Vivienne Aerts on "Current", Mindfulness, Jazz and Psychology

From Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman Leah Roseman

Vivienne Aerts is a NYC-based Dutch Singer, Educator, and Psychologist, for many years on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music. I’ve been following her inspiring creative practice for a couple of years and I’m excited to tell you that for this episode you’ll be hearing clips from her beautiful upcoming album Current, produced on a tiny 1951 Dutch sailboat, blending jazz, electronics, and vocal loops with water-inspired soundscapes. Her husband, the renowned pastry chef Ted Steinebach also made a documentary film about the journey, which features several other wonderful musicians who hopped on the boat to record.

I found it uplifting to get to know Vivienne’s interdisciplinary approach, rooted in mindfulness and how she got started as a student creating interesting opportunities for artists. You’ll also be hearing clips from a couple of her previous projects including the award-winning Typuhthâng featuring 100 female musicians which supports Congolese female cacao farmers through a partnership with Original Beans.

In this age of AI, I’m inspired by Vivienne's trust and hopefulness in the need for us to engage all of our senses and the power of mobilizing micro-communities to support meaningful creative work.

You can also watch this video on my YouTube; I’ve also linked the transcript, Vivienne's website, other suggested episodes, podcast newsletter sign-up, podcast merch, and how you can buy me a coffee to support this independent podcast! Everything linked here in the complete show notes: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/vivienne-aerts

photo: Ted Steinebach

(00:00) Intro

(02:48) album Current and film with excerpt of track 1

(08:30) collaborations with husband chef Ted Steinebach

(12:54) Current, mindfulness, the film, excerpt of track 5

(17:33) creative process Current, excerpt strack 5 and 11

(22:08) songwriting, South Korea

(27:49) Current, clip of track 8 Closer, living on the boat

(35:26) other linked episodes

(36:23) creative process album Polaroid with clip of Streetlamps

(39:16) Susanne Alt with clip of track 11

(43:31) Typuhthâng album with clips track 9, 4, 1, 6, Original Beans chocolate