Free Arts Lab & "Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition"

The first weeks of 2014 I have been very busy with a couple of things behind the scenes.

Time for an update!

Free Arts Lab

After my performance at Theater De Wegwijzer on January 10th (see most recent blog item), we (the involved musicians: Jeroen Hagen (drums and percussion), Martijn Scholte (bowed guitar), and myself) decided that our collaboration should be continued.
Last weeks we have discussed a lot about the new formation and the things we want to do and achieve.

Initially we decided to focus on my electronic music compositions. At least for the moment.

Jeroen and Martijn add their visions, musical skills and expertise to these tracks.

Because there is a lot of space for everyone's input, and because there has already been included a large improvisational part into our setlist, it is very likely that involved musicians will also be part of the composition process in a later stage.

As part of our "Free Arts Lab" - how we named our project - we are planning to involve other musicians (with various musical backgrounds) and any kind of artists and their ideas, to experiment with various artistical points of view. At the moment, for example, we are negotiating with a video artist to create fitting images for our upcoming concerts.

With the dynamic line-up we have at the moment (in which electronic music meets a wide variety of other musical directions) we are convinced to make the rather 'niche' non-commercial electronic music genre more attractive to a larger audience.

"Free Arts Lab" is derrived from the short-lived, but highly influential, Zodiak Free Arts Lab. The famous club in Berlin, where Krautrock found its origin.
With more or less the same point of view we will try to find ways to go into different musical directions.

Coming week we start rehearsing our new set. In the first place to prepare our upcoming gig (see further below) and secondly for a series of concerts we are planning for the end of this year. Of which I can already announce our appearance at the Awakenings All-dayer, to be held at the Paget High School in Burton-on-Trent (U.K.).

I already did a solo concert here before, two years ago, and I am really looking forward to perform here  again.

Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition
As you might perhaps know I am organising an upcoming music event at the wonderful location of the Ruïne van Brederode, in Santpoort-Zuid (near Haarlem).
The complete line-up and details will be announced somewhere this week, but I can already reveal that Free Arts Lab is the opening act for "Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition", which takes place on Friday evening, June 27th.

So be sure to write down this date into your agenda.

"Chill at the Castle" is an existing concept that has already been organised before at the same location. With the focus on acoustic music sessions.

When I had in mind to organise a music event at this wonderful location (which are the remains of the 13th century Brederode Castle) it was suggested by the Dimitri Arpad (from "Heerlijkheid Brederode", initiator of "Chill at the Castle"), to organise a concert evening in the line of this concept. I thought it would be better to specify this, because the focus of the upcoming edition should be on electronic music, so with electr(on)ic equipment.

Therefor we decided to call the evening "Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition".

Again, all details will finally be announced within a couple of days.
As soon as there is any news, you will get to read more on my blog about "Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition".
So stay tuned!