Listen back the House of Prog special + upcoming Interview by Terry Hawke

REMY special @ House of Prog. Hosted by Iris Hidding
Missed last weekend's REMY special at House of Prog?
No worries! You can listen the entire 2-hours show here:
https://grendelhq.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/purple-flower-progressive-hour-with-remy-interview/
In between the interview the following tracks are being played entirely:
- REMY - Destination: Berlin - part 1
- Free Arts Lab - ZeeQuence 2
- REMY & My Breath My Music - In High Places
- REMY - Fears - part 2
- REMY - Entering The Dream
- REMY (feat. Gert Emmens, Synth.nl, Erik Wollo and Francis Rimbert) - i-Dentity

Interview by Terry Hawke @ Hawke Chill Out Sessions
Coming Saturday to Sunday night 0:00 CET I will be interviewed live by Terry Hawke during his Hawke Chill Out Sessions on HFM: https://www.facebook.com/events/1641507272770596/
Besides discussing some of my recent musical activities, I will also tell about my upcoming release: "Fears".
In between the interview excerpts from the following solo tracks can be heard:
- Silent Conversations
- i-Dentity
- Fears - part 1
- Fears - part 3
- Fears - part 4

Schallwelle Preis 2016

Voting for the annual Schallwelle Preis is started!

And REMY is also on the list again (in the category "Artist 2015 International").

I assume chances to win a price are not very large (mainly because last year there hasn't been a physical release and because I only did one concert (and that even wasn't under my own name)), but if you want, feel free to vote. On me, or at least on fellow musicians and their music!;-)

http://www.schallwelle-preis.de/test/voting/en

 

The voting ends on January 23rd, 2016. Everybody can participate, but only once. The name and a valid e-mail address must be given. The following four categories are open for votes, where in each category up to 3 artists or 3 albums, respectively, may be voted for:

• Best Artist National (i.e., German artists or bands)
• Best Artist International
• Best Album National (i.e., by German artists or bands)
• Best Album International

REMY special @ House of Prog

September last year, I was interviewed by Iris Hidding for House of Prog.
Tomorrow (January 10th, 21:00 CET), this interview will be broadcast, as part of a REMY special during the "Purple Flower Progressive Hour".

See https://www.facebook.com/events/981384411920205/ for information and details.

The (approximately) 90-minutes special features an extensive interview about various aspects of my music, collaborations and projects with e.g. My Breath My Music and Free Arts Lab, performances, my studio, future plans, as well as a nice selection of  audio tracks.

Including the premiere of one of the tracks from my upcoming studio album "Fears".
If you are not yet familiar with my music, this special gives a good insight and overview into my musical career so far.

In any case, be sure to tune in!

2016 + new album

Happy New Year!
Hope you are having a wonderful and healthy 2016.
Indeed surrounded with a lot of great music.


A very large part of last year I dedicated to activities with and around Free Arts Lab. On which I will definitely spend a lot more hours in 2016. But more about this later.

New studio album
Last summer I also recorded the material for what will become my tenth* studio album. Actually my first new solo release since 2011's "i-Dentity".

* Despite the fact "i-Dentity" partially consists of live recordings, you might consider 2009's "EoD" as my last solo album. And if you don't count this re-interpretation from my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams" - so not 100% new material - as a new solo album, it must be guaranteed "This Is Not The End", from 2008.
So it took me somewhere in between 5 and 8 years to come up with a new long player.
I am excited to finally have something completely new to share with you, very soon!

In the past five years I worked on a couple of other projects with for example Synth.nl, My Breath My Music, Ron Boots, Planet of the Arps and Free Arts Lab, and did some performances. Also a concert registration, "The Great Church Trilogy", was released on cd in 2011, and download only compilations "Archives 1" and "Archives 2" saw the light in 2015. And then there are even some projects on which I have also been working in the background. Which might have been the main explanation of the fact that the announcement of a new solo album took so long.

Besides, there was a need to come up with something slightly different from my recent albums. This simply needed time.

About the upcoming release
The new project is called "Fears".

One of the emotions that intrigues me is 'fear'. Just like all other emotions, it is part of human life. And there are moments that emotions affect our lives more than we want.
The impact differing for each situation. Some emotions - and so fears too - can be controlled. Some can't.

You can fear losing someone dear, fear failing a test or losing your job, fear stupidity or power, or you can have a phobia for creepy crawling creatures. Fears might be there when you encounter certain confrontations or when you enter a plane.

With our activity on the internet and the power of various media, more negativity than ever is being spread. Sometimes creating a lot of unneccessary fears. Today, terrorism, racism, hate, attacks and war are getting much closer than we want and than we are used to, by means of for example the large amounts of refugees, confrontations with extremism. But also in mind comes the increasing extreme weather. Just to name a few. 

In the end we should keep in mind that - especially in current times - fears should never get the upper hand of our regular lives! And that is not always that easy.

Airplay
The first excerpts from the new album can already be heard during upcoming radio shows:

- January 10th: House of Prog, REMY-special and interview (recorded in September, last year) by Iris Hidding:
https://www.facebook.com/events/981384411920205/

- January 16th: The Hawke Chill Out Sessions @ Harborough FM, live interview by Terry Hawke:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1641507272770596/

More details about the album, artwork, release, etc. will follow within the coming months.
There has not been set a release date yet.

Archives 2

The second release of my archives recordings is available. Due to all activities around the Free Arts Lab EP (which wasn't released at the scheduled moment in the end, very unfortunate), this compilation took some longer than expected to see the light.

Here are the details:

Since the early 90s, Remy registered an uncountable amount of compositions, improvisations, try-outs, sketches, studies and performances.
Remy always felt the need to release a lot of this material, but with such a huge variety of recordings, it was never possible to release everthing.
During the selection process for the released REMY-albums, a lot of music was rejected. Simply because these tracks didn't fit into the concept or feeling of the specific release.
A large amount of unfinished tracks, sketches, etc. will definitely never be released. And there also is enough stuff that is absolutely not good enough by means of technique and recording.
But through “Archives” there is this possibility to publish and share a lot of these recordings. Recordings that otherwise would never have seen the light.
Besides the fact that “Archives” offers music that could never be heard before, it gives the perfect insight into Remy's musical and artistic world, as well as it might also help to understand the direction Remy's music evolved into.
“Archives 2” contains material from 2000 until 2002.


Tracklist:
1. In=Trance (studio, 8-3-2000)
2. Devotion (improvisation, 28-5-2001)
3. Unreachable Beauty (improvisation, 2002)
4. Mirage - part 2 (studio, 30-8-2000)

Here you can hear excerpts from each song:

"Archives 2" consists of mastered archives recordings and is available as 320 kbps MP3 and 16 bit / 44,1 kHz FLAC. The accompanied artwork contains the necessary background information on each of the tracks, as well as some photos from the period of the specific music pieces.

The digital download only release "Archives 2" is exclusively available from www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

Free Arts Lab EP update

After Jeroen, Petter and I made a lot of recordings during our improvisation sessions in Ouddorp, back in March, we decided to select some of this material to work on a conceptual Free Arts Lab EP: "Futuristic Ode At The Old Village To Miss Fernande".
The last couple of months we worked intensively to establish a representive release.

Our point of view for the EP was to make a selection of fully improvised parts we created during the Ouddorp sessions in the first place, and add and edit parts where required and where possible afterwards. In the end we wanted to create a good balance of improvised and studio elements.

However, the last couple of weeks, but especially recent days, we had a lot of discussion about the quality of our production. Judging various aspects of the material's current shape.
Although we fully support the concept and material, we simply think it's not good enough to release in its current form.

As a result of this, after many considerations, we decided that the cd will not be released.

With the absence of the EP, our planned release party at the Patronaat Café in Haarlem, December 20th is also being cancelled.

It's a real pity, when looking at the many, many hours and efforts we put into sculpting this project, but it is how it is.
So coming time we will just continue our activities and work on the future plans of Free Arts Lab, and where an eventual release should fit.

E-Live 2015

Last Thursday, October 22nd, I got a phone call from Ron Boots: Kjetil Ingebrigtsen - the act for the upper room at the E-Live Festival - cancelled due to illness. Just 2 days before the festival was to take place.
Ron asked me if I was able to perform instead. I instantly accepted the offer. Besides, he also contacted Hans van Kroonenburg (aka Skoulaman).

Soundcheck.
(Jeroen Hagen, Petter Janse, Hans van Kroonenburg,
Mario Schönwälder)

There were three slots in between the concerts on the main stage, which we could make use of. Within the first slot (13:30-14:30) Hans performed a one-hour solo set, which he also played last week at Awakenings, in the U.K.
We agreed to reserve the second slot (17:15-19:00) for the concept I had in mind.
And we could also have done something with the third slot (20:15-21:00), but in the end we decided to let this unused.

Recently, I discussed with Petter (guitar player from my band Free Arts Lab) about the excitement of doing a gig without preparing anything at all in advance. So this came in mind directly for the content of the thing I wanted to do at E-Live.
This was also the reason that I contacted Petter immediately after Ron Boots' phone call. And (indeed) he said yes to my question if he would like to join in an unprepared music session.
From this point I also asked Jeroen (drummer from Free Arts Lab), who also said yes without any hesitation, and even cancelled all his appointments for Saturday.
When I contacted some other fellow-musicians, most of them already had other things to do for October 24th. Mario Schönwälder actually always is present on the festival with his label Manikin, and confirmed with excitement (we already shared the same stage once before, back in 2010, during the Ricochet Gathering in Berlin). Only two hours or so in advance, David Wright (who is also present every year at E-Live and E-Day with his A.D. Music label) also confirmed. He also was very enthusiastic about the thing we were about to do.

Hans van Kroonenburg, me, David Wright,
Mario Schönwälder.
(Photo by Phil Booth)

Petter set in the first notes while the people started to enter the room. The ambient atmosphere he created with his guitar remained 10 minutes. In the meanwhile, respectively Hans and I set in filling the ambience. After this slow movement, the first sequence was introduced. Mario generated effects, and later on also lead sounds, with his i-Pad and i-Phone. Jeroen took place behind his drum kit when the sequence was on its way 5 minutes. David struck the first keys of my Yamaha EX5 at the 40 minutes mark, playing various parts with strings, piano, and a lead. From that point sequencing, rhythmic parts and intermezzos alternated. After approximately 80 minutes we finished our improvisational session.

According to how things sounded and felt to me during the performance, and the response and reactions from the audience, things seemed to have worked out rather well. Nevertheless I had some points for improvement for a certain kind of appearance in future. But this actually always it the case.
Although the program for the upper room seemed not to be clear to everyone, combined with the fact that our session was scheduled simultaneously with the dinner break (which I well-considered, so we had available all the time to create something and do the thing we wanted to do), didn't result in an entirely full house. But the main purpose was achieved: All musicians (including myself) really enjoyed ourselves, doing together what connects us all: making music!

Ash Ra Tempel.

As grand finale of the day, I visited the headlining concert by Ash Ra Tempel (Manuel Göttsching and Lutz Lüül Graf-Ulbrich). A great concert (the only one I witnessed, due to my own performance) which only got better as the concert progressed.

Many thanks to Ron Boots for giving me the opportunity again to perform at the E-Live Festival. Much appreciated, and as always it was a pleasure and honour to be part of the line-up. Which was my fifth time by the way.

Thanks a lot to all friends who joined on stage: my friends from Free Arts Lab (Petter Janse (guitar), Jeroen Hagen (drums)), Hans Kroonenburg (synths and sequencing), Mario Schönwälder (i-Pad and i-Phone), David Wright (synthesizer). None of them prepared anything, and none of them knew what to expect. Much respect for accepting my invitation for this very last-minute experience.

And last but not least, big thank you's to everyone who attended our session.


Now I am looking forward to the next gig, which will be a showcase with Free Arts Lab, accompanied with our debut EP release, at the Patronaat Cafe in Haarlem, on December 20th.
Support: chill-out ambient sets by C-Jay.
Entrance is free.
We hope to welcome you there!
Information: http://www.patronaat.nl/20-12-2015/free-arts-lab-ep-presentatie-%2B-c-jay