With the shuttering of Studio 80’s doors in the latter months of 2015, Amsterdam lost one of its most valuable underground nightspots.
Now, it has been announced that the former Studio 80 space will launch a new club, Claire, will open this October, bringing the likes of Chez Damier, Gilles Peterson and Matthew Herbert to Amsterdam’s Rembrandtplein over the coming months.
The new owners, Juri Miralles and Marlon Arfman, who also have their hands involved in local clubs Bloemenbar & Disco Dolly, have announced the spot will be open Thursday-Saturday and feature many a local house, techno and disco act.
In speaking with RA, Miralles and Arfman briefly described what we can expect, muscially, from the club:
“Claire will mainly focus on house music in the broadest sense. Warm and forward-thinking, with international and local artists DJing or playing live. The DJs will also have longer slots. We think longer sets are more interesting because you challenge the artist to tell their story and do unexpected things. The programming mostly consists of our own nights, where we work together with local artists and invite their favourite acts. In the opening months you can expect locals like Detroit Swindle, San Proper, Boris Werner, Ferro, Beesmunt Soundsystem, FS Green, Mr. Mendel and Philou Louzolo. And international artists such as Chez Damier, Gilles Peterson, Matthew Herbert, Beautiful Swimmers and Mall Grab”.
The duo also offered there xplanation as to the interior’s aesthetic changes:
“The most important and relatively easy thing to change was the infrastructure. People who enter the venue sometimes could use some time to warm-up, and need a couple of beers before going on the dance floor. The original route was through dancing people, so people in different states of mind were clashing. We’ve also used all the space the building has to offer and was not open to the public before. This means there will be a couple of rooms that most of the people who visited before never knew existed. The dance floors are now both made of wood, which benefits the sound. These are the main changes but, of course, we have got a few more surprises we would love people to find out themselves. The black box is no more!”
