The World Of Dust: Gaman

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer called in a few favours from his friends for the creation of Gaman, the new album by his The World of Dust project. It is an all acoustic, multi-layered collection of songs about being on tour in Japan with like-minded artist Thijs Kuijken, being a father, endless soul searching and the crises - economic, health, climate - that everyone has to deal with right now.

Hiding in his shell would not have him done much good, but as the title of the album suggests - it roughly translates as "enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity" - he got to work and wrote a fresh stack of material that may the best he has recorded so far.

HCTF's best of 2021 (20-16)

• 20-16
• |
• 15-11
• |
• 10-6
• |
• 5-1

» Best of playlist

» Listen here

HCTF's annual list of the 20 albums that will be in regular rotation for many years to come. As per usual many genres are represented. Here Comes The Flood covers a lot of ground and it shows in this eclectic, final tally.

Today: countdown from number 20 to 16.

Please shop at your local record store. Most of them have a website where you can order your stuff. Buy directly from the artist, attend live shows when it's safe to do so again. Tell your friends. Word-of-mouth can't be beat as the prime source to discover new music.

The World of Dust: "Sailing" video

Watch the new video for Sailing by The World of Dust, a track from the new concept album True Sound about Stefan Breuer's lyrics about his grand parents and Todd Tobias supplying the music: "Death and life are treated as two sides of the coin, and as long as there are people to share memories the dead are still an integral part of the family. Breuer and Tobias meet each other halfway with their love for noise, avant-garde, and jangling psychedelic shoegaze. Accessible underground music that will be embraced by anyone who is serious about music and has had his share of loss and love."

The clip was made by Mark Jenning.

» theworldofdust.nl

HCTF review of True Sound.

The World Of Dust: True Sound

For True Sound, the new concept album by lo-fi project The World of Dust, Dutch musician Stefan Breuer once again reached out to Todd Tobias to write the music. It is a true collaboration, with Breuer telling stories about his grandparents Nel and Jan (plus a song about Jan's first wife Petronella who died in childbirth), and Tobias providing a backing to echoes the emotions.

Death and life are treated as two sides of the coin, and as long as there are people to share memories the dead are still an integral part of the family. Breuer and Tobias meet each other halfway with their love for noise, avant-garde, and jangling psychedelic shoegaze. Accessible underground music that will be embraced by anyone who is serious about music and has had his share of loss and love.

The World of Dust: new album "True Sound" in September; stream "Goodbye"

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer will release his new concept album True Sound by his lo-fi project The World of Dust on September 10. All songs are about the life and death of his grandparents. On lead single Goodbye he copes with the death of is grandfather Jan, who succumbed to cancer in 1999. Todd Tobias wrote the music, and his wife Anneke Nieuwdorp took care of the backing vocals. Jangling psychedelic shoegaze that goes straight for the gut.

The World Of Dust: "The Hum" webcast

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer got a request from Utrecht's finest underground venue dB's to perform an online release show The Hum, the new live album by his one-man lo-fi project The World of Dust. He thought it was a bit weird to perform live versions form songs from a live album, but he agreed to do it, with his wife Annker on keyboards: "it will bring me some form of closure. I will play this same set of songs (more or less) one final time, accompanied by the visuals, and then I have to work on a new live set. Because I still (always) want to do something differently, Anneke will play keys during the show. It's sounds really cool! Hope to see you all on the interwebs, next week".

The webcast will be streamed on March 20 at 21:00 UTC+01. It is avialable via the dB's Facebook, dB's YouTube and Twitch and Instagram.

The World Of Dust: The Hum (live album & film)

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer has released a new live album by his one-man lo-fi project The World of Dust. The Hum contains songs from three live shows, recorded in late 2019 and early 2020. The an accompanying film contains the visuals that were projected during these live shows, a mix of childhood footage combined and collages. Watch this wearing a pair of decent headphones and be transported to a world wherein anything might happen The songs are like fairy tales for all ages by a man who only needs a guitar and his voice to keep an appreciative audience hanging on to each word.

As a special treat Breuer will send you the audio on a CDr for free. Worldwide, no shipping costs. Send him a message via Facebook.

The World Of Dust: "Closer to Dad" French tour documentary

In October 2018 Dutch musician Stefan Breuer turned his one-man lo-fi bedroom project The World of Dust into a trio for a string of shows in France. It was a family affair with his father Cees Breuer on bass and backing vocals, and his brother Arno Breuer on drums. They shared bill with Queen Of The Meadow and Garciaphone, two acts from his label Tiny Room Records. They brought a camera and they have finally put the Closer to Dad documentary on YouTube.

» theworldofdust.nl

The World of Dust: "The Life of Gods" video

Dutch indie musician Stefan Breuer made a video for The Life of Gods, a song by his lof-fi folk project The World of Dust project. He drove around in Hoograven, a place that made him and his family extremely uncomfortable, and walked around in the woods in Bilthoven where they found the peace and quiet they had been looking for.

Karl Blau & The World of Dust: Blue Herons

Three years ago American indie musicians Karl Blau (The Microphones, Laura Veirs, Earth and LAKE) and shared the bill with Dutchman Stefan Breuer (The World of Dust, Combo Qazam, Lost Bear) at a gig in a windmill in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Breuer had been a longtime admirer of Blau's work and they kept in touch.

Since they are always busy doing countless projects it took awhile to turn their regular talks into a collaborative project of sorts. Blue Herons, a split 7" with Blau's take on the Pounding Serfs'song Slightly Salted and The World of Dust's The Life of Gods, is their first release. Both tracks are about places of residence and the need to feel safe there. In Breuer's case he looks back at both Hoograven, a place that made him and his family extremely uncomfortable, before finding peace in Bilthoven. Blau grew on Samish Island, a former island in Washington, that is shaped like the head of a blue heron, which made a good title for this special pairing of lo-fi underground folk artists who are joined at the hip through their music.

Microplaza: "Through The Fabric" video

Microplaza, an off-kilter indie pop project by Dutch musicians Benjamin van Vliet (Microwolf) and Arno Breuer (Pino Plaza, Sven Agaath), will release their second EP, We'll Never Fit In This Poem Together, on 7" vinyl (very limited - 30 copies) on Tiny Room Records. This duo does not sound like any other act, or more accurately a dozen others acts at the same time. They made a video for the lead single Through The Fabric.

The World Of Dust & I am Oak: on tour in Japan

Two of Holland's finest indie folkies team up for a short tour in Japan. Stefan Breuer (The World of Dust) and Thijs Kuijken (I am Oak) both have the knack to play softly for audiences who can handle left-field meandering and storytelling.

Note for collectors: the new I am Oak album Osmosis will be released in Japan (with 2 bonus tracks) on September 29th by Sign-pole Records. Samsara, the latest album by The World of Dust, will be released on MOORWORKS on October 1st.

The World Of Dust: three shows in Belgium

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer takes his lo-fi prog folk The World of Dust project south for three shows in Belgium. The shows were booked by the people of Honest House, the indie label that released his Samsara of Samsara in Belgium.

The World Of Dust: Samsara

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer always made it personal on the albums of his The World of Dust project, but never more so than on his new one Samsara. Named after the Sanskrit word for "wandering" or "world" he bares his soul about mental and physcial issues (Worms of the Mind), and dealing with parenthood (Welcome).

Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard) created the instrumental backdrops for this album, mostly gentle guitar excursions and a bit of choice percussion. Breuer kept chipping away at his lyrics, rewriting and rearranging, putting his skills as collage artist to good use for his words. After two years of going back and forth the thirteen vignettes on Samsara are now ready to begin their journey. Fans of serious and dreamy lo-fi folk will love it.

The World Of Dust: "Tarot" video

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer used all his action figures (157, try counting them) for the video for Tarot, a track from his forthcoming The World Of Dust album Samsara. Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard) created the instrumental backdrops for this album, a lo-fi journey about dealing with mental health and parenthood.

The World Of Dust: new album "Samsara" March 1

Two years in the making the album by The World Of Dust will be a special one. Stefan Breuer, the man behind the Dutch one-man dreamy lo-fi project wrote the lyrics to instrumental backdrops created by Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard). This transatlantic collaboration served as a kind of therapy for Breuer who turned it into "personal suite of lyrics, reflecting his struggles with his mental health and his experience of becoming a father". Lead single Blood can be streamed on Soundcloud.

The World Of Dust: "Gospel" video

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer has made a video for Gospel, a track from his Womb Realm. He wil revisit the record during a short tour in France, with his father Cees Breuer (bass, backing vocals) and brother Arno Breuer (drums).

Before they travel South The World of Dust have two hometown shows on October 13th in Utrecht, The Netherlands @ Koffie Leute Record Store (full band - 14:00) and @ EKKO in Molen de Ster (solo - 20:00, supporting Belgian guitarist Bert Dockx).

The World Of Dust: on tour in France

Dutch musician Stefan Breuer turns his one-man lo-fi bedroom project The World of Dust into a trio for a string of shows in France. It's a family affair and they will be sharing the bill with Queen Of The Meadow and Garciaphone, two acts from his label Tiny Room Records. Breuer is looking forward to it:

This is really happening... In a few weeks, we are going on tour in France! For these shows, I recruited my father Cees Breuer to play bass and do backing vocals, and my brother Arno Breuer. to play drums. A family band. We have not been together this long since... 15 years? At least?

The World Of Dust: "Pharaoh" video, "Bhava" digital release

In 2013 Dutch musician Stefan Breuer released Bhava, the debut album of his one-man lo-fi project The World Of Dust, as a very limited (100 hand-numbered copies) CD + book on Snowstar Records. Back then it was announced that there wouldn't be a digital or regular CD release, but now it's happening after all on Breuer's own label Tiny Room Records.

He made a video for Pharaoh, using toys and a castle to illustrate the story.

The World of Dust: Golden Moon

When you run your own label like Dutch musician Stefan Breuer, you write your own rules. And you can break them without anyone stopping you. Golden Moon is the latest release of his one-man project The World of Dust is a best of in a way, after going through a stack of CD-r's of recordings he made since 2014 for his personal archive. Golden Moon is a dairy and a sketch book filled with musical collages. Some songs are mere snippets, while other were allowed to grow into an off-kilter song or instrumental.

Breuer loves to shuffles the deck to show the listener another card of his craft: noise, college rock, Krautrock, shoegaze, and geeky indie. All 20 songs are homemade recordings, made on an iPhone, and 4-track & 8-track cassette tape recorders. This lo-fi modus operandi adds another layer of charm to an album allowing th listener to be a fly-on-the-wall during the creation of his music. Happy accidents like the sound of his daughter playing in the background when he recorded Tribal Memories or straying off-pitch during Former Kings were not cleaned up. Warts-and-all Golden Moon is his most loose sounding album to date.