Noisia are back. The beloved Dutch electronic trio — Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen and Thijs de Vlieger — announced Thursday that they are reforming after seven years apart. A press release about the reunion notes that after spending the last seven years focused on their respective solo projects, the three guys missed “the exchange of ideas between them, and the feedback loop that begins when their music meets a crowd.”
The farewell tour took the band to Melkweg, where crowds won’t have to wait too long to see them again. Noisia will play its first show back on Dec. 4 at Amsterdam’ them over, and it ran on into 2022 because of the pandemic. Any details about extra shows will come later.
The Documentary That Announced the Return
A trio announced their return through a Sept. 10 release: a Vlucht documentary, running 27 minutes long, directed by Farhad Khodadadzade. The film follows the group’s path from their beginnings in Groningen all the way through to their rise to global fame.
What the Trio Said About Breaking Up
In a joint 2019 interview with Billboard, the trio explained why they split. “It’s a risk we’re taking, to put an end to something we’ve built for two decades,” they told the magazine. “We’re saying it now, because we have made the final decision only recently. We took time to think about it. It’s painful, but it is absolutely the right thing to do.”
The announcement held force because the split was already underway. The farewell tour ran into 2022, thanks to the pandemic, with the band performing at Melkweg as part of that stretch.
A Decade of Solo Work
For the past seven years, each member has kept busy. Roos built up his bass project Sleepnet, then brought Ring Noord to life with Former, while also contributing across projects such as:
- the house duo Body Ocean
- scoring
- production
- audio technology
De Vlieger carried on his work as Thys through partnerships with Amon Tobin, composing for film, contemporary dance and fashion, and penning works for instrumental ensembles and electronic music projects. Van Sonderen kept going with the duo Zonderling, alongside writing and production work across house, melodic techno, pop and hip-hop under his producer name, NSR.
Amid the Noisia re-launch, the guys will keep working on their respective projects.
Why They Changed Their Minds
In a press release announcing the reunion, Van Sonderen gave a personal explanation for the change. “What do I want to do? Something I can’t do on my own,” He explains it there. “Getting a rough idea from the guys and letting my own ideas loose on it. That already feels exciting again. Maybe exactly because it doesn’t have to feel exciting.”
Roos shared the same feeling, adding his own note of agreement. “For me, doing the farewell tour actually planted the seed of the idea that Noisia can be what we want it to be, not what we think it has to be,” he adds. “When the subject surfaced again, it felt much lighter and surprisingly fun to talk about. Feeling the others’ excitement about it is what really fuelled that for me.”
De Vlieger positioned the reunion as an opportunity to rediscover their creative connection. He says, “What I’m most excited about,” that it’s about “is to see what the relationship, what the meeting of minds, can bring creatively again. It’s really exciting to redefine this relationship and this friendship on new terms that align with who we are and who we want to be.”.
How It All Started in Groningen
In the late ’90s, Roos, van Sonderen and de Vlieger met in the northern Dutch town of Groningen. They began their creative partnership as graffiti artists, then moved on to electronic music. Their work together as a group started with drum & bass productions, which brought them widespread recognition, and they later expanded into electro, house and pop, earning a reputation for the complexity and meticulousness of their productions.
Their track “Tommy’s Theme” spent 18 weeks on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, peaking at No. 44 in 2014. The trio also appeared on this chart during their hiatus with “Supersonic (My Existence)” from Skrillex’s 2023 album Quest For Fire. Made by Skrillex (who was mentored by Noisia during his come-up), Josh Pan, Dylan Brady and the trio, the track expanded on Pan and Brady’s 2019 song “Supersonic” and spent 11 weeks on the chart, peaking at No. 13.
The First Show Back at Melkweg
The band is set to begin a new chapter on Dec. 4, playing at Melkweg. That venue carries particular weight, since it was where they performed during their farewell tour.
Khodadadzade directs a documentary called Vlucht, which places that moment into context by following the group’s path from their beginnings in Groningen all the way through to their rise to global fame.
The Road Ahead
The group has not yet laid out a complete schedule for these extra dates, but more shows will be announced later. For now, Roos, van Sonderen and de Vlieger have set aside their individual projects to see where Noisia’s music can go next.
The reunion is a risk, as they acknowledged in 2019. But it is also a bet on the future.
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