It Never Stops
Februari 2025
Out now on vinyl
Buy the vinyl by sending me an email.
Here you can check out some samples
The music for this record I composed, played, mixed and produced myself. It was a long and adventurous process of making choices and killing darlings. It brought me much joyful insights and taught me a lot about developing and singing songs, music production and trying to be true to myself. All these songs are very personal, autobiographical and come from a special place in my heart. I want to thank all the people who gave me the confidence to step out of my comfort zone, enabling me to finally finish this project.
Eleonora Roelofs, my dear wife, you are my true love, biggest friend and most loyal companion. Our dearest son Vincent for being who you are. Paul and Cora Oostendorp for all the good cares, love, trust, studio space and delicious meals. My dear friends Bart Oostindie and Sjoerd van Bommel. You indirectly played a big part in this project. Thank you for continuously inspiring me to explore different approaches with these songs. Henk Jan Heuvelink and Marike Jager for giving me the opportunity to record at your house. Ra Kalam Bob Moses for being a musical mentor and inspirer. My father, who has always supported me. After a long sickbed, at last, the Lord has finally taken you home. I miss you. The song 'Those Days' is dedicated to you.
I love you all and thank you for contributing to my musical journey that never stops. Working together, sharing stages, studios, gardens, expressions, humor, houses and prayers with you have been a blessing. I know the list is far from complete. If I have forgotten someone, blame the mind not the heart.
Romans 15:13 - May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Light in the Darkness
May 2023
Out now on vinyl and CD
Buy the CD or vinyl by sending me an email.
Here you can listen to some samples.
Or check out the store.
This recording is special to me. It represents a heartfelt love for the Creator and the creating process, conveying a spiritual message of light in a very dark period in time. Even though Ra Kalam and I were recording separately, each of us on a different continent, to me the music we captured nevertheless feels close and intimate.
I’m thankful to the Lord to have met Ra Kalam in 2017 during a tour in Germany. We established a beautiful friendship and he has completely changed my perception of music, for the better.
Most compositions on this album are Ra Kalam's. They don’t have time signatures, bar lines or chords. Therefore, they resonate with me as a celebration of freedom. They go straight to the core, bypassing everything inessential. There are no shackles and there is no room for excess baggage... traveling light. The interpretation is depending on the imagination of the players. I humbly thank you Ra Kalam for initiating this project with me and I hope this recording will be a blessing for the listener too.
'Mike Roelofs is one of the most gifted, creative people I’ve known. He is my favorite of the younger generation of pianists and is also much more. He plays organ, melodica, balafon, drums/percussion and is the best whistler I’ve ever heard. He is a cornucopia of colors and sonic possibilities. He combines the classical beauty and lyricism of the great jazz pianists with a wide open boundless imagination and off world sensibility. Sort of as if Bill Evans spent ten years in the Amazon jungle taking Ayahuasca with the native peeps.
This recording is deep, beautiful and absolutely unique. The way I write music lately is without bar lines, time signature, key signature or chord changes. This is to encourage maximum freedom and creativity from the players. Not everyone is ready for this much freedom. Mike Roelofs is one of the special ones. The way he plays these pieces opens the heart, melts the mind and gets the Spirit airborne. I’m most grateful to the Creator for bringing us together.
Love Always Hu Ra Kalam'
Hannah's Dream
Ik mocht meewerken aan een korte film. De jonge Hannah kan nauwelijks nog doordringen tot haar neerslachtige vader, die werkloos thuis zit. Dan ontdekt ze met de buren de helende kracht van muziek. Te zien tijdens het Nederlands filmfestival.

Anaphora Diary

In autumn 2019, my wife and I went on a retreat in the Egyptian desert. We spent time at a Coptic monastery called Anaphora. We prayed together with the monks, talked, shared meals, studied holy Scripture and enjoyed nature in a beautiful oasis surrounded by the silence of the looming desert. During our time there, I was reminded again what true freedom is. ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery,’ ~ Galatian 5:1. True freedom, it occurs to me, is something that we tend to forget about, living our busy lives in western society. We let our minds get flooded by unimportant things and are so caught up with ourselves, mostly feeding our egos instead of our souls. Only embracing the physical and neglecting the spiritual.
In Anaphora I decided to take a few moments everyday to write a simple melody. To keep the creative mind flowing. These melodies represent my time in retreat, getting back in touch with the Source.
Before booking the studio in October 2019, some of these melodies were taken back to the drawing board, others remained unaltered. In most cases I refrained from writing harmony, tempos or even bar lines, just the melody. I wanted to present the musicians involved with purely the essence and give them all the freedom they need for interpretation. Or as Quincy Jones calls it ‘allowing God to walk through the room’.
Here you can listen to some samples.
Podcast Wraak
Ik heb de muziek mogen verzorgen bij de podcast Wraak! Wraak is een achtdelige fictionele serie over ambitie, macht en metoo.
Met de stemmen van Rifka Lodeizen, Carine Crutzen, Jaap Spijkers, Hadewich Minis, Joy Delima, Nadja Hüpsher, Nasrdin Dchar en Nazmiye Oral.
Wraak is een podcast van NPO Radio 1 en AVROTROS, met ondersteuning van het NPO-fonds.

Eerder mocht ik ook al de muziek verzorgen bij de podcast De Kloof.

Documentaire 'Wei'
Ik heb de muziek mogen verzorgen bij deze prachtige documentaire van Ruud Lenssen, meerdere malen onderscheiden en in de prijzen gevallen.
'Root of the Matter'
Mike Roelofs - Guus Bakker - Arthur Lijten

Jazznu: '… Een bijzonder verfijnd en evenwichtig geheel.... Dit is een cd die een tijdje in de speler blijft zitten.'
Jazzism: 'Somtijds op het snijpunt van jazz en klassiek weet hij telkens de juiste snaar te raken. Het kenmerk van de rasmuzikant.'
Limburger: ‘In acht stukken van eigen hand geeft de toetsenist blijk van de inventiviteit die hem ook als begeleider van anderen onderscheidt. De kracht van de piano is dat die Roelofs poëtische kwaliteiten nog beter tot zijn recht laat komen. Hij beent zijn muzikale taal uit tot het essentiële, wat de zeggingskracht van de stukken alleen maar groter maakt.'
Influenced by contemporary jazz, free jazz and impressionistic French music, Mike sometimes let’s compositions for jazz trio have the upper hand, sometimes free improvised piano solo pieces; always maintaining a sense of wonder.
Music recorded by Niels Koster.
Mike Roelofs - piano Guus Bakker - double bass Arthur Lijten - drums
Buy the cd by sending me an email.
Listen to some samples.
Read the reviews.
Roelofs&VanBommel
More info…
Analog Smog
We recorded a jam session in Galloway Studio:
I’m not looking for Mike Roelofs the musician but for Mike Roelofs the photographer.