From my youngest years and as long as I have been involved in music, the exotic has captivated me.
Be it classical, contemporary, jazz, contemporary music, everything was as exotic to me then, since I was not
brought up with it. But by getting to know jazz, it became simpler to make contact with music from other cultures,
first Africa, then music from Turkeyand Arabian countries, India, Japan, Indonesia and more.

For a composer the fact that western instruments are not suited to realize sounds from these distant cultures poses
quite a problem, making the implementation of these techniques abstract. As sublimation of my fondness for the music
of these cultures, phenomena as heterophony and cyclic forms materialized more frequently in my music But the world
changes, hundreds of people in Amsterdam now have a djembé in their home not even mentioning the widely spread
phenomenon of world music, a curious term. Only now it is possible to perform music from other cultures with the original
instruments, combining it's sonorous wealth with the richness of western compositional techniques.

Thus originated the ensemble Ziggurat at the end of 2003, the sharpest turn in my slow and gradual development as
composer. Seemingly , because Ziggurat is precisely the extreme consequence of all of my preoccupations. Also the
ghetto-like situation and aloof presentation of contemporary music annoyed me more and more during the last years.
The impersonal atmosphere in symphony orchestras increasingly upsets me, especially compared with the manner in
which creative and strongly motivated musicians in jazz and pop music contribute to the final result. Of course this does
not apply to chamber music, or in a lesser degree.
For a composer it is pure joy to write for a close group of excellent musicians and friends as Ziggurat, and to investigate
in what way their collaboration in thinking or improvising influences the final result. So, it is to be expected that my
composing in the years to come, will be focused on Ziggurat. But Western instruments, and even the symphony orchestra,
will certainly not become obsolete.

Theo Loevendie, August 2006.

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