vrijdag 27 december 2019

Radio premiere

Tonight one of my past performances is going to be premiered in its entire on Waveman's Underground live broadcast. It includes music I have never released until date, and parts were composed and performed exclusively for the concert's occassion.

Radio host John Valk has been supported my music for quite some years now, and more than once I promised him to send him the recordings from the duo concert I did with Premonition Factory (aka Sjaak Overgaauw) at the Vishal in Haarlem, on December 14th, 2012. Now, finally, 7 Years and 13 days later, John has the opportunity to air these 45 minutes of unreleased music.

You can listen to his dedicated show each last Friday of the month from 20.00-0.00 CET / 7pm-11pm (UK) / 2-6pm (US) CST via: http://www.underground-aexpaerten.de/Radio1.html

More about the Vishal concert:
https://exhibitionofdreams.blogspot.com/2012/12/live-ambient-at-vishal.html

donderdag 12 december 2019

A weekend with Mäläskä

It is really inspiring to make music in another, unfamiliar environment.
For the third time Petter and I went to such a place to try out another setup and create new stuff with Mäläskä.


This year we drove to the province of Friesland, and settled in Jannum; a small village near Dokkum.
The wonderful landscape, looking out over the Dokkumer Ee, on which the Elfstedentocht passed for the last time in 1997.


Our creative weekend started Friday 29 November. And Monday 2 December - the day we had to return to our nomal lifes - was already there before we actually noticed.

Friday afternoon we set up our equipment in a comfortable way. You can see a timelapse of this here: https://youtu.be/_ToGBj7PB18
In the evening we did the first two sessions, which felt slightly searching.

Petter brought with him a laptop running Ableton and linked to an Akai controller, some rack synths, a synth-guitar with the necessary effects.

The setup which I have been using for quite a while was slightly adjusted. This time consisting of my Korg Kronos, Roland Juno 106, Novation Supernova 2, Korg MS20, Access Virus TI and Clavia Nord Rack 2.

Almost the entire Saturday we played and recorded 6 inspiring sessions.

Just like last year's weekend in Vledderveen, Bas Broekhuis joined us on Sunday, bringing along his hang drums, cajon and electronic percussion. Throughout the day and evening there were recorded 4 sessions together.

The Monday we mainly used to pack our equipment, but in the first three days we recorded around 11 hours of music.

In the meanwhile I made some quick mixes, and started to listen to all recordings.
Normally I can still remember what I have played recently, but it might have been the combination of the extremely relaxed atmosphere, state of mind, and perhaps the fact that we were fully focussed on creating music the entire weekend, which resulted into some very unexpected output when listening the first couple of recordings afterwards.
Not exactly as planned (which is the most exciting about our musical approach) we seem to have been in an ambient mood largest part of the weekend, which resulted into some serious space trips.

Coming days Petter and I will be listening to the remaining recorded material, and discuss future plans for Mäläskä.

To be continued...

woensdag 6 november 2019

"Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" released

Two "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" boxsets have been released at the E-Live Festival in Oirschot, October 26th.
It was another nice - sold-out - edition of the annual festival, with some great performances, and a lot of pleasant talks and discussions with many people.

In the meanwhile all pre-orders have been shipped

There are still limited and numbered boxsets left, so don't wait too long ordering your copy!
 

"Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" boxset.*
Boxset 1: "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" - Limited to 50 numbered copies
Content:
Exhibition of Dreams 2-CD
Exhibition of Dreams revisited CD
Exhibition of Dreams in progress - limited edition CD
Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - 20 pages artbook

"Exhibition of Dreams in progress" boxset.*
Boxset 2: "Exhibition of Dreams in progress" - Limited to 50 numbered copies
Content:
Exhibition of Dreams in progress - limited edition CD

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - 20 pages artbook

Additional offer
Buy two or more CD's from the REMY catalog, and get the "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" 20 pages artbook for free. 
The artbook can also be bought seperately from the Deserted Island Music shop: www.desertedislandmusic.nl.


While there are still some upcoming acitivites around the twentieth anniversary of my debut album, I am already making up for the release of completely new music.

More information soon within the coming weeks about the new studio album, scheduled for the first part of 2020.

vrijdag 18 oktober 2019

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 5



As you could have read on my previous blog, this year it is exactly 20 years ago that my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams" saw the light.
To work towards this celebration, past weeks I have shared related facts, stories and more. This is the final 'episode', as next week "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" will be available.

Boxset 1: "Exhibition of Dreams
20th anniversary" (4 cd's + artbook).
As soon as "Exhibition of Dreams" follow-up album "The Art of Imagination" was released, I took the opportunity to have releases of most of the next albums during the annual E-Live and E-Day Festivals. Simply because a large part of the target listeners of my music gathers during these days. Which also will be the case again for this year's edition of E-Live ("Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary") on October 26th, and next year's E-Day (the upcoming new studio album) on April 11th.
Visit http://www.e-live.nl/ for event information and tickets.

While current focus is on the 20th anniversary of "Exhibition of Dreams", I am also nearing completion of my next studio album. Although I am constantly searching for new directions within my music, I chose to slightly refer to my main influences back in the days of "Exhibition of Dreams". Including long and stretched out pieces, some serious sequencing, dreamy and psychedelic surroundings, detailed layering, and... Oh well, more about it soon!

Boxset 2: "Exhibition of Dreams
in progress (cd + artbook).
For now, be sure to order your copy of one of the limited "Exhibition of Dreams" 20th anniversary boxsets.
If you are planning to visit E-Live on October 26th, just mention this with your order, so you can pick up your copy there.
Ordering and information: www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

Thanks a lot to all of you who have been supporting me in the previous 20 years! 
Although I am 'officially' still an amateur musician (as I still have another full time job, and because I don't have to make a living out of my music), and although in the first place I am creating music for my own needs, I couldn't have achieved everything without any of your support, motivational and critical comments, friendships, and whatever supported me during my musical journey. Your presence has been proven to be necessary to continue what is most important in my life: making music, and being involved into it!

donderdag 10 oktober 2019

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 4

 As you could have read on my previous blog, this year it is exactly 20 years ago that my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams" saw the light.
To work towards this celebration, I will share related facts, stories and more, within the next weeks.

The typical and recognisable "Exhibition of Dreams" artwork was created by Ewout Koek.

During his foreign trips he took photos from the ruins of Persepolis in Iran and 'La Dame de Warka', with which he composed the cover artwork for what was to become my debut album.

For the inside of the CD cover there were used technical sheets from the Eminent 310 Unique organ, which can also be heard on the album.
 
Throughout the years various color adjustments have been made for the various releases:

Exhibition of Dreams 10th anniversary, EoD (Exhibition of Dreams revisited), Exhibition of Dreams bonus tracks, Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary and Exhibition of Dreams in progress.

donderdag 3 oktober 2019

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 3


As you could have read on my previous blog, this year it is exactly 20 years ago that my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams" saw the light.
To work towards this celebration, I will share related facts, stories and more, within the next weeks.
Original 1999 "Exhibition of Dreams" 2-CDR release.
Shortly after the release of "Exhibition of Dreams", on December 20th 1999, the album rapidly sold out. Because of ongoing negotiations with Groove Unlimited for the next album release, it was decided not to make another run of CDR-sets. And because of ongoing demand for the debut album, I already had in mind to re-release the album in ten years. Which happened.
In the first place I recorded new versions from a selection of tracks from the original album, to be released as "EoD". Secondly, the original double album was entirely remastered, and released for the first time on factory pressed CD's, instead of CDR's. Everyone who didn't have the opportunity to obtain the original album back in the days, now could get hold of the original music from 1999.

Although the original CDR release (limited to 50 copies) is still in the collection of a couple loyal listeners of my music, it is likely that these discs won't play properly (or even not at all) anymore, due to the course of time and quality of this early CDR generation.

donderdag 26 september 2019

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 2


As you could have read on my previous blog, this year it is exactly 20 years ago that my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams" saw the light.
To work towards this celebration, I will share related facts, stories and more, within the next weeks.
 


Today, it is exactly one month until the release of "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary".
Original 1999 "Exhibition of Dreams" 2-CDR release.
"Exhibition of Dreams" is a collection of the best tracks I had to offer at that time. They were composed and recorded between 1997 and 1999. For the release of an album, there had to be recorded better versions. Which was done after having moved all equipment to the attic of the home of the parents of my musical partner in crime, Ewout Koek.
Where we had in mind to release a single disc, it became clear during the recordings that it simply had to be a double CDR. Quite daring for a debut album, but it felt good. And we didn't have to take big commercial risks, or obligations to a label to restrict to just one disc. Besides, we just established our own label, AKH Records.
As I didn't have a clue if my music could be interesting to other people, "Exhibition of Dreams" became a testcase to find this out. And, surprisingly it became clear that it moved people. My debut paved the road for my musical journey since then.
When I got in contact with the dutch Groove Unlimited label, there was discussed to release a selection of "Exhibition of Dreams" tracks as a single CD. The album was not meant to fit on a single disc, so I came up with an entirely new album, "The Art of Imagination". It was released the year after my debut.

vrijdag 20 september 2019

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 1

As you could have read on my previous blog, this year it is exactly 20 years ago that my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams" saw the light.
To work towards this celebration, I will share related facts, stories and more, within the next weeks.
Part of the minidisc archives.
Earlier this year, when browsing through my archives, I selected some significant recordings. The limited edition "Exhibition of Dreams in progress" disc contains these never released before essential audio tracks which lead to the final selection of tracks for the album that was released on December 20th, 1999. Strictly limited to 100 copies, and available as part of two limited "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" box-sets:
Box-set 1: "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" 
Limited to 50 copies.
Content:
Exhibition of Dreams 2-CD (10th anniversary master, 2010)
Exhibition of Dreams revisited CD ("EoD", 2009)
Exhibition of Dreams in progress - limited edition CD (2019)
Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - 20 pages artbook (2019)
Box-set 2: "Exhibition of Dreams in progress"
Limited to 50 copies.
Content:
Exhibition of Dreams in progress - limited edition CD (2019)
Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - 20 pages artbook (2019)
For this 20th anniversary, all artwork has been revisited.

 If you want the limited "Exhibition of Dreams in progress" CD, you need one of these two box-sets. The "Exhibition of Dreams" 20th anniversary artbook will also be available seperately.
"Exhibition of Dreams in progress".
On the limited "Exhibition of Dreams in progress" CD, for the first time the album's rejected opening track can be heard. I still like it a lot, but the version which appeared on the album definitely fitted better with the other tracks.

Secondly there are included four live tracks. Three of them have been part of a concert I did on November 13th,1998. This was the first time I exposed music from the debut album in progress. A couple of months later (17, 18 and 19 February 1999), I played "Mirage" as warm-up for the talents show on my high school. The registration of the first of these performances is included on the CD.
Please visit www.desertedislandmusic.nl to order your copy!

zondag 15 september 2019

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary


This year, it is exactly 20 years ago that my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams" saw the light.
To celebrate this milestone, there are going to be released new related items on October 26th.
In the first place there will be available a 20-pages artbook, containing background information, notes, artwork and photos from my archives. In addition there are included written memories of people who have significantly contributed to the success of "Exhibition of Dreams".
Secondly, a strictly limited edition CD of 100 copies is going to be released: "Exhibition of Dreams in progress", and will be exclusively available as part of two different boxsets. The audio on this disc contains never released before essential audio tracks which lead to the final selection of tracks for the album as released on December 20th, 1999.
For this occasion there will be available a couple of deals:
"Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" boxset.*
Boxset 1: "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" - Limited to 50 numbered copies
Content:
Exhibition of Dreams 2-CD
Exhibition of Dreams revisited CD
Exhibition of Dreams in progress - limited edition CD
Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - 20 pages artbook
"Exhibition of Dreams in progress" boxset.*
Boxset 2: "Exhibition of Dreams in progress" - Limited to 50 numbered copies
Content:
Exhibition of Dreams in progress - limited edition CD
Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - 20 pages artbook


"Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" 20 pages artbook 

Additional offer
Buy two or more CD's from the REMY catalog, and get the "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" 20 pages artbook for free.

Pre-order from www.desertedislandmusic.nl


* Please note that the artwork is not definitive yet, so it might be subject of change within coming weeks.

vrijdag 6 september 2019

Old and new stuff


It has been a while ago since my last blog. But in the meanwhile I have spent a lot of time in my studio. And I am looking forward to share old and new stuff with you on short term.
To start with, next week there will be revealed details about the upcoming celebration of the 20th anniversary of "Exhibition of Dreams".
In first instance I had a different kind of schedule for the 20th anniversary celebration of "Exhibition of Dreams". While I simultaneously have been working on a brand new studio project, I had in mind to release both "Exhibition of Dreams - 20th anniversary" and the new studio album, near the end of 2019.
One of the releases - or more likely both them - would be overshadowed or it would have caused confusion when being released at the same time.
So I decided to reserve the end of 2019 for the celebration of my debut album, and postpone the new studio album until early 2020.
As part of the anniversary celebration of the 1999 album, I considered doing a concert tour covering my musical career so far, as well as an integral performance of the entire debut album.
I struggled with this for a few reasons. With the remake of a selection of tracks from "Exhibition of Dreams" (2009) as only exception, I have never redone finished things. Ok, as part of concerts I reworked and played some of my older tracks, but furthermore I didn't feel any need to come up with another revisited version of music pieces that have been created and recorded 20 years ago. Secondly, when doing a tour of, let's say, 10-20 gigs, performing a lot of the same pieces over and over again, I get bored. I could do it without any doubt, but it simply isn't what I want to do. So I decided not to do it this way.
Instead, I came up with a valuable addition to the "Exhibition of Dreams" franchise. But more about this in my next blog.
Then, the new studio album will be more conceptual than ever before, involving a couple of artistic collaborations. First things first, so you just have to wait patiently for the exciting things to come!

woensdag 15 mei 2019

Extended availability of my music

Availability of my music is extended:

All my albums released on Deserted Island Music are available from Bandcamp as digital download and physical products: https://remystroomer.bandcamp.com/music

Alongside the Deserted Island Music catalog so far, "Planet of the Arps" can now also be obtained from a large number of digital download platforms, including Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, Amazon, Deezer, Pandora, and many more.

Customers from the U.S.A. might save shipping costs when buying physical copies from CD Baby: https://store.cdbaby.com/

vrijdag 10 mei 2019

New studio album 2019

While my ambient side-project "Planet of the Arps" is still smoking from its recent release, the production of my upcoming studio album also nears completion. It will be the first REMY album since 2016's "Fears".

The mixes of two of the four tracks are already finished. For the other two tracks some exciting additions have recently been recorded. These tracks are currently undergoing the process of being mixed.

Although the entire album will consist of electronic music, the final album track contains vocals by two lovely singers, known from their involvement into Haarlem post-rock formation Grey Lotus:
Joost Verhagen wrote the text to second part of the 22 minutes track, and Judith Wesselius arranged the structure of the lyrics. Their appearance on the finale part of the track is a mix of singing and spoken word, resulting into a bizarre trip.

Last weekend, for the remaining energetic sequencing track there have been recorded additional drums and percussion by Bas Broekhuis.
The recorded parts are a real blast.

Within a few weeks these tracks should have been mixed. I am really excited for the final results.

In addition to the musical part, Nausikaä de Blaauw made a wonderful photo series, representing the album's art concept I have had in mind.

Within the coming weeks there will be revealed more details about the album, its concept, featured collaborations, and more.

For now, there is no release date scheduled yet, but I am aiming for the end of 2019.


zaterdag 23 maart 2019

Planet of the Arps

It's been a while ago since 2017's "Return of Planet X".

Now, in 2019, it is finally time again for a new release. To start with.

To kick off, I am presenting a project of 8+ years in the making: my ambient side project "Planet of the Arps". Featuring Roksana Vikaluk and Wolfram Spyra.

Back in July 2010 I recorded the first version of an ambient music piece. It became a trip of one hour which might be at some points in the line of my solo work, but I decided that this project was about to be presented as an ambient side-project. To be called “Planet of the Arps”.

The name refers to the musical phenomenon arpeggio (whether or not produced by an arpeggiator), Halton Arp and his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, Alan R. Pearlman and his legendary ARP-synthesizers, and it might be clear that it also winks to the “Planet of the Apes” science fiction franchise.

Flyer for the Planetarium
Bochum concert.
As soon as the first version of the music piece was recorded, I had in mind to involve a fellow musician to contribute to this project, as I felt it needed an extra touch before it eventually could be released.
When the Ricochet Gathering event took place in Berlin, in October 2010, I asked Wolfram Spyra to be part of this ambient work. Although ‘Der Spyra’ wanted to work on it, there seemed to be lack of time, and above all we both had other priorities at that moment. The project was set aside for the time being.

When I was invited to perform at the Zeiss Planetarium in Bochum (Germany),  September 15th 2012, I decided to perform this particular piece of music. Simply because it was about to fit perfectly on this location. Some additions and edits were made, and during this solo concert version 2.0 was established.

Wolfram Spyra, Roksana Vikaluk and Remy performing
"Planet of the Arps" live at the Ruïne van Brederode.

Then, almost two years passed since then, when I organised a concert evening at the Ruins of Brederode in Santpoort-Zuid (Netherlands), June 27th, 2014. For the line-up I programmed my band at that time, Free Arts Lab, as well as Wolfram Spyra.
To conclude the evening, the idea came in mind to do an improvisation around an edited version of “Planet of the Arps”.
Which took place in a different way I had in mind. Due to circumstances there was no time to rehearse the collaborational session, and just before the show it was decided that Spyra’s partner in crime and singer Roksana Vikaluk was about to join. Resulting into a 20 minutes live version of “Planet of the Arps”, in an entirely improvised setting. The outcome was, so to say, really exciting. Musically, as well as atmospheric, everything seemed to fall into its place.

"Planet of the Arps" cover artwork.
Hereafter it again took a while - more than 4 years - before it was decided that “Planet of the Arps” should get the release in its current form:
The original piece, remixed and sublemented with elements from the live performances.
Let’s see it as a project which needed this time to evolve, and to result into the version to be heard on this “Planet of the Arps”.

"Planet of the Arps" is available for pre-ordering from www.desertedislandmusic.nl.
Release date is April 6th, where the cd will be presented at the E-Day Festival in Oirschot.

From this point on, stay tuned for more exciting upcoming news.
Including the celebration of the 20th anniversary of my debut "Exhibition of Dreams" later this year, as well as an entirely new REMY solo studio album.

vrijdag 15 februari 2019

Ars Phantasia - La Papillone

Before announcing some exciting news before the end of the month, here already is something nice to take off upcoming activities around my music and the Deserted Island Music label within the coming months.

I am proud to do part of the distribution of the beatiful, romantic and cinematic "La Papillone". The debut by Ars Phantasia.

This fairytale for piano contains elements and atmosphere which reminds of the music of Yann Tiersen, Erik Satie and Ludovico Einaudi.
Besides the fact I love the album's content, the connection with electronic music is that the composer - who prefers to remain in the background - is musically influenced for a large part by the music of Jean Michel Jarre.
When digging into the artistic collaborations and sound engineering credits, this link is more than clear, involving some familiar names from the Jarre-team from the past.

Visit www.arsphantasia.com for all details and soundclips.

The music performed by Hitomi Nishioka on grand piano, as well as the wonderful conceptual artwork created by Lisk Feng makes this album a treat to have in your collection.

Highly recommended!

Ars Phantasia's "La Papillone" is now available for ordering from www.desertedislandmusic.com.

zaterdag 5 januari 2019

2019

I am wishing everyone a wonderful, prosperous, musical and inspirational 2019.

For me, 2018 marked a rather musical productive year.
In the first place having created and recorded a lot in the studio. Fundaments for what is to come in 2019.
I also had great times during performances with Mäläskä. Each of the concerts was a total unique experience amd a blast. It really is a continuous pleasure to share a same state of mind with Petter, as well as the group of talented people involved into our unprepared sessions. Definitely looking forward to more!

This new year, my label Deserted Island Music is aiming to be more active than before.
Kicking off soon with the distribution of the beautiful Ars Phantasia project. A project in the making for a couple of years will finally see the light. More information about this album will be revealed within coming weeks!

Secondly, there will be a special focus on my debut album from 1999, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
"Exhibition of Dreams" will be celebrated with a special anniversary box set and several performances covering my career until date. Including an one-off integral performance of the original album's pieces.

On top of that, I am finishing studio work on an entire new solo album, scheduled for the third quarter of 2019. And in the meanwhile I am working on a couple of other exciting projects. More details follow as soon as they are available.

And last year's presence of Mäläskä will be continued and extended in 2019, by means of more gigs, and most likely a second album release.

Although I can't mention any concrete details and dates yet, I am excited for above mentioned announcements. So stay tuned for any updates!