Jiven – a deep headphone experience

Jivendro Adriaans, who was born in Suriname, moved to the Netherlands with his loving parents. He started playing keyboards at the age six when the instrument was given to him as a gift by a father of a friend. Four years later he started making beats and now loves working with FL Studio which was a gift from his mother. Jivendro, who works as a graphic designer also produces music for both rappers and singers, as well as doing remixes of songs by Zendaya and Beyonce. The Netherlands-based, graphics artist and producer, who records as Jiven, expands into a far-reaching space on his recordings. He’s made gorgeously constructed electro under this name, ultimately gaining traction with tracks such as “Go Chillout”, “Good Weekend” and “My Super Chill”.

Some of his previous songs now sound like mere dreams of the luminous world he was trying so hard to connect to. On these new tracks Jiven gains a skip in his step and strides right into that place, largely due to a shedding of the muddied beats and wistful synth tones that may have positioned him a little too close to retro-futuristic notions.

There’s more air here, lending a greater expanse of room to move around in than before, like travelling from a rundown seaside resort to vast scoops of desert plane. There is a familiar sense of melancholy and the embers of sundown burning through it, but with the ambition clearly heightened right from the first few notes.

The sense of build Jiven possesses—knowing when to add and subtract, when to fade and zoom right back into focus—is a central tenet of the his sound, and it’s a sensibility he retains through all of his tracks. Like a particularly crisp logo or font, his songs have a good sense of scale and proportion, and it’s clear that a lot of work goes into them.

Nostalgic-inspired imagery, a heavy sense of tranquility and faraway longing, all tied together with a pretty sleek modernity. Several of these elements have been sort of beaten into the ground in indie music over the past few years, but with songs like “Qb1” and “Qb2”, Jiven manages to pull them together in a way that feels compelling.

Jiven’s tracks are built primarily with synths and sampled instruments, but what separates him, at least from a lot of the bedroom-oriented artists currently exploring similar sounds, is simple craft. These tracks are OCD-level meticulous.

Hear it in the percussion: In place of the tinny, synthetic beats favored by lots of indie-ambient startups, Jiven takes extra care to capture sounds with a crack and thump that makes you feel like you’re in the room with them. His attention to detail goes beyond highlighting individual instruments. It’s there in the way Jiven simply builds a song, merging all the keyboard wooshes and percussive ripples to find a natural arc.

“Relax”, for example, starts out fairly simple with twinkly keys and a sturdy, knocking beat, but the song’s pulse quickens as it progresses, and by the end you’ve got something heady enough to live up to its title.

Because Jiven clearly wants his music to be a deep headphone experience, those subtle shifts go a long way in holding your interest. And in terms of the imagery he builds – it’s all there, and it’s pretty easy to set your brain on “relax” and conjure up those natural landscapes.

An out-of-nowhere tonal change or an occasional tinge of darkness or light gives these recordings plenty of balance. Ultimately Jiven who has his profile up on the MTV website, succeeds at what he sets out to do. His lush, layered soundscapes will bring the indulgent bliss of a restful bask on the sun-drenched beaches of the world.

OFFICIAL LINKS: WEBSITE – MTV