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22 March 2025
Murphy’s Circus: Olivia Degen, MJH Thompson, Socks;SportSocks
21:00-01:00 | Ticketsdoors open 20:30
Murphy's Circus returns! Join us for an enchanting evening filled with music and creativity, blurring the lines between artists and the audience as they seamlessly exchange roles.
With Murphy’s Circus, Brian Murphy wants to recapitulate the ‘circus’ of art he grew up in. Artists and musicians of different disciplines will provide the guests with an evening filled with the beauty of creative human expression. Whether it be distraction, entertainment or inspiration you’re looking for, Murphy’s Circus will do its best to deliver the goods.
# Music:
Socks;SportsSocks
Somewhere between discomfort and rock ’n’ roll, between virtuosity and amateurism, and between disarming honesty and ironic innuendos, you’ll find the Rotterdam band Socks;SportsSocks. With their contemporary ‘do it yourself’ mentality, they produce their own music, artwork, and videos. After two EPs and performances at events like Motel Mozaïque, Grasnapolsky, and Paradiso, it was time for their first full-length album, titled ‘Ironic Songs for a Sincere Generation’. On this record, the band sounds more dynamic and honest than ever before.
The band’s debut album swings between cheerful, jangly pop music and deeply depressing ballads. The tracks are filled with unconventional orchestral arrangements, performed by the band members' very friendly friends. The most discussed topic on the album is money, specifically the lack of it. But fortunately, it also touches on themes like death, stopping laughter, and how everything always stays the same and nothing ever changes. The album was eventually recorded in four different studios after the band’s original studio was destroyed by fire in 2023. By sharing this story, they hope to gain the listener’s sympathy and maybe even put an end to their financial struggles.
M.J.H. Thompson
M.J.H. Thompson Volksorkest is a musical collective led by M.J.H. Thompson. The band includes core members Arie Hoekstra, Sjoerd Frankrijk, and Milo Mooi Wilten, along with a rotating cast of about ten other musicians who contributed to their debut album.
M.J.H. Thompson Volksorkest’s sound is an eclectic mix of rock, post-punk, and country, drawing inspiration from a wide range of artists, including Kevin Ayers, J.M.A. Biesheuvel, and The Shaggs. Their debut album reflects this diverse palette, blending spontaneous creativity with an unconventional approach to songwriting and recording. The process was intentionally relaxed and organic, beginning in a friend’s studio and evolving through contributions from various friends in different settings. The result is a collection of songs filled with quirky observations, offbeat humor, and genuine expression, capturing a wide spectrum of human experience and emotion.
Olivia Degen
‘Olivia Degen’ is a duo that consists of visual artist/songwriter Olivia Degen (2002) and guitarist/composer Benjamin de Raad (1998), based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Having studied music at the same school in the past, the duo was formed in 2023 when the two reconnected based on their shared interest in analogue, close-mic recording. Together, they make serene, atmospheric, contemporary folk music. The duo is inspired by influences ranging from folk musicians such as Jessica Pratt and Aldous Harding to the Brazilian musical genre Bossa Nova.
As well as a set by Dj Caliente
# Performances:
Robin.jpeg
Robin.jpeg is a multidisciplinary artist who started as an illustrator
but found a fascination for fiber and with that, working in 3D. Bright
colours and simple shapes always return in her work, no matter the
medium. Her works look joyful, silly and soft in the face of the political and societal problems that are often the topic. The balaclavas she makes started as and continue to be a protest against climate issues and the current state of surveillance in the Netherlands.
Carla Menas
Carla is a Cypriot-Lebanese artist who focuses primarily on participatory gatherings & events through performances and sculpture. Using mostly found objects and repurposed ingredients, the goal is to reveal an absurdity of simple, everyday moments and hopefully restructure formal (and/or Western) behaviour. There is always an element of playfulness, and a need to interact whether that be with the work itself, or with the surrounding audience.
Donatas Tretjakovas
Donatas Tretjakovas (1999)(LT) investigates boundaries of morality, consciousness and limits human body. His anthropomorphic practice, consisting of performance, sculpture and writing, is inspired by the overlap of animalistic primitivity and absurdity of vices, implemented in the society. He often uses raw materials, such as animal flesh, body fluids and food in his works. The choice is determined by the attraction to the polarity between dirty and sterile, alive and decomposing, ephemeral and stable. Obsession with the grotesque, drives the artist to create ironic, dark and enigmatic works, which push the spectator or participant towards the ambiguous unknown.
Wijnand Groenen
Poster by Woetoe
With Murphy’s Circus, Brian Murphy wants to recapitulate the ‘circus’ of art he grew up in. Artists and musicians of different disciplines will provide the guests with an evening filled with the beauty of creative human expression. Whether it be distraction, entertainment or inspiration you’re looking for, Murphy’s Circus will do its best to deliver the goods.
# Music:
Socks;SportsSocks
Somewhere between discomfort and rock ’n’ roll, between virtuosity and amateurism, and between disarming honesty and ironic innuendos, you’ll find the Rotterdam band Socks;SportsSocks. With their contemporary ‘do it yourself’ mentality, they produce their own music, artwork, and videos. After two EPs and performances at events like Motel Mozaïque, Grasnapolsky, and Paradiso, it was time for their first full-length album, titled ‘Ironic Songs for a Sincere Generation’. On this record, the band sounds more dynamic and honest than ever before.
The band’s debut album swings between cheerful, jangly pop music and deeply depressing ballads. The tracks are filled with unconventional orchestral arrangements, performed by the band members' very friendly friends. The most discussed topic on the album is money, specifically the lack of it. But fortunately, it also touches on themes like death, stopping laughter, and how everything always stays the same and nothing ever changes. The album was eventually recorded in four different studios after the band’s original studio was destroyed by fire in 2023. By sharing this story, they hope to gain the listener’s sympathy and maybe even put an end to their financial struggles.
M.J.H. Thompson
M.J.H. Thompson Volksorkest is a musical collective led by M.J.H. Thompson. The band includes core members Arie Hoekstra, Sjoerd Frankrijk, and Milo Mooi Wilten, along with a rotating cast of about ten other musicians who contributed to their debut album.
M.J.H. Thompson Volksorkest’s sound is an eclectic mix of rock, post-punk, and country, drawing inspiration from a wide range of artists, including Kevin Ayers, J.M.A. Biesheuvel, and The Shaggs. Their debut album reflects this diverse palette, blending spontaneous creativity with an unconventional approach to songwriting and recording. The process was intentionally relaxed and organic, beginning in a friend’s studio and evolving through contributions from various friends in different settings. The result is a collection of songs filled with quirky observations, offbeat humor, and genuine expression, capturing a wide spectrum of human experience and emotion.
Olivia Degen
‘Olivia Degen’ is a duo that consists of visual artist/songwriter Olivia Degen (2002) and guitarist/composer Benjamin de Raad (1998), based in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Having studied music at the same school in the past, the duo was formed in 2023 when the two reconnected based on their shared interest in analogue, close-mic recording. Together, they make serene, atmospheric, contemporary folk music. The duo is inspired by influences ranging from folk musicians such as Jessica Pratt and Aldous Harding to the Brazilian musical genre Bossa Nova.
As well as a set by Dj Caliente
# Performances:
Robin.jpeg
Robin.jpeg is a multidisciplinary artist who started as an illustrator
but found a fascination for fiber and with that, working in 3D. Bright
colours and simple shapes always return in her work, no matter the
medium. Her works look joyful, silly and soft in the face of the political and societal problems that are often the topic. The balaclavas she makes started as and continue to be a protest against climate issues and the current state of surveillance in the Netherlands.
Carla Menas
Carla is a Cypriot-Lebanese artist who focuses primarily on participatory gatherings & events through performances and sculpture. Using mostly found objects and repurposed ingredients, the goal is to reveal an absurdity of simple, everyday moments and hopefully restructure formal (and/or Western) behaviour. There is always an element of playfulness, and a need to interact whether that be with the work itself, or with the surrounding audience.
Donatas Tretjakovas
Donatas Tretjakovas (1999)(LT) investigates boundaries of morality, consciousness and limits human body. His anthropomorphic practice, consisting of performance, sculpture and writing, is inspired by the overlap of animalistic primitivity and absurdity of vices, implemented in the society. He often uses raw materials, such as animal flesh, body fluids and food in his works. The choice is determined by the attraction to the polarity between dirty and sterile, alive and decomposing, ephemeral and stable. Obsession with the grotesque, drives the artist to create ironic, dark and enigmatic works, which push the spectator or participant towards the ambiguous unknown.
Wijnand Groenen
Poster by Woetoe
