In memoriam: Dominique Perrier

My good friend Dominique Perrier passed away on October 4th.

 

It must have been somewhere late 2000s when we first met. I have met Dominique a couple of times after Jean Michel Jarre concerts. Always in the background, but one of the most beloved members of JMJ's band.

He was a sympathetic, friendly, down-to-earth, and charismatic keyboard virtuoso, who already had his own musical successes before joining Jarre's band in 1981, being the first Western musicians to perform in the post-Mao China.

Dominique's house was full of merchandising and memories from this concert tour, because this period has been very valuable to him without any doubt.

Space Art's first album "Onyx" (1977).

Space Art was his pride. The band which he formed together with Roger Rizzitelli, and which sold 3 million copies worldwide of their first three albums.

Dominique did a lot of other projects, collaborations and productions, including Stone Age, Didier Marouani & Space, Christophe, Bahamas, Gypsy Kings, and composed a number of movie soundtracks.

After three decades Dominique left Jean Michel Jarre's band in 2010. The year Roger Rizzitelli, and a couple of months later also Dominique's wife Janet Woollacott, died. In 2012 there was the Space Art Tribute, which was the band's first output since 1981. Gathering dear musicians and friends to be part of this so-called Dominique Perrier Project. An European promo tour takes place.

Space Art live at E-Day, Oirschot, NL (29-4-2017).

I managed to arrange some of these 2012 promo concerts for Dominique, and around that time I also started doing part of the sales and distribution of the music of Space Art. We became good friends, met several times in the centre of Paris, and I visited his place just outside of Paris multiple times.

 

In 2017 Space Art headlined the E-Day Festival in Oirschot. Dominique deliberately wanted me to join the band. He didn't want to be in the spotlights that much, and preferred to have give the younger generation more exposure.

We had relatively short rehearsing time, but it definitely was a nice party on stage!

Space Art's latest album "Personal Duty" (2023).

It took another couple of years (until 2020) until the next Space Art album "Entrevues" was released. From now on together with Tommy, son of Dominique's former band mate Roger Rizzitelli, on drums.

Very recently, on July 14th of this year, the latest Space Art album "Personal Duty" saw the light.

It was a real honour Dominique wanted to release these both albums on my Deserted Island Music label. He was fed up with big record companies, and he saw in me a trusted and dedicated partner.

I have always liked the music from Space Art, because it sounds natural, organic, honest, and not over-polished or over-produced. Love the song structures, instrumentations, melodies, and stories they had to tell.

And once you got to know Dominique's way of thinking and his humour, there are a lot of hidden jokes to discover in a lot of his music. Even on his latest album "Personal Duty" where Dominique put himself in the shoes of fictionary bass player Bruce B. Marshall. The output of a normal bass player is a low bass sounds. However, Bruce's range is one or sometimes even two octaves higher. Which sounds quite hilarious if you listen to the music with Bruce in your mind.

Me, Michel Geiss and Dominique, 29-11-2022..

November 2022 I stayed a couple of days at Dominique's place. Combining it with my more or less annual visit to Paris. One of the evenings Michel Geiss also came along, because we wanted to discuss the mastering for the new Space Art album. Which ended into a wonderful evening with a lot of stories and memories from times gone by.

Peter Dekker, me and Dominique, 13-1-2023.

January I visited Dominique together with Peter Dekker. Also to discuss the last bits about the then upcoming new album. We had an entertaining evening, where Peter brought some rare single releases (related to productions by Dominique) from his own collection. A couple of these were totally unknown to Dominique, and he was clearly moved when Peter gave these to him as present.

One week before the July 14th "Personal Duty" album release, I again visited Dominique to hand over the new CD and LP's. Exactly that weekend, he had been admitted to hospital due to ongoing heavy headache.

I planned to visit Dominique in the hospital once more within coming days because of worsened health conditions, but unfortunately he didn't make it that long. Now I am making up for the final farewell, during the funeral, coming Thursday.

I miss you, dear Dominique!

Visiting Paris will never be the same again.

Hopefully you are having a great musical party there where you are!

Au revoir mon ami!

Paris

Since a couple of years I am aiming to visit Paris at least once a year.

When I planned to go in April 2020, the pandemic kept me from going.

So it felt really good to finally be able to return again to one of my favourite cities, to have a great time and met some dear friends.

I stayed at - my good friend - Dominique Perrier's house from Saturday November 26th until Wednesday 30th.

During the days I took the train from his place to Montparnasse train station.

Together with Marie-Laure.

Saturday, the day of my arrival, I met with Marie-Laure Leboucher (C.Zen Prod) at La Défense. She also brought some new stock from Space Art and Francis Rimbert albums with her. After our meeting I travelled to Dominique, which also was a very pleasant reunion.

For the following days I had a small list of adresses (mainly music and retro game stores) which I wanted to visit these days. But in the end I only visited a couple of them, because I spent a lot of time to 'just' wandering around and absorb the atmosphere. In the end I only bought myself one CD and 4 special LP's for a friend.

Montparnasse view.

While I spent largest part of the time at the Les Halles area, I also visited the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur (looking over Paris by night), and went on top of the Montparnasse Tower for the first time. The 360 / panorama view was very impressive.

Some times I also watched some parts of the World Championship soccer matches on big screen.

 

With Michel and Dominique.

The time I was together with Dominique, we had 

good conversations, watched film, and I had the privilege to hear new Space Art music. Actually it's the music for a new Space Art album, which Dominique again wants to have released on my Deserted Island Music label.

 

Again, Tommy Rizzitelli (who unfortunately didn't have time to meet up these days) took place behind the drums for the new album, and Michel Geiss is going to take care of the mastering. Tuesday evening I finally got to meet with Michel in person, who came along Dominique's home. Besides discussing various (musical) topics, Michel exposed as a real storyteller. Loved it! We had a very joyful evening.

January programme
at IRCAM entrance.

Then, I impulsively decided to go back again to Paris the weekend of Janary 14th, 2023. This time together with some friends. We will visit Jean Michel Jarre's concerts at the IRCAM. Around that time I also expect to have more details about the upcoming Space Art album.

And last, but not least, Dominique gave me a couple of discs from his collaboration with Michel Valy from 2010, "Temps Réel". As well as he autographed some copies of his latest Space Art CD "Entrevues". Both are available from the Deserted Island Music webshop. Don't wait too long, as these titles (and in particular "Temps Réel") might not be added again as soon as they are sold out.

New studio

After September's Grote Kerk event, I started to move my studio. My large room had to be swapped with the smaller sleeping room of my son, who definitely needed more space.

In the meanwhile I moved most of the equipment, but a couple of instruments didn't make it to the new place. Unfortunately, but on the other hand it's good to be forced to make a selection (although there still is too much), because I simply didn't use a lot of the equipment.

 

On one part of the wall ten keyboards are stacked. I custom-made the desk which offers space for 44 HE rack units. And there is another stand for my Korg Kronos (which I am using as master keyboard) and mixing desk, and offering space below for another 6 HE rack units (which I partially have in use for some patchbays).

I also purchased proper stands for my studio monitors.

Considering different and more compact setups, especially keeping in mind the limited space, I decided to keep my large Behringer MX8000 mixer, because of the workflow I have gotten used to.

In the meanwhile the studio is fully operational again. Only having to find some time to work on new projects again.

In memoriam: Klaus Schulze

Musical hero, inspirator and artist who had the biggest impact on my music in every thinkable way, has passed away on Tuesday at the age of 74.

Klaus Schulze in 2022.

Without any doubt Klaus Schulze and his music have been most noticeable influences for my music throughout the years. Although I have always had a fascination for the electronic music genre since I was 8 or 9 years, Klaus Schulze (whose music I actually discovered 5 or 6 years later) in my eyes has always been an exceptional phenomenon who was capable of letting electronic music sound more human and organic than any other synthesist I have ever known could have managed. Whether it was solo, under his pseudonym Richard Wahnfriend, with Ash Ra Tempel, or as collaboration with artists like Manuel Göttsching, Harold Grosskopf, Wolfgang Tiepold, Arthur Brown, Michael Shrieve, Rainer Bloss, Pete Namlook, Jörg Schaaf, Roelof Oostwoud or Lisa Gerrard, to name a few.

Dreams (1986).

"Dreams" and "Miditerrenean Pads" were the first Klaus Schulze albums I got to listen to. While the latter sounded like something I had never heard before at that time, "Dreams" appeared to be an extremely close identification of how I experience my dreams and how I approach my own music. Although with a wink, the album's original working title "Klaustrophony" suggests even more how close this album must also have been to Schulze himself. The record company rejected this title because of commercial reasons, but the album's infamous closing track still retained this title. So from that very first moment I have felt a clear connection with most of Klaus' musical output.

Amongst the so many albums (more than 40 and far over 100 releases) Schulze released since the early 70s, there are a lot of instant classics including "Timewind", "Moondawn", "Mirage", "X" and "Dune". However, for me "Dreams" (specifically the original 5 tracks release on the Brain label) always topped this list. Besides what I have just mentioned, this might also be because Klaus' mid / late 80s were relatively 'less productive', and his music sounded more balanced again at this point after the chaotic early 80s output of his Poland era.

For a lot of my solo concerts, the 1997 "Dosburg Online" concert and its structure continues to be a source of inspiration. The tension and variation of this performance is absolutely brilliant from the beginning to the end.

Kontinuum (2007).

Recent years Schulze's musical output became more of a routine and eventually therepeutical rather than it contained artistic highlights. When "Kontinuum" was released in 2007 I was absolutely overwhelmed by its content. Never expected Klaus Schulze to be this intense and emotional again. This masterpiece always felt like it could have been Schulze's final album. Which wasn't the case for the 15 years that followed. 

Still, so many people associate electronic music with computers, DJ's, robots, the universe, or whatsoever. But there are so many acts involving electronics without even having any connections with any of the above. Yes, the equipment is and remains something (that can be) automated, but in the end it's the artist who should make this equipment come to life. And Klaus mastered that like no one else.

Outside the fact if you like his music or not, most of Klaus' logical sounding chord progressions and naturally evolving transitions made largest part of his music sound familiar and approachable.
The combination of detailed, stretched out and layered storylines, progressing themes, and speaking leads let his compositions come to life and breath even more. And there are still not many artists who managed to do the thing what Klaus did during his 50 years career.

Klaus Schulze live at the Loreley (2008).

In the late 60s Klaus Schulze was groundbreaking, experimenting together with artists and bands like Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Tangerine Dream, Amon Düül and Neu!, as part of the Zodiac Free Arts Lab.

What they did was different and opposite from the mainstream. After this short-lived movement, Klaus continued to pioneer and focused on his own musical journey. First with the drums, adding a Farfisa organ and VCS3, even orchestra, and involving more electronica with the years, followed by his famouns wall of synths, always the eye-cather during his live shows.

I was lucky to attend concerts in Cologne (Kickzone, 1999), Osnabrück (KlangArt Festival, 2001), Loreley (Night of the Prog, 2008) and Amsterdam (Melkweg, 2009).
And I already bought a ticket for what was announced as his last concert ever, planned for 2016 in Poland. Due to Klaus' health issues, this concert was cancelled.
Klaus Schulze's appearance on stage always was charismatic and magical. Already before striking the first note, he got the audience's sympathy with his kind and humoristic personality.
Although he had always been surrounded with a lot of keys and knobs during his concerts, it always was the man behind these keys and knobs who let the magic happen.

Together with Klaus Schulze and Ewout Koek (2001).

After the Osnabrück concert in 2001, I got to speak to my musical hero. At that time I just released my first official cd, "The Art of Imagination", which I presented to Klaus.
Despite the fact that Klaus Schulze has always been a solitary musician, who mainly focussed on his own music, he kindly accepted my album.
We had a small talk about my music, and Klaus had to smile when I told him that people mentioned me as his follower-up. Which, indeed, was way too much credit after having just released two albums back then.

A lot of wonderful memories. The train trip to Cologne. Smuggling recording equipment into the concert site of Kickzone. Getting Klaus' first autograph after the performance. Trying to get a fully booked train earlier after the concert because all nearby hotels were also fully booked and we haven't had any sleep for more than 24 hours. The bus trip to Osnabrück. Getting recognised abroad as artists for the first time, at the KlangArt Festival. Smuggling recording equipment into the venue, and finding out that there was no security check at all. The excitement when Klaus started the sequence during the second part of the show in Osnabrück. Klaus sitting on the stage to chat and sign after the concert when there were left only a handful of fans at the venue.

Deus Arrakis (2022)

One of my most memorable concert experiences without doubt was when Klaus Schulze and Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard joined forces, and performed at the Freilichtbühne Loreley, St. Goarshausen, as part of the second Night of the Prog Festival in 2009. It was magical and moving, and at some points highly emotional. Part of these emotions are now coming back again.

Klaus, thank you for being part of my life. Without your music my musical world would definitely have been something completely different.

Sadly Klaus Schulze didn't make it to the release of his new album "Deus Arrakis", which will be released posthumously on June 11th.

Klaus Schulze
4-8-1947 - 26-4-2022.

In memoriam: Sylvia Sommerfeld

It has been quite a while that I wrote something on this blog. A year minus one day ago, to be exact. The main reasons might be that last two years have been quite a ride due to my last year's burnout, changing job direction after 17 years, and the way back to myself since then. The things I wanted to share with you were for the largest part related to my musical activities, and have mainly been told via social media and www.desertedislandmusic.nl, as well as my label's mailinglist.

On top, the entire covid-shizzle took over a large part of all of our lifes, which gave quite a turn to our normal habits. So strange times, to say at least.

And although things are going finally better with me since last two years, the reason for this blog is not a happy one, unfortunately.

Sylvia Sommerfeld, founder of Schallwende and initiator of the acclaimed annual Schallwelle Award as well as many German electronic music events since the late 90s, passed away on December 29th.

It was in 2000 at the first E-Live Festival in Veldhoven, with the release of my first official album, "The Art of Imagination", when Ron Boots introduced me to 'the most important woman of the EM-scene', Sylvia Sommerfeld. At that time, Winfried Trenkler hosted the annual Schwingungen Wahlen (which he did until 2002), where listeners of his WDR radio show could vote for the best artist, album releases and songs from the electronic music scene. At the 2001 ceremony I received my first price in the category 'Best Newcomer'. From 2009 these awards were continued by Sylvia's Schallwende e.V.. Trenkler then received a lucrative price at this first Schallwelle Award ceremony.

The various nominations I got throughout the years, have been very valuable recognitions for my musical career, as well as it stimulated many of my electronic music colleagues to continue creating, developing and sharing their electronic music.

Most of the years, these award ceremonies took place at the wonderful location of the Zeiss Planetarium in Bochum. A couple of times a year, Schallwende also organized concerts at this same place. Including the sold out duo concert I did together with Bernd Scholl (aka Moonbooter) on September 15th, 2012.

At the Grill Fest 2008: Remy, Sylvia, René and Klaus-Ulrich.

Then there were also being organized concerts at the Gasometer (Oberhausen), Live EM Brunches (Düsseldorf), and indeed the annual Grill Fest, which traditionally took place somewhere around the forelast weekend of August at a one of the 'Grill Platzes' at the Grugapark in Essen.

Besides my solo performance during the Grill Fest on August 16th, 2008, the final sessions of the day together with Ron Boots, Harald van der Heijden, Henri Peeters and René van der Wouden changed my vision on playing music together, and lead to more collaborations in the years that followed.

Sylvia also hosted Traumklang Radio, published the Schalldruck magazine for all members of the Schallwende e.V., and once a year musicians got the opportunity to submit an exclusive electronic music track to eventually appear on the Schallplatte CD sampler. The 2008 ("Schallplatte X - Elektronische Musik trifft Klassik") and 2013 ("Schallplatte XV - Klänge einer 'Groß'Stadt") editions also include one of my tracks, exclusively recorded for the album's specific subject. These CD's were available for all Schalldruck members.

 

Due to the lack of physical events during the covid period, my most recent contact with Sylvia must have been around last year's Schallwelle Awards. Sylvia really liked Däcker's "Pareidolia", which lead to the 'Discovery of 2020'.

Most recently, when Sylvia was kept in a coma, Stefan Erbe initiated to support Sylvia with personal messages. Which I indeed also did. I personalized my message with an improvised piece of music. Hopefully Sylvia got something from it in her conciousness.

Sylvia hosting last year's
Schallwelle Awards.

I will always remember Sylvia as a friendly, compassionated, dedicated and always involved personality. It always was a good reunion when we met in person.

Will miss her e-mails regarding Sinterklaas or when there was a soccer match between 'der Mannschaft' and our 'Oranje'.

Any future electronic music concert and event will not be the same anymore without Sylvia. You will be dearly missed!

Another traditional concert series to interlude the new year, will take place tonight at the Planetarium in Bochum. The "Hello 2022" concert by Ron Boots, Harald Grosskopf and Steve Baltes will surely be dedicated to Sylvia!

My sincere condolences to Klaus-Ulrich, all family, friends, and I am wishing everyone involved a lot of love and strength.

And quoting Edgar Froese: "There is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address".

2020 / 2021

An end has come to this strange year 2020.
Like every year, I would like to look back at this year's musical activities.
Because of current situation, I have so many plans for next year, but because it's uncertain yet when old-fashioned concerts and festivals are going to be take place again, there are no concrete events planned. As always I am involved in a couple musical projects, and I hope to extend my Deserted Island Music label with more new and interesting releases. This year there have been four new albums on my small label (which are mentioned below), and hopefully our catalog will grow within next years.

But before the highlights, before I forget: I am wishing everyone a great, musical and prosperous 2021.
And that we are able to meet soon again in real life!

Deserted Island Music
Four new releases from different artists have been released on my Deserted Island Music label this year.

It might not sound that much, but until last year I mainly used to release music projects which were very close to myself only. Now, I have made a start to extend the catalog with other artist than REMY.
From the first release of this year, the cd's from now on come into gatefold digisleeves, instead of basic cardboard sleeves.

Now, I am aiming for a more consistent exposure of my label, so if you have any suggestions for great electronic music which definitely needs to be released, or if you think your own music fits within our catalog, don't hesitate to contact me!

For more details, see the links below or visit www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

Here's a short overview of this 2020's releases:

Mäläskä - First Day of Spring (DIM-009)
Born out of improvisations Petter Janse and I did in december 2019 in Jannum, Friesland.
The ambience and atmospheric laidback soundscapes are something completely different than our 2016 debut album "Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory".
Featuring Bas Broekhuis on percussion on one of the tracks.

Read more about the album on my blog:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4493991774210317112/1190478425073764303

REMY - The Other Side (DIM-010)
A conceptual album in the make for two years, and my first REMY album since 2016's "Fears".
Containing collaborations with Bas Broekhuis (drums), Judith Wessluis (vocals), Joost Verhagen (vocals) and Nausikaä de Blaauw (photography).

Read more:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4493991774210317112/3827413632895914746

Däcker - Pareidolia (DIM-011)
I produced an 2018 improvisation session by Peter Dekker. There are a lot of similarities in our musical styles and visions, so when I suggested to enhance Peter's 2-track recording, he immediately agreed. The result is "Pareidolia", which will appeal a lot of traditional electronic music lovers.

It seems that I haven't written a blog item about this album, but you can listen to album excerpts here:
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/syntheticman/dacker-pareidolia-excerpts-2020
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrF32GVJ2zE

On December 19th Peter and I did a live stream concert at BYSS. Below you can read about this.

Space Art - Entrevues (DIM-012)
In first instance my label did distribution and sales for the limited edition LP of Space Art's new album "Entrevues", which was released in March. However, earlier this month, the CD and digital download, have been released on Deserted Island Music. I am really proud to have this legendary band contracted!

On my blog I wrote about the limited edition LP release:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4493991774210317112/7265360976870964874

All versions contain slightly different tracklisting, and while the LP has been mastered by Patrick Pelamourgues, the CD and download have been mastered by Michel Geiss.

Schallwelle Preis

It's the time of the year again to vote for the Schallwelle Awards. Everyone can now vote for his or her favourite electronic music artists and albums of 2020.

All Deserted Island Music releases as well as individual artists can be found in the list:

 

Best Artist:

Däcker

Mälaskä

REMY

Space Art

 

Best Album:

Däcker - Pareidolia

Mäläskä - First Day of Spring

REMY - The Other Side

Space Art - Entrevues

 

Visit http://www.schallwen.de/swvoting/en/ for all details, the complete lists, and to vote.

 

REMY & Däcker live at BYSS
December 19th, Peter Dekker and I did a concert at the BYSS studio of Bas Broekhuis.

In first instance this concert was streamed live via Facebook. For all who missed it, the concert has been archived for watching on the same URL as the live stream:
https://www.facebook.com/events/222915992531041

Because not everyone has a Facebook account, the slightly enhanced version of the concert has been uploaded to YouTube: https://youtu.be/3bDa1O8ZOF8
Adjustments are described in the video credits.

Then, last 30 minutes of our concert was also broadcast live on Wim Dekker's radio show Haarlem Underground at Radio Haarlem 105:
https://www.mixcloud.com/wimdekker/haarlemunderground-19-12-20-21-2200

Last but not least, the entire concert is going to be broadcast on Jos Verboven's radio show Electronic Fusion on January 2nd.
The two hours REMY & Däcker special is going to be co-hosted by Peter and me.
Broadcasting schedule:

Saturday 02-01-2021 at 6 pm CET/CEST on Modul303 from Germany:
https://www.facebook.com/modul303com/
Sunday 03-01-2021 at 9 am PST/PDT on Krypton Radio from the USA:
https://www.facebook.com/KryptonRadio/
Sunday 03-01-2021 at 3 pm CET/CEST on Radio Dark Tunnel from Germany:
https://www.facebook.com/RadioDarkTunnel/
Monday 04-01-2021 at 1 pm VET on Electronic Music Radio from Chile & Venezuela:
https://www.facebook.com/ElectronicMusicFM1/

Afterwards, the show will be archived on Mixcloud:
https://www.mixcloud.com/brainvoyager/

My report of this adventure can be read on previous blog post:
https://exhibitionofdreams.blogspot.com/2020/12/remy-dacker-live-at-byss.html 

That's it for now!
I am very curious about what 2021 has to offer. For now, stay safe!

REMY & Däcker live at BYSS

All packed.

Last Saturday Peter Dekker (aka Däcker) and I did a concert live stream at the BYSS studio of Bas Broekhuis.
BYSS was recently established by Bas, who already did something similar almost two decades ago with his Virtuele Theater.
In the meanwhile techniques have improved, and current times demand online events more than ever before. Great iniative, and a pleasure to follow recent concerts by Ron Boots and Skoulaman (Hans van Kroonenburg) at this same location.

I was looking forward to it so much, because of a couple of reasons.
It was my first and only concert of this strange year 2020, and it definitely felt good to be back on stage.
On top of that, it actually was the first live concert stream I ever did. Ok, I did concerts with an audience which were also streamed, but this was different.
Then, it was a pleasure to do this concert together with my good friend Peter Dekker. Recently I produced his debut album "Pareidolia", which was released on my Deserted Island Music label, under his alter ego Däcker.

Initially I was quite sceptic about live streams. Especially when loads of artists decided to do free streaming concerts at the start of the pandemic, while they normally would have played for a paying audience, didn't feel right.

FoH view at BYSS.

When Bas Broekhuis contacted me two monts ago, it was the intention to let perform me or Mäläskä on his virtual stage. Although I have released my latest solo album "The Other Side" earlier this year, it didn't feel the right moment to perform this, because I was focussed on other more recent projects, including the one with Peter Dekker, and the new Space Art album. However, I am looking forward so much to bring "The Other Side" to the stage with another opportunity.
Then, Petter (with whom I do together Mäläskä) currently had other priorities, so it immediately came in mind to join forces with Däcker for this BYSS session.

You all have to know that "Pareidolia" by Däcker was born out of an improvisation session, recorded by Peter in August 2018. Peter had doubts he could fill 1,5 hours of live music himself, so we soon immediately agreed to do the performance together. Not focussing of any existing material, but let go all expectations, and just play. Blending both our influences and visions into a non-prepared improvisation session.
However, I did a lot of studio work with his 2018 recordings, and added my part to it, but it was only two weeks ago that we played together for the very first time. Although this might have been risky, it luckily worked out pretty fine! So the basis was set for this concert.

Setup at Peter's living room.

 

Last Friday I went to Peter's home to set up all gear we were about to use during the concert, and we took the afternoon and evening to technically prepare the gig, and do a rehearsal. Then we wrapped all equipment together, and headed to the most Northeastern part of the province of Groningen Saturday afternoon.

After Peter and I arrived at Bas' farmyard (the studio is built in a former pigsty) around 15:15, we set up all equipment, which went really smooth, and prepared for our live appearance really easy in the remaining hours.

Last couple of days I had already been busy preparing the visuals, but I also worked on something special for Peter. His musical heroes and inspirators Rob Papen, Steve Baltes, Michel Huygen, Eric van der Heijden and René Splinter recorded some very nice messages about their connection/friendship with Peter, "Pareidolia", and the upcoming concert. While featured as introduction of our performance, Peter only got to see this after the concert, and I was pleased to know it moved him.

Live!

Then, at 20:00 the video intro started and 5 minutes later we kicked off our concert. The only thing we appointed was that Peter would set in the first note, and the part which concluded the performance. Outside of some pre-programming, nothing of the one and a half hour to come was discussed in advance. Which I like so much about improvisation.
Then, the first note was struck by Peter on his E-Pro Spirit, and the next 90 minutes we played passed by before we realized it, and left us with satisfaction. It was a real pleasure to watch and listen the entire concert myself the day after, and read all comments. Thanks a lot for everyone involved, and the positive vibes. I think I am also speaking for Peter that this really gave us a boost.

After the concert we had a little chill out, before packing all our gear together, and headed to the west again. For me it was almost a three hours drive, but still kicking from all adrenalin, and the good conversations together with Peter, made the time pass by without noticing.

It was a pleasure to do this concert together with Peter. Hopefully there is more to come in 2021!
Thanks to Bas Broekhuis for this great opportunity and the warm welcome, and I expect to come back to BYSS in the new year with Mäläskä and perhaps also REMY.

The entire concert stream, including the introduction can still be watched (and commented on) on Facebook. I will also put it on YouTube later this week.

The final 30 minutes of the concert were also broadcast live on radio Haarlem 105, hosted by Wim Dekker. The archived program can be listened to via this link.

And also write down January 2nd, 2021. The entire concert is going to be broadcast during Electronic Fusion #278. Normally hosted by Jos Verboven, but for this episode, Peter and I will take over the show. Supplemented with more of our recently released music.

Then last but not least, for all gear nerds, here is the list of used equipment:
Peter: ASM Hydrasynth, E-Pro Spirit, Moog The Rogue, Roland VP-330, Sequential Prophet 12.
Remy: Clavia Nord Rack 2, E-Pro Minisynth, Korg Kronos X, Novation Supernova 2.