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.

Schallwelle nominations

First of all I am wishing everyone all the best - in good health - for 2012!

I am nominated for the annual Schallwelle Preisverleihung in the following categories:

- "Best international artist" (Remy)
- "Best international album" (Remy - i-Dentity)
- "Best international album" (Remy - The Great Church Trilogy)

Voting has already started and ends on January 31st 2012, so if you want to support me, and/or you think my music belongs to the 'best' in these categories, I hope you want to spend 1-2 minutes of your precious time to vote for me on http://voting.schallwelle-preis.de/

NB: it's required to submit at least one (and max. three) vote(s) per category. So also for two categories for which I am not nominated ("Best national (German) artist" and "Best national album").
Your votes are valid when you have submitted your name + e-mail.

My thanks are infinite!

And if you haven't heard my music / the nominated albums yet, you can listen to excerpts on my website:
www.desertedislandmusic.nl/catalog.html

Exclusive Christmas track

Yesterday I've submitted my interpretation of "The Little Drummer Boy", exclusively for this year's Christmas edition of Syndae podcast. The show will be on Friday December 23rd and can be listened to via http://www.syndae.de/.
To be honest I am not a huge fan of Christmas songs, but after being asked several times by host Stefan (who is doing an excellent job promoting electronic music, and came up with very nice concept of his annual Christmas show, containing exclusive tracks from various musicians from the electronic music scene), I 'promised' more than once to come up with a track. Finally, for this special's third edition, I've gathered inspiration and managed to create something (in my opinion) nice!

The track starts quite 'basic', making use of the traditional arrangements, but 'customized' with electronic sounds. During this 'introduction' a voice tells the story behind the track, which is about a drummer boy, who plays his own song over and over again. At a certain point he wants to expose much more than he normally did.
This evolves into a second part of the track which focuses on percussion (which represents the drums of the boy), heavy sequencing and soloing!
Wouter Bessels again did the mastering of the track.

Be ensured to listen to this special show the 23rd. If you are not able to listen, you can always hear the complete later from the archive!