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raymondstolp.com

The official web site of Raymond Stolp

BIO: Raymond Stolp (1976) is a musician, writer and filmmaker from Zaandam, Holland. He studied Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and has been awarded the degree of Master of Arts (M.A.) upon passing the 'doctoraal' examination in 2004. Starting out as a painter, his attention soon shifted to music, playing live in primarily Holland, England and France, and releasing five albums (which he initially distributed himself, but later appeared on the Flyingdeer Records label). You can listen to a select few songs from these albums exclusively here. He mostly records by himself and fronts his own bands when performing live, but in 1991 he collaborated on a youth music project at the Paradiso in Amsterdam with Freddie Cavalli of Herman Brood & His Wild Romance and later recorded their song 'Stop Messin' (Round In My Head)' with Toni Oswald in 2006 (click on the underlined song title to listen to their cover). Raymond has also worked in film as a composer and actor in the Kelatow/van Weerden production Kartel (2006) and writes, directs and edits his own music videos and promo material. As a writer his analysis of the BBC TV documentary Cracked Actor on David Bowie is featured as a chapter in the Wim Hendrikse book Never get old. David Bowie: Man of Ch-ch-changes, part 1 (Gopher, 2005). Raymond also maintains this web site's popular Ask Ray section - which now also includes columns in Dutch - and has written the introduction to his longtime friend Edan Everly's official web site. A somewhat elusive figure, Raymond has nevertheless been an inspiration to many up-and-coming musical talents, with his guitar work even earning praise from Leif de Leeuw (voted as the best guitar player of the Benelux in 2020's Gitarist Poll Awards). In 2016, after a seven-year absence from being in front of a movie camera, Raymond started making videos featuring his views on life, his workout routine with his dear friend Kylian Van Rijn, and various musical performances such as jamming with Leif de Leeuw, all of which you can watch here on his official YouTube channel.

In 2021 Raymond wrote an acclaimed article featuring an exclusive interview with Billy Cox, Jimi Hendrix's bass player, in edition 56 of the renowned magazine De Bassist. A few parts of Raymond's research and that interview weren't featured in the magazine article, but published in a special on their web site here. Raymond also appears on Edan Everly's next album, to be released in 2022.