Return of Planet X

Saturday evening it was showtime for a very special project Ron Boots and I have been working on for quite a while.
I performed three times earlier at the great location of the Grote of St.Bavokerk / Great Church of Haarlem, which I concluded with a cd release of this trilogy, last year. In the meanwhile Ron and I discussed the possibilities to organise a music only evening at this same location. Ron playing his music, me playing my music, and concluding the show with a collaboration. No idea about the exact content yet...

As soon as the date of May 19th was set, things became more and more concrete, and I decided to perform again with strings. In 2008 two cello players were part of my performance, and this time I chose to include two violins and one cello into the line-up. Ron had plans to involve a ten-piece choir, which was confirmed in a rather late stage of the project's preparations.
Ron didn't feel much for the inclusion of the Müller organ into the concert evening in first instance, but I thought that it should be an absolutely needed addition to the show. I discussed the use of it with Eric van der Heijden, and finally we decided that we should do our very best to collect the neccesary amount of money to realise this.
About only two weeks before the concert the line-up was finally completed, with the addition of the ten-piece choir and the worldfamous Müller organ.

Around 4 PM the installation of the equipment in front of the huge Müller organ was started. 7 PM everything should have been ready, to have another 45 minutes to 'relax' before my part of the evening should start. Due to a couple of technical issues, we started a couple of minutes later.

Then slightly before 8 PM, the strings trio started to play their first notes, which marked the beginning of my set, and so the start of the evening! My setup consisted of: Access Virus TI, Korg M1, MemoryMoog, Novation Supernova 2, Roland D70, Roland JV880, and I made use of a grand piano! As far as I could judge from the sound from my position and my own experience during my performance, things went fine for the largest part. From time to time I've had contact with the strings trio, which seemed to control their parts, and which gave me the opportunity to let me do my own thing. Halfway my set, I noticed the stability (all 6 voices tuned!) of my MemoryMoog (which I didn't expect at all), which gave me the opportunity to use it more than planned.
I had two options in mind to end my musical piece: concluding with a solo on the grand piano, or leaving the end as it was, with the ending of the sequencer track. After all, I decided to replace these two options by a MemoryMoog ending! My first job was done.

Time to relax a bit while the first break took place and - again some later than expected - Ron Boots kicked off his concert with some late 70's Klaus Schulze inspired music. Starting with a whispering choir, continued by soft synth pads, and later on the introduction of strong sequencer lines. Besides playing his synths, Eric van der Heijden also conducted the choir, and Harold van der Heijden gave Ron's set a boost with his electronic drums. Great stuff, which worked out very well in the ambience of the church.
In the meanwhile the evening outside caused the neccessary darkness inside the church, and the present lightshow and smoking machine reached their maximum effect.

Because the programme delayed about half an hour, and taking knowledge of the fact that we absolutely should have finished the concert at 11 PM, there was decided to continue the third part of the show without the planned second break. In the end this maybe was too intensive, but this decision was taken to get the maximum out of this evening!

Starting the completely improvised part with a quatre mains piece by Ron and me on the grand piano. Followed by an ambient piece, continued by some sequencing. After this Eric performed one of his pieces, and then it was time for the grand finale. Ron and Eric started to build some layered pads combined with V-Synth vocals, while I made my way up to the Müller organ. Although Anton Pauw (the Church's organist) taught me the basics in short, it was kind of guessing what was going to happen when pulling certain registers of this amazing instrument. In the end everything worked out in a more or less very natural way, and all elements of the evening seem to come together perfectly in the end.

In my opinion it was an evening which was above our (the organisation) expectations. Besides this the audience was very enthusiastic too (including a lot who weren't familiar at all with the kind of music that was being exposed last Saturday)!
An surprising amount (200+) international audience (from the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and even U.K.), a great atmosphere and no mentionable problems, made it a memorable evening.

The coming time I will listen and watch to all recordings that have been made.
After this we will see what's possible for an eventual release, and maybe more interesting... a sequel of Saturday evening... Time will tell...

At last I would like to thank all who participated and made this very special evening possible! No names, because there are too much, but resumed: Crew, musicians, church crew, catering, press, media, and of course: the audience!

Featured photos were taken by Andre Stooker and Phil Booth.

Final preparations for the Great Church performance

Another week to go before the Great Church performance (which I am organising together with Ron Boots) on May 19th. Preparations are going quite well, the music is finished for 99% and the rehearsals with the strings for my part of the show are also going according to schedule!
As it's now, the line-up for the upcoming concert evening couldn't have been any more complete and exciting than is the case at this moment. Besides featuring synthesizers and other electronics, grand piano, percussion, strings trio, and 10-piece choir, there will be made use of the world famous C.Müller organ.

In my opinion it's a great line-up, at a very special location with great acoustics; a combination which you wouldn't find very often during a concert. Besides that (and definitely not less important) the musical programme is going to be very varied. So probably you can understand I am very, very excited about all things to come next weekend.
To make it all complete, I really hope all of you are able and willing to come and experience this unique evening, and support us (the artists). Tickets are only 12 euros.

Here is a selection of some upcoming media features about the concert:
- Gonzo Circus #109;
- May 13th: Concertzender's X-Rated (exclusive music and more...);
- Interview Haarlems Dagblad, which should be published somewhere next week.


And here are details about the concert:

"The Return of Planet X" - Ron Boots, REMY & friends
Live at the Grote of St.Bavokerk / Great Church of Haarlem
Saturday May 19th, 2012

Schedule
19:00                  Doors open
19:45 - 20:45      Concert REMY
20:45 - 21:05      Break
21:05 - 21:55      Concert Ron Boots
21:55 - 22:15      Break
22:15 - 23:00      Concert REMY & Ron Boots

Tickets
Tickets (12 euros) are available from:
Internet: http://shop.desertedislandmusic.nl/greatchurch
Physical: Great Church of Haarlem, Grote Markt, Haarlem / VVV, Verwulft, Haarlem

More information
Website: www.desertedislandmusic.nl/greatchurch
Information and contact: info@desertedislandmusic.nl

Awakenings

While being in the ferry on my way back to the Netherlands for the next couple of hours, there's some time to write down my experiences of Saturday (April 14th) evening's Awakenings, in Burton-on-Trent.
Although having been in the U.K. a couple of times before, it was my first time driving with a car here.
Strange experience, but I got used to the situation quite quickly.
Friday we (Paulien and me) took the ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich, and had an excellent overnight in Colchester. We've had all the time to prepare our trip to the West Midlands and so took our time to enjoy this trip to the wonderful hilly environment.

Once arrived at the Paget High School in Burton upon Trent - where my concert was going to take place - we've met up with the organisation, crew and other musicians, and there was plenty of time to install my setup for that evening.
The used synths: Roland D70 (piano and Fairlight vox), Access Virus TI (solo lead sounds), Korg 01W/FD (FX and masterkeyboard for the Virus TI) and (indeed) the Novation Supernova II (solo leads).

After the soundchecks and before the first concert was going to take place on 19:00 GMT, we got some food at a local fish and chips. Actually this was quite bad, but o.k., it was more or less eatable!
Because Paulien and I stayed the night after the concert in Derby, we hurried to the hotel because we needed to check in before 20:00.

When getting back to the venue, we missed the first 15/20 minutes of the ambient concert of Peter Challoner.
It was a nice start of an evening with a lot of variation. Secondly, after a short break, Steve Dinsdale (which I strangely had never met before, although I have witnessed the concert he did with Radio Massacre International during E-Live in 2008) started his performance. A very interesting orchestral / percussional beginning of his concert, and after that a mix of old and new material passed the revue. Nice!

After Steve's set of about an hour, another break followed, and my concert was being announced at around 21:30. Showtime!
I've prepared a set of 75 minutes (of which 60 minutes were exclusively composed for this opportunity), which could be best described as a mix of the recent "i-Dentity" and 2008's "This is not the End". It was for the first time ever that my live music was accompanied with (custom made) visuals.
Together with my sister Irene, there has been put a lot of time and energy into the making of the video (which is a compilation of various edited clips I've actually selected on YouTube). Thanks to the advise of Awakenings organisator Jez, the use of visuals made a significant contribution to probably one of my own concerts I've enjoyed the most. According to all reactions it was great to notice that the audience (who were rather unknown with my music) enjoyed it a lot too.

As soon as I've finished my regular gig, there was being asked to do an encore, which I didn't prepare at all.
So I made use of some Supernova II arpeggios (which I programmed for a previous performance) and soloing, in combination with a 01W pad/fx to start a 100% improvisation.

The playlist:
1. Awakenings - part 1
2. Awakenings - part 2
3. Awakenings - part 3
4. Awakenings - part 4
5. Awakenings - part 5
6. MMIX a.D.
7. Requiem
8. Encore (improvisation)



In the end it was time to say goodbye and all equipment had to be loaded into the car again, and we headed again to Derby, this time for our second overnight. With the typical English breakfast we couldn't have had a better start of the day.
After the breakfast we went to visit Birmingham, the second largest city of the U.K. It was a nice city to have been to once! In the afternoon we drove to Clacton on Sea to have our final overnight of this little holiday.

I have enjoyed an excellent first Awakenings, which was definitely worth the trip. It would be great to perform there again in future!
It was a pleasure to expose my music for an audience which mainly experienced my music for the first time.
I would like to thank Jez, all involved, and the audience for another unforgettable abroad concert experience. The next to come on September 15th, at the Planetarium in Bochum, Germany. But for now I have to focus on the concert I am organising together with Ron Boots in the Great Church of my former hometown Haarlem. Hope to see you there!

Schallwelle Awards review

Last weekend I was at the Schallwelle Preisverleihung in the Zeiss Planetarium in Bochum, Germany, where I was nominated in the categories "best artist international" and "best album international".
I didn't expect anything to win at all, but it really was an honour to have reached the final selection of the nominees.
On the evening itself I found out that both my in 2011 released albums had reached the top 10. "i-Dentity" ended on #9, and "The Great Church Trilogy" made it to the best 5. I was quite surprised with that!
Although I finally didn't win any prices, I've again had a great time at this excellently organised event.
It's very nice to have reached it this far, and indeed this wouldn't have been possible without all your votes. So thanks a lot all of you who voted for me and my music; much appreciated!
And Indeed I'd like to congratulate (again) all fellow musicians who won an award!


Together with two of the winners:-)

The afternoon / evening was devided into three parts. To start with the first concert by Erik Wollo. It's always a pleasure to listen to Erik's music, and it worked out excellent at the planetarium. Later on Frank van Bogaert appeared on stage, and they did something together from a previous collaboration. As soon as the concert ended, it was time for the first part of the ceremony, awarding the "best album national" and "best album international". Here I found out that both my in 2011 released albums had reached the top 10. "i-Dentity" ended on #9, and "The Great Church Trilogy" made it to the best 5. I was quite surprised with that!
In the end Pyramid Peak - 5 Vor 12 (national) and Synth.nl - Apollo (international) won the prices.
After this it was time for a break where dinner was served.


With Erik Wollo.

Then the second part started with a concert by Frank van Bogaert. It was very nice for me finally to witness Frank performing. At the end of the performance, Erik Wollo re-entered the stage for another collaboration. They both did an encore by request of the audience. It was a completely unprepared improvisation, where it could be noticed that Frank didn't feel too comfortable (improvisation is not quite his cup of tea), but in the end it worked out fine.
The next awards for "best artist national" and "best artist interrnational" followed and were won by Picture Palace Music (national) and Eric van der Heijden (international). Tommy Betzler (who also works together with Picture Palace Music on their forthcoming album), collected the price for the German collective, due to their absence.


With Michel Huygen (Neuronium).

Hereafter another break for the dessert, and heading for the final part of the show, to start with the first German concert ever of Michel Huygen, aka Neuronium. He exposed an almost sequencerless and rhythmless set, so it fitted excellent into the spacey atmosphere of the planetarium. And also including an encore by request of the audience! Nice!

Michael Wilkes aka Yog Sothoth received the price for "best newcomer" and then it was time for two Special Awards. One for Uwe Saher (Brainwork), due to illness of Uwe collected by Jörg Strawe of Cue Records. He did a nice speech overlooking Uwe's career and the importance of his music for the electronic music scene. After his talk there was showed a video message by Uwe, thanking the audience.

 

Johannes Schmoelling
and Winfried Trenkler.

And then it was time for something I was looking forward to: the Special Award for Johannes Schmoelling. I've already wrote a blog item about the excellent concert he did with Loom at Theater De Enck in Oirschot, last year. For me that was one of the most special experiences of 2011, which I also talked about again with Johannes after the ceremony. The well-deserved price was handed by 'the legendary' Winfried Trenkler. In 2001 Winfried handed me the price for "best newcomer" at his Schwingungen Awards, so it was nice to meet him and speak with him again at this occasion.

Winfried put himself in the role of the listener / fan of Johannes' music and besides asking aimed questions, he gave a very nice overview of Johannes' career, with the neccessary jokes. In the end Johannes received a standing ovation, and this marked the end of another excellent edition of the Schallwelle Awards!

After this there were some short announcements, and there was also some time to promote the upcoming concert of Ron Boots and me at the Great Church in Haarlem on May 19th, to the audience.

With Winfried Trenkler.

Ok, the event ended about 2,5 hours later than expected, but I've again experienced a great event, excellently organised and hosted by Sylvia Sommerfeld and Stefan Erbe. In the years it has almost grown out like a kind of music festival, which keeps the things very attractive for all visitors: the suspense of the "Preisverleihung", as well as some great performances from well-acclaimed international artists, and the possibility to have a chat with all present - also international - (fellow-)musicians.
Already looking forward again to the next edition!

See http://www.schallwelle-preis.de/ for more information.

The photos on this blog were taken by Paulien Bouw. More photos can be found on my Facebook page.

Preparations for the Great Church performance

Ron Boots and I will be organising an unique concert evening at the Grote of St.Bovokerk / Great Church of Haarlem, on Saturday May 19th.
At the moment we are negotiating about collaborations, and within approximately two weeks there should be available all concrete information about this concert, including ticket availability, prices, showtime, participating artists, etc.

Check out http://www.desertedislandmusic.nl/ for already available information.

Recently we have had a meeting at this place to discuss various ideas and making some concrete plans.
The three concerts I did at this place were in front of the "Choir", in the very middle of the church, but for this concert, we will install our equipment below the Müller Organ, which creates an excellent view for the audience!

As it is now, I will perform a set of one hour, exclusively composed for this event, inspired by Nibiru, the tenth planet that should be entering our solar system once in 3600 years, and marks a new era of our planet. Which will be this year, according to the Mayan calendar.
Ron's part will be inspired by the music of Klaus Schulze, and especially his end-70's period (for example his album "X"). That's why we have chosen "Return of Planet X" for this evening's subject.
The time that's left after our individual sets, we will do something together!

Another session with Synth.nl

Yesterday I did another recording session together with Michel van Osenbruggen, aka Synth.nl, in his studio. These photos were taken by Michel's wife.

We are working on an album which should be released later this year. At this moment we already have enough material for a complete cd, but there's still a lot of production en editing work to do to finish all selected tracks.

Expect a balanced mix of both our musical styles, and although it will certainly contain the neccessary 'classic' electronic music elements, there can surely be heard enough other influences to keep everything as exciting as possible!

As soon as there are any updates on our project, you will read it here!

Schallwelle Awards - The Nominees

The voting period for the Schallwelle Awards has ended, and the 5 nominees for each of the 4 categories have been confirmed!

On the day of the awards ceremony (on March 10th) it will become clear who win the awards!

In two of the categories I have been nominated!

Here's the complete list of nominees (in alphabetical order):

Bester Künstler/Act national
... F.D. Project
Loom
Picture Palace Music
Schmoelling, Johannes
Tangerine Dream

Bestes Album national
Matzumi - In mutatio tempora
Picture Palace Music - Metropolis Poetry
Pyramid Peak - 5vor12
Reckzeh, Uwe - Subsesizer
Schmoelling, Johannes - Time and Tide

Bester Künstler international
Boots, Ron
Glenn
RemySchroyder, Steve & Skrzek, Josef
van der Heijden, Eric

Bestes Album international
Boddy, Ian & Paralell Worlds - Exit Strategy
Gandalf - Erdenklang und Sternentanz
Remy - The Great Church Trilogy
SynthNL - Apollo
van der Heijden, Eric - Dal Segno

First of all thanks a lot to all of you who voted for me and my music! Very much appreciated!

And indeed my congratulations are going to the other nominees / fellow musicians!

For now I will have to be patient and wait until "The Day"...

More information about the Schallwelle Preisverleihung, schedule, availability of tickets, etc., please visit their website.