Overal en Nergens
Een Boek Voor Jou - 2026
Composition & producing: Martin Fondse & Lucas Dols
Recording, mixing, co-producing: Fieke van den Hurk
Mastering: Maria Triana
Musicians: Modar Salama, Emrah Oğuztürk, Lucas Dols, Nawras Altaky, Ghaeth Almaghoot, Shaza Manla, Martin Fondse
Vocalists: Maryana Golovchenko, Luca Warmer, MargrietSjoerdsma, Lilian Farahani, Nawras Altaky, Fuensanta Mendez, Minyeshu Kifle, Meral Polat, Salex Abdikader
This song was written to accompany the new edition of a book gifted to all children in asylum seeker centres in the Netherlands. We recorded a stellar cast of musicians that sometimes themselves have asylum seeker-backgrounds. The vocals, recorded in 10 languages, showed me that the different sounds and rhythms of the languages made it seem like they were different instruments. I feel blessed to have been part of such a meaningful project with all the passion that each of us put in. Do take a listen to all versions, and discover the beauty in the different sounds of the words.
(Too) few photo’s taken from the recordings at Trypoul Studio’s.
Foundation Een Boek Voor Jou (“A Book For You”) aims to ensure that every child who has fled to the Netherlands receives a book as a welcome gift. A Book for You is an anthology of beautiful and well-known stories, poems, and illustrations from Dutch-language children’s literature, translated into the six most widely spoken languages in asylum seeker centres (ASCs). With this book and activities organised around it in ASCs, the foundation seeks to encourage a love of reading, support language and literacy development, and contribute to the overall wellbeing of refugee children.
In the book, children can read stories about Jip and Janneke, Boer Boris, Dolfje Weerwolfje, and many others—presented in their own language. The book is available in Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish, Somali, Tigrinya, Turkish, Ukrainian, Spanish and Dutch.
A Book for You welcomes children in asylum seeker centres with beautiful stories from their new country, offered in their own language. Having a book of their own—to read independently, to be read aloud, and to enjoy together—helps them become familiar with the literature of the country they have arrived in soon after their arrival. It fosters connection between children and their parents and emphasises that there is still space for their own language and identity. At the same time, it forms a bridge to Dutch (reading) culture.
I encourage you to use any other streaming platform outside of Spotify. If you don’t know where else to go, consider Tidal, it has a higher audio quality, and the amount paid to artists is a little bit more fair. The music library is equally big :)
