I first knew Dutch-Frisian indie folk songwriter Immen simply as one of the employees of my favourite record store Plato in Utrecht. Little did I know she writes some of the most captivating songs that are impossible not to dream away to. Late March 2025, her debut album Nimmen was released on Plato Utrecht’s own record label and it’s destined to end up in my end of year list. In October 2024, Immen recorded a session for The Influences, playing her own Ghalid and a cover of Noah And The Whale’s I Have Nothing.

Asked about her cover choice, Clasine Haringsma explains: “The First Days of Spring by Noah and the Whale was the first album that captivated me in its entirety. It was released in 2011 and to me it’s still one of most beautiful albums about a broken relationship (sharing first place with the more recent Adrianne Lenker’s Songs and Instrumentals). The songs are brutally honest and take you through all the phases that can come with a broken heart. The song I Have Nothing touches on the feeling of being completely lost when someone you love lets you go.”

“It’s a cliché to say that the best albums are albums about heartbreak, but I do think there’s some truth to it. When you lose someone or something (in its broadest sense), you get thrown back to your core. To your true self and raw feelings. Heartbreak is grief, love, longing – feelings that touch down deeper than fleeting feelings of cheerfulness or happiness. It raises questions and demands reflection. To me, that’s where creativity flows. In order to get it out you have to be honest with yourself and be vulnerable, and I really think you can feel it when someone puts their heart and soul like that in their music. I think this is what touched me most about Charlie Fink’s songwriting in this album.”

Dutch musician Bo Menning (North Star Runner & Aestrid) is a friend and a colleague of Haringsma and agreed to write a guest essay about Immen for us. Read it below in between the videos.

“Hail The Frisians Free”

“Underground noise rock heroes from Leeuwarden, LUL, said it best in the twilight days of 80s punk with their 1990 album title. I think of LUL, It Dockumer Lokaeltsje, The Serenes, Simmer, Zea and Immen when I think of artists from Friesland. They all sound completely different, but their mindset is what links them
together. They’re a different breed. Proud, resourceful and independent. Whatever they make, they execute it with intent. Often heartfelt and poetic.”

“A Frisian never does anything half-assed. As musicians, we talk a little ‘bout our bands. We talk a little ‘bout our future plans. Talking about the past never goes further back than the last show that you played. The usual. Well, not this time.”

“As a friend, colleague, and fellow musician, I’m no stranger to when it comes to Immen’s music. Over the years I’ve seen her play in various DIY settings and small venues in and around Utrecht. Her shy appearance would let her trip over the words as she’s trying to say something nice to the audience before the next song was up. With each song and each show the shyness faded and the words dissolved. Immen’s world is Immen’s own. I see the clean empty meadows of Friesland that seem to go on until forever. A place that must feel like the best dream in the Summer and the darkest of greys in the Wintertime.”

“The countryside where the sun can never seem to push through the thick mist for days. Blank open places like that scare the shit of out me. That’s what the album cover of her album Nimmen does with my head. The image stays with me and it takes me back in time. I’ve been to Jiskenhuzen in Friesland many times when I was a kid. I nearly drowned here when I was very little. I can still see myself falling in the water and sink down to the bottom of the lake, as I see the boats float above me in slow-motion. The seconds underwater felt like minutes. Just like the slow pace of an Immen song. The Frisian landscape has left a mark on me.”

“25km North lies the town of Raerd with nothing else around it for miles. I try to picture a younger version of Immen growing up when I ask her sometimes what it was like growing up there. Her world seems quiet and safe on the family’s farm, and yet I can’t rid myself from this dense blanket of melancholy when I hear her songs. Clasine’s voice carries me across the frozen meadows. Most of it she sings in Frisian and I can’t understand a word of it, but damn it sounds so pretty the way she sings the words and makes it almost sound Scandinavian or Celtic. Language becomes fluid when I don’t understand it, but I can feel it and every line in “Ghalid” washes over me like a wave.”

“In my head I see horses running free, offering solace and escape. The utter feeling of freedom from all things negative. I grew up around horses and I’ve seen how much it meant to my own sister what having your own horse means. It’s the escape to another place with your best friend. Away from the real world that’s nearing. Times would change, people change and the rider heads out alone into the adult world. Without the horse, cos the horse can’t go where you want to go. And so the horse has to go. It fucking hurts, but you take it in, adapt and get over it. That’s how we’re taught to deal with things in the real world. Only Immen’s world isn’t merely made up out of just “real world”. Maybe you forgot about dreamland as you grew older, but dreamland never forgets you.”

“The place where the landscape flashes by as she’s galloping away on the back of Ghalid. Away from fuck all. Never to let go. You wished you had never let go…”

“It just rips my fucking heart open as I’m sitting leaned back against the wall on the side of the stage. I’m in her world now. No awkward silences, no clumsily flirting with members of the audience here. When Immen came on 30 minutes ago, everyone just shut up and watched, most of of them tearing up involuntarily, as each song slid into the next, each one building upon what came before. It hits me like when I hear Emma Ruth Rundle or Grouper. I feel gutted and empty. The audience is left in silence for a moment or two, but feel relieved when the cheers and applauding fades in. I feel a lot of things and I’m realising that I have to go on next with Aestrid. Off to another dreamworld at De Helling in Utrecht on November 15th 2023.”

“I know what that dreamworld power can do if you have it and what it can do for others. The real world can wait.”

Photos

Keep watching

Thank you for watching and enjoying this session. You’ll probably like some other sessions from The Influences’ archive too, like these earlier ones we filmed with Aestrid and Chima.