New release: "REMY & My Breath My Music - Sessions 2012"

While still being involved into recent "PrimiTiveS" release by Synth.nl and me, I am already announcing the next album.
The third release on my own Deserted Island Music label will be another collaboration:

"REMY & My Breath My Music - Sessions 2012".

It is the surprising output of a very special music session with students from the "My Breath My Music" foundation.

The purpose of "My Breath My Music" is to offer people with severe physical disabilities, an opportunity to make music especially with instruments developed for their needs.

The Magic Flute, a specially developed instrument which was originally designed as an adaptive musical instrument for people with little or no arm movement, was built with the goal to allow people with a wide range of disabilities to perform live electronic music and aim for the highest professional levels of performance.

The Magic Flute is an electronic wind instrument. It is unique because it can be played without hands. The wind instrument can also be connected to other electric sound sources like synthesizers or MIDI computers enabling the user to generate a broad variety of different sounds. The sounds used for this project are specially programmed. They respond very well to breath controlled data produced by the Magic Flute.

August 3rd, 2012, I was invited by Ruud van der Wel to perform a special project with members of his "My Breath My Music" foundation. I had no idea at all what to expect, but the young and talented musicians did a tremendous job improvising on my tracks, while they were entirely unfamiliar with my (kind of) music.

I am very honoured to have been part of this wonderful initiative. On the album (which contains the full sessions) you can hear the possibilities of the Magic Flute, as well as proof that there are no restrictions to speaking the language of music.

All information about "My Breath My Music" and the Magic Flute can be found on their website.

Press photo (c) Paul Oomen.

Album release information:

Available as cd and digital download.

Release date: June 3rd, 2013

Label: Deserted Island Music (DIM-003)

Tracklisting:

1. Temptation - 13'29 (with Korneel Oskam)

2. In High Places - 17'33 (with Christian Gouweleeuw)

3. Hunter - 15'14 (with Glenn Nugteren)

4. Full Moon - 15'03 (with Karin van Dijk)

The music on this cd contains adaptions from tracks which also appear on the first two Deserted Island Music releases: "REMY - i-Dentity" and "REMY - The Great Church Trilogy".

I have specifically chosen for these tracks as basis, because they perfectly offer room for improvisation.

Soundclips will be added on www.desertedislandmusic.nl within a couple of days

 

Benefits from the album sales will go to the "My Breath My Music" foundation.

E-Day 2013, "PrimiTiveS", and more...

"PrimiTiveS" released
One week ago, "PrimiTiveS" - the album by Synth.nl and me - was released and presented at the E-Day Festival in Oirschot. The cd can be ordered from Groove Unlimited (www.groove.nl) or directly from me (www.desertedislandmusic.nl). Also MP3 and FLAC downloads are available from Groove Unlimited.

Information and soundclips: http://www.synth.nl/music/collaborations/primitives

Besides the 'casual' airplay and announcements, an extensive 2-hours "PrimiTiveS" special (including interview with Michel) was aired during April 7th edition of 'Sunday Synth' by Bruce Gall. And here are links to the first reviews:
- A Ultima Fronteira Radio (Roberto Vales)
- Sonic Immersion (Bert Strolenberg)
- Synth & Sequences (Sylvain Lupari)

Within the coming days the Ambient Visions website should also feature an extensive interview with Michel and me. And I hope to announce more reviews and media appearances very soon.

E-Day 2013
A couple of weeks ago it was very uncertain if the festival was going to take place (due to dissapointing ticket sales), but in the end about 200 people found their way to Theatre De Enck. Even more visitors than last year's edition.
Besides chatting a lot and promoting and selling my music, I've also attended some of the concerts. Strangely enough I am not always in the mood for electronic music at these kind of festivals, but this time I more or less was.


Synthex and Gert Emmens.

 One gig I was really looking forward to was the one by the 14-years young Synthex (aka Jeffrey Haster). He was accompanied on stage by Gert Emmens on drums and keys. According to his first appearance (which was the one I saw), I think the young boy from Eindhoven did an excellent job.
He was very conscious about every thing he did, and together with experienced colleague Gert Emmens, things worked out very smooth and natural. A pleasure to listen to.

I unfortunately missed the concert by Bernhard Woesteinrich, but did catch most of the TMA & Alien Nature gig. The kind of electronic music I really like. And very attractive to whitness due to a dynamic line-up: Torsten 'TMA' Abel and Alien Nature on synths, Martinson on guitar and Thomas Betzler on drums and percussion. Their show consisted of strong and intriguing themes. Great stuff!


René Splinter in action. (c) Phil Booth.

 Another concert where I was looking forward to very much, was the one by René Splinter.
The day in advance René phoned me somewhere in the evening, a little bit in panic, because his transport cancelled at the very last moment. Although completely not on the route, Paulien and I picked up a lot of his gear. Luckily René's concert could go on, and it definitely was the highlight of this year's edition of the festival. His 'old' as well as new material matched perfectly and his skilled keyboard-playing made the whole concert a pleasure to listen to from the beginning until the end. The excited audience also got two encores, to conclude with an excellent performance of "Palace of Dreams". René's variation of the famous Tangerine Dream piece - which was also performed on this same stage by its composer Johannes Schmoelling (as part of the legendary Loom concert) on grand piano, during E-Live 2011 - was at least as exciting as Johannes' version. Excellent!
For me this was the musical end of this - again - very nice day. Code Indigo headlined E-Day 2013, but at this point I've had heard enough music for the day.
Neil Fellowes gave me Code Indigo's new cd-release afterwards, so I am going to listen to this formation's new album very soon!
Instead of the concert I have had a very nice chat with Ruud Heij. Hereafter Paulien and I left direction Rotterdam, to drop René Splinter's equipment.


From the archives: early 1999.

And more...
Last Thursday I performed at an intimate "reunion" evening at my former high-school.
Kicking off the event with one of my solo electronic music pieces, and concluding the "classical, jazz and vocal" concerts (as it was announced) with a performance of an occasional formation (consisting of a singer, saxophone player, bass player, drummer, and me on keys) I've been part of in the end-90's.
We've actually only made music during festivities related to the school, but after our recent rehearsing studio sessions, we decided that it would be fun to eventually play together more often and write new material. Really looking forward to this very much! Besides this and an upcoming studio session with another band, I am working out plans for some exciting upcoming "solo" projects for the end of this year / early 2014.


With students of My Breath My Music.
Press photo (c) Paul Oomen.

 With about two months there will be released a musical session I did with physically disabled children from the establishment 'My Breath My Music'. End 2012 I've already wrote a blog item about this special and spontaneous session, but now it will also come to a cd publication.
De basis consists of some of my tracks on which the students improvise with the special developped Magic Flute wind controller.
The students were totally unfamiliar with my kind of music, and we had never played together before, but all of the four skilled children contributed to the very unique output, of which we find it of significant value to have a release of. Proceeds of the album sales will go to the establishment 'My Breath My Music'. More information on this upcoming release follows soon!

Schallwelle Awards & "PrimiTiveS" update

Dominique Perrier, Hans-Hermann Hess
and Michel van Osenbruggen at the
Schallwelle Preisverleihung.

Last Saturday I have been at the Schallwelle Preisverleihung at the Zeiss Planetarium in Bochum. This time not as one of the nominees. An advantage of this was that there were no nerves of having any chance to win a price myself. So time to relax and enjoy the ceremony and the nice concerts by Thomas Lemmer and Steve Baltes.
However, I was sort of involved, as the French formation Space Art was nominated into two categories where they could win an award. Their third mentioning was on the tenth position in the category 'Best Album International'. Unfortunately, Dominique Perrier and his fellow-musicians didn't receive one of the awards. However, congratulations to all 'winners' for each category:

Newcomer:
1. Nisus  2. Erren Fleissig Schoettler und Steffen 3. Vraigaist
Neuentdeckung:
1. Sankt Otten 2. Space Art 3. Akasha Project
Album International:
1. Glenn Main - Ripples 2. Nooten, Pieter - Surround us 3. Boddy, Ian & Erik Wøllo - Frontiers 4. VoLt - Circuits 5. Broekhuis, Keller & Schönwälder - Red 6. Morpheusz - Garden Gnomes & Goblins 7. Eno, Brian - Lux 8. Lamp - The Three Towers 9. Kebu - To Jupiter and Back 10. Space Art - Space Art Tribute
Album National: 1. Loom - Scored 2. Picture Palace music - Indulge the Passion 3. Brückner, Michael - 100 Million Miles Under the Stars 4. Schroyder, Steve & Alien Voices - Qigong Dancing 5. BatteryDead - Sands of Deception 6. Reckzeh, Uwe - Mirror Images 7. Schiller - Sonne 8. Sankt Otten - Sequencer Liebe 9. Moonbooter - Cosmophonica 10. Erbe, Stefan - Emotiondesign
Künstler International: 1. VoLt 2. Glenn Main 3. Boddy, Ian & Erik Wøllo 4. Space Art 5. van der Heijden, Erik 6. Boots, Ron 7. Kebu 8. Broekhuis, Keller & Schönwälder 9. Eno, Brian 10. Morpheusz
Künstler National: 1. Picture Palace music 2. Erbe, Stefan 3. Schiller 4. Matzumi 5. Sankt Otten 6. Kistenmacher, Bernd 7. Schulze, Klaus 8. Schroyder, Steve & Alien Voices 9. Rainbow Serpent 10. F.D.Project

This weekend also the masters for "PrimiTiveS" (the forthcoming collaboration album by Synth.nl (Michel van Osenbruggen) and me) have been finished. Thanks a lot to Wouter Bessels, who did a great job with this! Yesterday these masters have been sent to the factory, so all we can do at this stage is to concentrate on the promotion and related issues. You can already expect the first airplay within the coming days.
In the meanwhile Michel is also working on a 3D-animation preview of the album to present at the E-Day Festival (which will go on luckily (see my previous post)), on April 6th. Hopefully this is ready in time.
While I am working on my artists website www.exhibitionofdreams.com (which should finally be online at the beginning of April), you can already listen to excerpts from the forthcoming "PrimiTiveS" album on my label's website: www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

Important AKH Records & E-Day 2013 news

And here's something which I have also been involved into recently:

January 1st I quit my function at AKH Records v.o.f.

In 1999 Ewout Koek and I established AKH Records, with the release of my debut "Exhibition of Dreams".

We decided to make a compilation of tracks which I recorded in the two preceding years, and release it as double cd-r. The release was distributed in small quantities, and it didn't take too long before all copies were sold out.

Before having the chance to make a re-pressing, a copy got in hands of Dutch electronic music label and mailorder company Groove Unlimited, and it was decided that an official cd was to be released.

Winfrid Trenkler hands over the

Schwingungen Price.

In first instance there were ideas to make a one-cd compilation containing the best tracks of "Exhibition of Dreams", but because it was actually meant to be a double-cd, there was chosen to release an entire new album, containing new and yet unreleased music: "The Art of Imagination". This became the first official release on AKH Records; a co-operation with Groove Unlimited.

With this album, I received the third price in the category 'Best Newcomer Electronic Music' at the 2001 edition of the well-acclaimed German Schwingungen Festival, hosted by Winfrid Trenkler.

The first AKH release:
REMY - "Exhibition of Dreams"

In September 2000, together with this first official release, AKH Records was registered officially at the Chamber of Commerce.
Until 2012 we have released 12 official albums, as well as 7 special editions, containing music by REMY, Sutrastore, Iuno, Fractional, Lebenswelt and After Affects.
We also did part of the distribution and sales for Soapkills, Francis Rimbert and Dominique Perrier / Space Art.
Last years our musical interests and purposes with AKH Records started to differ more and more, which finally resulted in the logical ending of our cooperation with AKH Records v.o.f.

Ewout continues AKH Records on his own and I will completely focus on my own music and my Deserted Island Music label, which was established back in 2011.

My albums which have been released on AKH Records are still available from AKH Records, as well as from Deserted Island Music.

Releases by Francis Rimbert and Dominique Perrier / Space Art can not be obtained anymore from AKH Records, but are exclusively available from Deserted Island Music. The music of Soapkills is being distributed exclusively by AKH Records.

For now, from my side, there is going on a lot. A couple of projects in the background (e.g. preparations for new releases and performances) of which you will hear more very soon. As you might know, the first upcoming fact will be the "PrimiTiveS" album release by Synth.nl and me, which will be released on the Groove Unlimited label on April 6th.
This conincides with the E-Day Festival, to be held at Theater De Enck in Oirschot. Ticket sales for this annual festival seems to be dissapointing until now, so if you read this, please consider this very nice festival, offering some concerts with the finest electronic music, stray and facilitate musicians which are definitely willing to have a nice chat with you and pose together with you for a nice picture to put above your bed.

At the E-Day Festival

Also a variety of electronic music labels and musicians have a stall where their music is being sold. And if you are kind enough to them, they might even want to sign their albums for you. Information and ticket sales: http://e-live.groove.nl/
I will also have a stall with my Deserted Island Music, where my music, as well as the new "PrimiTiveS" album can be obtained.
Really hope to see you there!

"PrimiTiveS" final stage

"PrimiTiveS"
Last weekend Michel van Osenbruggen (aka Synth.nl) and I completed the final mixes from our forthcoming "PrimiTiveS" album release. It was a very exhausting part of the process, only listening very focussed to every detail, and trying to trace any kind of unwanted clicks or errors which might eventually appear. After last Monday's final listening check there can be concluded that everything sounds excellent.
In the meanwhile Wouter Bessels started his mastering and post-productional activities.
Exactly one month to go for the release and presentation at the E-Day Festival in Oirschot. Really looking forward to it. Hope to see you there!

Here is a render of the artwork, created by Michel:

To give you an impression what the album sounds like, there will be uploaded some excerpts on my websites within the coming days.

For all of you who have a Facebook account, and haven't yet seen photos of our previous sessions in the Apollo Studio, check out Michel's photo album.

And... the album can already be pre-ordered from Groove Unlimited.

Another very productive "Primitives" studio session

Last weekend was a very productive and intensive one, having worked for two days in a row in the Apollo Studio with Michel (Synth.nl) for the production of our "Primitives" album.
Although we are in the final stage of the process, there still is a lot of work to do.
Everything is absolutely manageable, but we really need to tune both our schedules as efficiently as possible the coming 4-5 weeks.
We now particulairy focussed on the mixing of two tracks which needed most attention. They also got a nice boost with the addition of some extra solos and effects.
And unfortunately we have had an very unexpected technical issue with another track, which took a lot of our precious time. Luckily, this morning I received a phonecall from Michel that he fixed the problems.

Another part of our recent session also consisted of discussing the mastering and post-production process with Wouter Bessels.
Wouter (who has been doing the mastering for my solo albums since 2008) is going to concentrate on this final phase of our project, before the audio master is being sent to the factory.

Next month we should  at least have two more studio sessions to complete "Primitives", and in the meanwhile Michel and I both will make some more adjustments in our own studios.

2013

The first update of 2013! While last year my musical output was mainly noticeable by means of the concerts I did, this year I am also planning some other concrete activities.

While working on the video montage of the Great Church performance I did last year with Ron Boots, I am also in the final phase of the production process of the "Primitives" album with Synth.nl.
This weekend we will work together again on the mixes and discuss the mastering process, which will be done by Wouter Bessels.
Currently we are perfectly on schedule for our release at E-Day, on April 6th, so I am really excited for the final result of 1,5 years of work. The album will be released by Groove Unlimited (www.groove.nl).

Another issue I have been involved into lately was quitting my activities at my own established label AKH Records. My compagnion continues the label on his own.
Detailed information about this will follow soon, as there still have to be arranged some formal things.
Now I can finally focus on my Deserted Island Music label, which I started in 2011.

Furthermore I am near completion of my artist website www.exhibitionofdreams.com, which should be online early February.

Like last year, I will again be involved into activities by the French formation "Space Art".
In continuation of their succesful and well-acclaimed 2012 European promotional tour, Dominique Perrier and his band prepare a complete concert concept to perform later this year. I hope to reveal more information soon.
With the intensive touring of last year, as well as the new album release, Space Art have been nominated for the German Schallwelle Awards (in the categories "Best Artist International" and "Best Album International").
And how nice: I am also nominated in the category "Best Artist International".
Everyone can vote once, and voting is still possible until the end of this month: http://voting.schallwelle-preis.de/