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THE MISZ was an accidental and unconventional band, put up by Dries Dekocker and me in Gent, around 1983. Dries and I both lived in the same street. We'd hear each other's music through the windows and doors, which brought us together naturally.
We had no “bigger plan” for the future, we just created and recorded, with a few guitars, a drum machine, a Casio and a 3rd hand synthesizer. We used whatever we could find and most of the music was made while recording. Friends were passing by. At the center of the circle was the Fostex 4-track recorder, always.
THE MISZ released 3 tapes and can be found on numerous compilations. In 2010, the Eddy Merckz tape was reissued on vinyl LP by OnderStroom Records. EETapes released The EE EP and Walhalla Records also reissued some tracks in the Underground Wave series.

Long before ABSENT MUSIC became the name of a record label, it was the pseudonym for my private minimal-wave-and-other-experiment-like project which I had put up halfway through the 1980s, when I was still involved in the THE MISZ.
ABSENT MUSIC released 2 cassettes: Absent Music For Absent People (1986) and Chez Renee (1988), the latter being the soundtrack for a video, exhibition and performance by Renee Lodewijckx. The cassette was in full swing during the eighties. It was the most democratic medium, and they could be sent all over the world. That's how ABSENT MUSIC ended up on cassette compilations like Mad In Belgium 2 (MAD tapes), Cortisol (ZNS tapes) and the Homo Sexpiens Project of 3Rio Tapes. In 2012, EETapes reissued the Absent EP on vinyl, with five tracks, three of them never released before.

From 1988 onwards I went into crisis-modus for a while... and ABSENT MUSIC and THE MISZ were disbanded.
In retrospect, it maybe was a good decision to take some distance – stepping back is sometimes useful to sift the essential from the fleeting.
It must've been in 2003-2004 that I resumed my work, as the JUNE11 project. Older and wiser, with new tools and new friends.
One of my dreams was (and still is) to try to fill the gap between ambient and song, with music assembled in layers, electronic ones as well as acoustic instruments and samples. Not trying to impress anybody, but just find my own sound in my own world.

A world that isn't closed, but instead a world that opens up to interesting sounds from other people from all over the globe and lets them tell something, spanning all times, all borders and colors.
Exploring a dream - layered - fluid - slow - sensitive - simple - almost (im)possible - righteous world.
This album is a quirky selection by Ziggy, capturing more than 30 years.

Jan Van den Broeke, 2017

Since the early 1980's, Jan Van den Broeke has been active under many aliases. Among them: June11, Absent Music and The Misz,

June11 makes downtempo art synth pop and dreamy ambient.

2025 will be very special, with a brand new album coming up.
The first single ‘In the Present Moment’ was released on 10 January.
The second one 'No Fears and No Defects' will be released here on 11 April 2025.

1. janvandenbroeke.co