Sonar

.Rindert Lammers' debut album, Thank You Kirin Kiki, weaves personal narratives and cinematic imagery into ambient jazz, offering a heartfelt expression of gratitude. It’s set for an April 18th release date via Western Vinyl

Born in 1994 in Gulpen, Netherlands, and raised in a creative household Rindert's passion for composing began early. Inspired by Genesis, he started writing his first songs as a teenager in the attic of his parents' house, before joining a prog rock group in 2014, and then launching a spoken word ambient project with his brother in 2018.

While studying history at university, Rindert's life was disrupted by the sudden loss of three loved ones in a skiing accident, which led him to pause his studies and step away from his faith, as he grappled with questions that felt too heavy to easily resolve. During this challenging period, he found solace in cinema, visiting local independent theaters up to four times a week with a Cineville pass, which granted him unlimited access to a movie theater just two minutes from his home. These regular trips provided comfort, and became a key source of inspiration, shaping the cinematic soundscapes on Thank You Kirin Kiki.

The album’s title track and centerpiece was inspired by a powerful moment in the film Shoplifters, featuring Japanese actress Kirin Kiki. In the film, Kiki plays the grandmother of a chosen family who have all fled or lost their own families. In one of her final scenes before her death (both on-screen and in real life), she looks at her family and says, "Thank You" twice—a moment she improvised on set.

"I later found out that these lines were completely improvised, making the moment even more profound. It’s a deeply moving scene," Lammers describes. "This sense of gratitude and tenderness is something I’ve tried to capture in this track, with Joseph Shabason’s brilliant saxophone and the beautiful one-frame video by filmmaker Peter Marcus."

This heartfelt expression of gratitude deeply resonated with Rindert and tied into another voice clip featured on the album’s fourth track, "Thank You Hiroshi Yoshimura," in which a speaker reads a comment from a Hiroshi Yoshimura video on YouTube. Reflecting on these comments, Rindert shares, "Me and my brother noticed there were so many beautiful, personal responses under these YouTube videos. So, we had various similar YouTube comments recorded by random people on the internet, mentioning that we wanted to set them to music. Eventually, little remained of that idea, but this YouTube comment/voice clip continued to touch me."

The rest of the album unfolds like a film, with "Summer in Shibuya" serving as a trailer, "Opening Credits" introducing the narrative, and "Closing Credits" bringing the story to a poignant conclusion.