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Kai – better known as Palmbomen II and Palmbomen – is a Dutch composer and music producer, born in 1988 in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. He was raised in Breda, a city known for its EDM foundation. Growing up in a small town with musical influences from artists like DJ Tiësto (whose record shop / label, Magik Music, was just around the corner from his home), Kai’s early life was surrounded by electronic music, mainly trance. However, it wasn’t until he discovered Bunker Records, a store focused on electro and other electronic genres, that his true musical interests began to take shape. Inspired by this exposure, he started collecting synthesizers and drum machines, moving away from the classical music he initially learned as a child, playing violin and piano.
As a teenager, Kai became frustrated with traditional music notation and classical instruments, but he rediscovered his passion for music-making in his later years when he began using software like ReBirt and Reason. This led him to real synthesizers and drum machines, and he soon realized he needed formal education to improve his skills. He took lessons in piano, drums, solfège, guitar, and bass guitar, though he never mastered any one instrument—he simply learned enough to express himself creatively in the studio.
In his twenties, Kai studied music composition and production at the conservatory in Utrecht, where he became friends with fellow musicians like Betonkust and Jacco Gardner, many of whom he continues to collaborate with today. There, he discovered how much he liked composition as his main tool, and how much he appreciated the limitations of older music gear with very little possibility for manipulation, where the harmonies really had to carry the music—not just the production.
After spending several years in Los Angeles, Kai relocated to Antwerp, Belgium, closer to his roots in Breda. He now enjoys a more stable environment for collaboration, working with friends like Jacco and his engineer Ilias to build music studios. Despite the change in scenery, he maintains strong ties to the Los Angeles music scene and continues to work remotely on projects, including composing music for a film.
Kai’s music often carries a cinematic quality, and the work on his recent album was originally composed for various films, though most tracks never made it to the final cut. These compositions were made between 2016 and 2019, in places ranging from the snowy mountains near Los Angeles to the studio in Breda, using minimal equipment: an Akai MPC1000 sequencer, a Roland JV1010 synth, a Korg EX-800, and an x0xb0x, often combined with tape and simple effects. Some of the tracks, like the opening track of his album, were created while working on a short documentary about New York disco sound systems. He composed “Sad Piece” for someone last year, and many of the tracks were made around the time he was composing music for the film Jawline (a film about social media kids) that premiered at Sundance in 2019. The album is a mixed bag like that, with loose ends that never came out on any records and were intended for films. Now it seemed exciting to present them again for people to use in films. Of course, it’s kind of a joke to offer a filmmaking course based on this music, but he likes giving the music away and letting people use it to create something. Ultimately, that’s the goal of this package: people can use it however they like, as long as it’s not for a commercial project.
Influences for his work include groups and composers like Tangerine Dream, Arvo Pärt, Enya, Larry Heard, Slowdive, and Philip Glass. He also listens a lot to old new-age cassette tapes, with amazing collections posted online by Sounds of the Dawn. But he also listens to modern musicians like Kate NV, Molly Nilsson, Dean Blunt, and many others. It inspires him to watch films or series and then make music for them, either directly or indirectly—like how he made his first Palmbomen II album while watching X-Files episodes, which was a fantastic inspiration. Kai is currently focussing on finishing the construction of several studios to record, master, and color music. They just bought an old large seventies Harrison mixing console, the same type used to make Thriller, but also many ABBA albums. This one specifically came from film composer Harold Faltermeyer, who created the “Axel F Theme” (or Crazy Frog for younger readers, LOL) on this very mixer. With these new studios and equipment, Kai looks forward to continuing his exploration of music, blending the analog warmth of vintage equipment with the creative possibilities of modern technology.
