Oblique at Paradiso Amsterdam on 7 February 1987


Oblique is since 1985 the band and trade name of Tommy Bachman and Gerard Stokkink. The band starts performing together in 1983 as the background band for the Shusaku & Dormu Dance Theater and for several years tours through Europe playing in playhouses. In 1984 Gerard Stokkink releases the album Music From Shusaku & Dormu Dance Theater.



As a result the band was signed by CBS and released their debut and only album in 1985. It was highly acclaimed and used as an example for many compilations since. It features a wide spectrum of great musicians and was listed as 'one of the best Dutch albums ever' (MusicMaker). 


The album contains a cross section of music used for the theater productions of the Shusaku & Dormu Dance Theater productions, including tracks from the album of Gerard Stokkink. The track Blue Mountain (b/w Yellow Turtles) is released as a single, but receives little attention. The band keeps working for theater and dance production and in their spare time works on new material.

Their original music and surrealistic performance motivated Mick Jagger to invite them to join the Rolling Stones concerts as support-act. Because of their unique way of using synthesizers (synths were primitive those days!!) and their 'total performance' they toured at all prestigious international music- and theater-festivals world-wide. A small selection of the festival's Oblique has performed at include the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, Roskilde in Denmark and Broken Dreams in Canada. Other cities that Oblique performed at include Athens, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, Barcelone, Wien and Salzburg.

In 1987 they play their only concert during the second SI Dubbelconcert at the Paradiso in Amsterdam together with Pendragon. The concert takes place on the 7th of February and is recorded for broadcasting on Dutch radio. In the end seven out of the ten tracks are broadcasted by KRO's Rocktempel.



Oblique stopped performing in ’88 in order to fully focus on composing music for audio-visuals.  Although, in 1991 the band contributes the track Time to the Compilation Disc of SI Magazine, which is released to commemorate the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the magazine.  In the credit notes the following is written down:

"Although working almost unnoticed, Amsterdam based duo Oblique is one of Hollands most active bands.
Over the last ten years, their music has been in great demand for theater, ballet, film, television and audiovisuals. The band also toured extensively with various theater companies as far as Canada where their music went down a storm.
All the stranger that they have so far released only one, untitled, album in 1985 and did just one live concert under their own name (for SI Magazine in 1987).
A second album is now finally in the making tentively scheduled for 1992.
Judging by the sheer quality of their music it will be well worth the wait."

Today they hold an impressive portfolio of high-end material. Experience, flexability and improvisation on stage proved to be the perfect basis to compose music-scores and TV-leaders. Since 1988, Oblique’ sophisticated studios, deliver a large amount of sound-tracks, leaders and music-scores for national and international broadcasting TV-production-companies, film-& tv-directors and a variety of performing artists. Each project is different for specific reasons. The people at Oblique understand what it takes to deliver high-end music that fits the image.

So here you find the concert from 7 February 1987 at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. The tracks China, Wake Up and Policeman In The Sand are left out of the broadcast.

1. Carnaval
2. Endless Cruise
3. Time
4. Yellow Turtles
5. The Ridge
6. Chain And Construction
7. Ramblas

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