2003 DECEMBER 6 #340
Ardy, the Painter of Love - Pregnant Rainbows For Colourblind Dreamers
This little known psychedelic gem was found at a small fleamarket in Brunssum, the Netherlands in 1997. I was looking for product music and other weirdness on vinyl at the time, and I was pleasantly surprised to find some in a large box of 7" singles. One of them was supposed to be a promotional item, given out at the opening of a local shopping mall sometime in the 1970s. However, when I came home and pulled the single out of its sleeve it wasn't what I expected. In my hands I had a one-sided picture disc, with an abstract painting on one side, and a partly hand written label on the other. Not knowing what to expect I put the record on the player and… wow! What a trip!
It was only after I wrote a column about this find for a Dutch magazine, that I found that this single was released in 1968 in a very limited quantity (99 copies is what I've been told). Ardy, the Painter of Love is Ardy Strüwer, a Dutch painter, illustrator and designer of glass works who now lives in Sweden. Apparently he also played in a movie in the late 60s. I have no idea if he made more records or what the reason was for releasing this single. The question that remains is: how did this psychedelic little thing - with a handwritten dedication on the label no less - end up in at that fleamarket in downtown Brunssum?
- Marco Kalnenek, http://www.weirdomusic.com
TT-6:09 / 8.5MB / 192kbps 44.1khz
One-sided 7" by Ardy Struwer, alias 'Ardy, the Painter
of Love'
(Images courtesy of Marco Kalnenek)