‘New Old World’ is a very catching musical project, a cross-pollination between swinging jazz, pop idioms and a dash of classical music (…) The music is intelligently supported by self-made movies recorded at deSingel. The videos show apparent banal fragments from life. Children playing and drawing, a stage being built, dancing people, young and old. But the combination between music and the movie works really well.
At the end, the world explodes. ‘In a playful way’, says Carlens immediately. ‘I wouldn’t go looking for big messages. You have to try and stay hopeful, right? All the kids in the movies are the musicians’ or mine. You know they’re going to be running around here for a long time to come. So you have to stay positive.’