Solanum was the first spoonbill to be equipped with a tiny transmitter with a built-in microphone. Researcher Wouter Vansteelant listened in amazement to the sounds and sent the recording to guitarist Tjibbe Stelwagen, who immediately began experimenting with it. Tjibbe shared his compositions with bassist Caspar Koolstra, and the musical act Solanum was born. Solanum premiered at the Dudeljo festival in Lauwersoog and was later performed at 10 different locations, including Artis, Schiermonnikoog, and the International Wader Study Group Annual Conference in Groningen.
Solanum at the IWSG Conference 2025
Tjibbe and Caspar describe Solanum as a musical postcard: a collage of locations, sounds, music, and atmospheres. That postcard never looks exactly the same, because their repertoire continues to expand. Existing pieces become more refined through practice and therefore freer, while new ideas are tested live. For example, a canon sung with the audience about the homesickness for Schiermonnikoog that Solanum might have felt when she strayed from the group. Tjibbe says: “Every performance is therefore different, but we always follow the chronology of Solanum’s migration.”
To add new musical chapters to Solanum, Tjibbe and Caspar spent several days together in February at the research station De Herdershut on Schiermonnikoog. Isolated by temperatures of five degrees below zero and a strong easterly wind, they relied on each other, their instruments, and their well-trained improvisational skills. They kept warm with the thought that two years earlier, Solanum had hatched nearby, in the salt marsh next to De Herdershut.
Her sound diary remains a source of inspiration for the musicians. Tjibbe says: “We’ve discovered that you can listen to the recording in very different ways. As background sound, which makes it feel as if you’re outside with Solanum. You can also focus on the different rhythms, which tell you something about the various locations. The audience hears other details in the recording than we do — city sounds, for example. We then look up that particular passage and create new work from there.”
Tjibbe and Caspar creating new music in De Herdershut
Would you like to listen to Solanum in an atmospheric setting? Come to the beach of Schiermonnikoog, at the end of Badweg, on Saturday afternoon, April 25.
