce an unforgettable effect on many people. Almost all floors were sold out. This program has an enormous impact. On the one hand it is really sad it was the last Tibet tour. But on the other hand, I can enjoy the upcoming tour with “The Band” and Raymzter. You really miss the band and the interaction between the musicians when you are standing on the stage all alone as was the case with “Visual Concert”.