Perquisite

 THE BEGINNING
Composer/producer Perquisite was born in Amsterdam in 1982 and started to create beats at age 14. Having played the cello since his early youth, he has always been involved with and inspired by all kinds of music, ranging from classical and 60’s music to Hip Hop and Jazz. His musical journey led him to traveling through the U.S. on his own as a youngster and when he came back to Holland he established his own record label Unexpected Records in March 2001. That same year he released his debut, the 'Outta Nowhere EP'. This seven-track EP, which featured Jazz saxophonist Benjamin Herman became known as a little gem in the Hip-Hop/Nu Jazz-movement. The follow-up, the 'Double Vision EP', which featured Jazz clarinetist David Kweksilber was released the next year. After this, Perq started to work together with a few musical friends on a HipHop-project called North West Metropolis. Tracks of their EP ‘Expressions’ were included on compilation-albums in France and Spain and received airplay on several radio-stations throughout the world. After their successful collaboration within North West Metropolis, Perquisite and Pete Philly (Aruba, 1980) decided to join forces to form the producer/MC-duo Pete Philly & Perquisite. 
 
PETE PHILLY & PERQUISITE 
In the spring of 2005 Pete & Perq released their debut album 'Mindstate' in Europe & Japan. It contained a featuring by Talib Kweli, as well as featurings by internationally known Jazz musicians Jesse van Ruller and Benjamin Herman. UK's Notion Magazine proclaimed their music to be “as much 21st century soul as Hip Hop genius”.Talib Kweli added: “musically these guys are light-years ahead of the game.” Pete & Perq started to play with their 5-piece live formation throughout Europe and received several awards including the Essent Award and Zilveren Harp and were nominated for the Edisons (Dutch Grammy’s), 3FM Awards, TMF Awards and MTV European Music Awards. After extensive touring all over Europe and shows in South Africa and the US, where the album was released now as well through ANTI records, Pete & Perq finished their tour in the autumn of 2006 in a sold out Melkweg in Amsterdam. Perquisite went back to the studio to work together with Pete on their sophomore album. During this non-touring period 'Remindstate' was released, the totally remixed version of the 'Mindstate' album. The record, which was released January 2007, included remixes from several musical friends of the duo, like Seiji (Bugz in the Attic), Nicolay (The Foreign Exchange) and the Metropole Orchestra.
 
MYSTERY REPEATS 
In September 2007 Pete & Perq's second album, 'Mystery Repeats', was released. The album entered first position in the Dutch album charts and was recieved very well by the press. Major Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad wrote that “Mystery Repeats sometimes almost explodes because of it’s creative energy” alongside De Volkskrant that described the album as being “even richer in sound and more diverse than their debut**. *Pete & Perq started the 'Mystery Repeats tour' in a sold out Melkweg with their new and improved live formation – besides Pete on vocals, Perq on laptop/cello, DJ PCM on turntables, Remco Keijzer on saxophones and Kasper Kalf on bass, it now also included Ruben Hein on keys and vocals - and started to play shows all over Europe. In march of 2008 they toured around Japan and in April of that same year they toured together with Leeroy from Saian Supa Crew in Germany. In the summer of 2008 they played at well known festivals across Europe including Sziget (HU), Nuke (AT), Exit (SR), Lowlands (NL), HipHop Open (DE) and North Sea Jazz (NL). When they got back in Amsterdam they received the prestigious 'Amsterdam Award of Art', the most important art award of the city, out of the hands of Amsterdam mayor Cohen. At this time their third single 'Mystery Repeats' entered the Dutch Top 40 and became their most successful single so far, with the accompanying video receiving more than two million hits on youtube. Pete & Perq concluded the Dutch part of the Mystery Repeats tour in a sold out Paradiso, Amsterdam, only to continue touring abroad. Shows in the Caribbean, the USA and South Africa followed, where they played at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival for the second time. After their return, in may 2009, Perq was awarded with the so called 'Duiveltje' for Best Producer of The Netherlands.
 
BREAK-UP
At the beginning of 2009, Pete and Perq both felt it was time to focus on other projects. Perq was asked to compose the score for Dutch movie ‘Carmen van het Noorden’. The film, which had it's release on September 24th 2009 starred Tygo Gernandt and Sanguita Akkrum in the lead rolls. For the soundtrack Perquisite worked with the cream of the crop of the Dutch Hip Hop scene, including Jiggy Djé, Duvel, Typhoon and Sticks. On the Dutch Film Festival 2009 Perquisite was awarded for his achievement with a 'Golden Calf' (Dutch Oscar). In the summer of 2009, after six years of working together, Pete Philly & Perquisite decided to end their collaboration. In October of that same year they undertook a final goodbye tour which they called ‘The Final Celebration Tour’. With an enlarged 13-piece live formation Pete & Perq celebrated their music one last time in several theatres across Holland. They gave their final show in a sold out Melkweg on October 29th which Dutch Magazine Oor called a “glorious goodbye celebration”. 
 
A NEW BEGINNING: ACROSS
Perquisite now started to work full time on his first full-length solo album which he called 'Across'. For this installment he decided to work with 12 different Dutch vocalists, among them Janne Schra, Torre Florim (De Staat), Dazzled Kid and Jenny Lane. Perquisite explored a lot of new musical directions on the album and broke out of the Hip-Hop-genre towards Soul, Indie and singer-songwriter. In a 5 out of 5 star review, Jazz Magazine called the album an “impressive debut album from someone we’re gonna have a lot of joy from in the near future”. The album release took place in a packed Melkweg, Amsterdam and the album was released October 15th 2010 on Unexpected Records. Perquisite embarked on a club tour through Holland and Germany in which he not only brought his new 6-piece live band, but also several guest vocalists of the album. The tour was concluded in the MC Theater in December 2012.
 
FILM MUSIC 
Meanwhile Perquisite started to work on a lot of film music. By now he has done the soundtracks for a dozen films and documentaries, including 'Mama' (Sanne Vogel & Beri Shalmashi, 2010), 'Erop of Eronder' (Michiel van Erp, 2011), 'Lotus' (Pascale Simons, 2011) and Zonder (Johan Kramer, 2012).
 
KRIS BERRY & PERQUISITE 
In 2012 Perquisite started to work together with the very talented singer Kris Berry. Together they made an album called 'Lovestruck Puzzles'. The album was released September 2013 and so far received raging reviews by the press. NRC Handelsblad proclaimed it to be 'the ideal dream music, smoothly bouncing like a trampoline and carrying thoughts to different places.& Eric Corton simply called it &an amazing record; the best of both worlds.& After launching their album in a packed Melkweg in Amsterdam, Kris Berry & Perquisite will embark with their band on a live tour through the Netherlands this December. 
 
A part from being active as a producer/composer and musician, Perquisite also runs his label Unexpected Records and has been responsible for the management of Pete Philly & Perquisite since it’s establishment in 2003 until it's disbandment late 2009.