Schallwelle Awards 2017 pre-nominations

It's the time of the year again to vote for the annual Schallwelle Awards.

Voting already started December 15th and can be done until January 6th, 2018.

My musical projects are pre-nomintated three times:

The recently released "The Return of Planet X" can be found in the Album list, and REMY as well as Mäläskä are listed in the Artists section.

To bring out your votes, visit http://www.schallwen.de/swvoting/en/

The ceremony of the tenth edition of the Schallwelle Awards take place on February 17th, 2018.
Featuring performances by Stefan Erbe, Sasa Tosic, UNI Sphere, VoLt, and Johannes Schmoelling.
Details can be found on http://schallwelle-preis.de/

Thanks in advance for voting!

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

Schallwelle Preisverleihung 2015

Yesterday, it was time again for the annual Schallwelle Preisverleihung, at the familiar location of the Zeiss Planetarium in Bochum, Germany. As part of the tradition, I went there again with Michel van Osenbruggen (Synth.nl).
Before, in between and after the ceremony, there always is enough opportunity to meet up with people, friends and fellow-musicians.

The evening consisted of three parts: the first part featured an excellent performance by Picture Palace music and the first part of the Awards ceremony. The second part consisted of a nice concert by René Splinter and friends and the distribution of the remaining Awards. And the third and final part was dedicated to the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was addressed to Edgar Froese. Due to Edgar's recent passing, this year's ceremony had emotional accents.

My band Free Arts Lab was on the pre-nomination list, but didn't reach the final selection of nominees, unfortunately.
See the entire list of winners and nominees here: http://www.schallwelle-preis.de/

I already did it in person yesterday, but again: Congratulations to all winners!

Then I also met up with Wolfram Spyra, and discussed about the "Planet of the Arps".
I wrote and recorded the first version of this ambient piece back in 2010, and performed it for the first time in 2012, as solo-concert on the same location as yesterday's Schallwelle Preisverleihung. From the very beginning of the evolution of this piece I had in mind that this should be a collaboration with Wolfram Spyra. Then, last year, at the Ruins of Brederode, Wolfram and his girlfriend (and half of Moon & Melody) Roksana Vikaluk, and me performed an excerpt of this piece, fully improvised, using elements from the original piece.
Although we made satisfying recordings of this performance, and this piece definitely might be worth sharing it with the world, I still feel the need to rework and release the entire original one-hour piece (instead of only the half of it, which we did so far). So hopefully there will finally be an opportunity to work on this somewhere this year!

Me, Thorsten Quaeschning and Eric van der Heijden.

And last but not least, we have a picture of three handsome long-haired men!

2014 / 2015

2014 Has already come to an end, so it's a good time to overview the year.A year in which a lot of bizarre things happened, like three major plane crashes, including the MH17, the ebola outbreak, unneccessary murdering by IS and the Taliban. Situations which are unrealistic and hard to believe and understand. And we also had the unbelievable statements of Geert Wilders, the release of Volkert van der Graaf, the Olympic Wintergames, World Championship Soccer, the first King's Day in the Netherlands. The passing of some musical heroes, like Bobby Womack and Joe Cocker.

And - probably with not quite as much impact as above mentioned facts - here also is an overview of my own (music-related) highlights of 2014:

January 10th
Concert at Theater De Wegwijzer.
The first performance I did together with the formation which resulted into the first version of Free Arts Lab, with Jeroen Hagen (drums and percussion) and Martijn Scholte (bowed guitar).

June 27th
"Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition".
An event I organised at the wonderful location of the Ruins of Brederode in Santpoort-Zuid.
Featuring the second performance by Free Arts Lab, Wolfram Spyra premiering his new album "Staub" and Planet of the Arps (my ambient project, together with Spyra and Roksana Vikaluk.

October
October 4th, Pletterij Debat- en Cultuurcentrum in Haarlem was the location for the first concert by Free Arts Lab version 2.0 (with guitar player Petter Janse, and custom-made visuals by Sietse Bruggeling), as preparation for our gig at the Awakenings All-Dayer, in the U.K., on October 11th. A video report about our trip should be put online early new year.

December
Free Arts Lab has been nominated for the annual Schallwelle Award, as 'Best act international'.
Voting has started and you can also bring out your vote for us on the Schallwelle website until January 31st, 2015.
If you don't have any idea what our music sounds like, you should check out Free Arts Lab's Soundcloud.

Plans for 2015

Free Arts Lab
Main focus will be on Free Arts Lab and performances with this band. If you have any suggestions or possibilities for us to perform, just drop me a mail. A 20-minute compilation of our October concerts can be listened to on Soundcloud.

Collaborations
Throughout the year I started some collaborations with Gert Emmens and C-Jay, and continued recordings for a large project which I mentioned before, but of which I still can't reveal much more at this moment. I really had a lack of time to work more than I wanted on these projects.

Archives
One of the first things to come in 2015 should be the first episode of the release of my archives, in January.
Since a couple of years I already discussed with my post-production and mastering engineer Wouter Bessels about the possibilities to do something with the huge amount of archive recordings.
Within the previous 15+ years of serious music recording, I recorded a lot of new music, experiments, jamsessions, rehearsals and concerts. Just a small selection appeared on the 10 regular albums, 2 released collaborations, and 5 special / limited editions, I released so far. And a nice amount lone tracks is to be found on various samplers / compilations.
Because most of the music is specific for a certain period there's a big chance that most of it will probably never be released. An artist should definitely not release everything that has been recorded.
Besides this, there already is too much crap around. So I won't bother you with those recordings which are not yet finished, tracks which doesn't add anything at all, or contain too much errors, for example. In short: everything that's not good enough in my opinion.

But I always felt the need to release more than I did until date. Even when making selections for official releases, I considered a lot of tracks, which also could easily have made it to these albums. If they had been chosen. But they hadn't, due to fitting with other tracks and the concept and feeling I had in mind for a specific album.

From this point I decided there should be released a large part of my archives. So I recently continued sorting out and digitalize my CD, MD and MC recordings. Financially it is impossible to release all these archives as manufactory pressed cd's. Therefor I decided to offer the
"Archives" series as digital download only. At least for the moment. Exclusively from my own Deserted Island Music webshop, as high quality FLAC and MP3.
The first release will be available from early 2015. From there on it is the intention to add a new episode approximately each 6 months.
At the moment I am working on my webshop to facilitate the downloads. Keep in touch with my social media and this blog for any updates.

And...
Last but not least, rest me to wish you a wonderful and prosperous 2015!

2013 overview, Schallwelle Awards, 2014 upcoming events

Hope you have all had a nice Christmas!
Still a couple of hours until the end of 2013.

I am wishing everyone a tremendous and prosper 2014. Have a great year and hope to meet you somewhere again soon. During one of my upcoming concerts, or somewhere else!

A short 2013 overview

A year in which I released two new albums:
- "PrimiTiveS", the result of 1,5 years of studio work together with Michel van Osenbruggen, aka Synth.nl

- and the release of "Sessions 2012", which was established  after last year's session I did together with members of My Breath My Music.

October 19th Ron Boots gave the opportunity to expose the My Breath My Music collaboration live on stage during the E-Live Festival in Oirschot, which was a great experience.

An exclusive solo track, "Dresden", appeared on the "Schallplatte 15" compilation. Only available for members of the German Schallwende community.

In the 'background' I also worked on several other (non-EM releated) collaborations (of which I hope to reveal more information very soon) and did a lot of preparations for upcoming events.

Schallwelle Awards

Both projects with Synth.nl and My Breath My Music (and their related albums) have been nominated for the annual Schallwelle Awards (in the categories 'Artist International' and 'Album International'). You can vote here: http://voting.schallwelle-preis.de/
Simple intructions for the voting are also be found on this side.



2014 upcoming events

January 10th I will be doing my very first solo concert evening at Theater De Wegwijzer in Nieuw & Sint Joosland.
Besides having recorded a lot of new music for this event, I also worked on accompanying visuals.
I will get assistance on stage from Martijn Scholte on bowed guitar and Jeroen Hagen on drums.
It's less than 2 weeks from now, so don't wait much longer before ordering your tickets.
Also keep in mind that there are only 80 places available.
Information and ticket sales: http://www.theaterdewegwijzer.nl/index.php?page=programma&nr=33&item=voorstelling

Early June I will be organising an unique event at the 'Ruïne van Brederode', located in Santpoort-Zuid (near Haarlem).
This old ruin dates from the second half of the 13th century.
At least one exciting act will share the stage. As I first want to focus on my performance on January 10th, things should take shape in the short period after this. Keep in touch with this blog!

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/