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.

Space Art - Entrevues [new album release]

For April 11th there are scheduled three new album releases on my Deserted Island Music label:

- Mäläskä - First Day of Spring
- REMY - The Other Side
- Space Art - Entrevues

I will spotlight each of these albums on this blog within next couple of days.
Now it's time for the new album by the legendary Space Art.

Pre-order your copy from www.desertedislandmusic.nl




Space Art - Entrevues
Deserted Island Music | Limited edition LP | Release date: April 11th, 2020

TRACKLIST
1. Lunes
2. Psychadeliose
3. Retrouvailles
4. Meteo
5. Inox
6. Atmosphere
7. Space News
8. 2 B
9. Nous Savons Tout (remixed by Diakar)

THE ALBUM
Entrevues is Space Art’s first studio album since Dominique Perrier's Space Art Tribute (2012).
This new album is initially available as limited edition LP, and consists of two parts.
The first six tracks sound like they were written during the band’s early stages, back in the 70s. Brand new and fresh sounding electronic music compositions, partially co-produced by Tommy Rizzitelli. One of these typical Space Art tracks (Inox) features drums by Tommy’s father Roger - half of the band's original line-up - who passed away in 2010. For the other five of these music pieces, Tommy took place behind his drum kit, and perfectly succeeded to maintain his father's legacy.
To conclude the album, the classical sound makes place for three energetic modern style pieces. Including collaborations with Michel Valy, Marc Hazon and Lilli Lacombe. Familiar faces for anyone who attended any concerts Dominique and his friends in the last decade. Music that has only been performed live so far (Space News), an instrumental of a single track (2B) and a remix of one of the band’s classic themes (Nous Savons Tout), make this album a dynamic and varied journey though time and memories.

SPACE ART
Space Art was founded by Dominique Perrier and Roger Rizzitelli.
They are considered pioneers of the French electronic music genre.
The three albums that were released between 1977 and 1981 sold more than 3 million albums worldwide. During this period, Space Art had various chart hits, including Onyx and Speedway.
The band opened and joined Jean Michel Jarre's tour in 1981, being the first Western musicians in the the early post-Mao China.
After having been part of Jarre's concert and studio team for almost three decades, Dominique Perrier quit Jarre's band in 2010. With Space Art Tribute (2012) Dominique gathered musicians for the second phase of Space Art, and pays homage to Roger Rizzitelli and Jannette Woollacott. From that point Space Art did a number of international concerts, had festival appearances, and new music and re-issues of the classic albums were released.

Dominique Perrier and Roger Rizzitelli in 1977 (photo 1), Dominique Perrier (photo 2), Tommy Rizzitelli (photo 3).

Dominique Perrier (1950) might be called a legendary collaborator from Jean-Michel Jarre. Recognized as a keyboard virtuoso, he collaborated on all Jarre's albums from “Rendez-Vous” (1986) to “Oxygène 7-13” (1997), and toured with him until 2010. Dominique was also involved into productions of Christophe, Gipsy Kings, Didier Marouani & Space, Stone Age, and composed a number of movie soundtracks.

Roger “bunny” Rizzitelli (1951-2010) also worked with many artists, including Christophe, Claude Francois, Didier Marouani & Space, Thierry Matioszek, Nicoletta, and Dick Rivers.

Roger's son, Tommy Rizzitelli (1987), partially co-produced Entrevues.
Besides having collaborated with Low Parade, Faze, Goyokin, Bleu Tonerre, Simon Widdowson, and many other artist as a studio musician, he is also educator at Jazz Action Valence.

New REMY, Mäläskä and Space Art albums

I am delighted to announce three brand new releases! These new titles will be available on April 11th.

To start with, a new REMY 'solo' album, "The Other Side", was in first instance scheduled for the end of last year. But due to the "Exhibition of Dreams" 20th anniversary celebration, this release was postponed until April 11th.
The four extensive album tracks contain some elements from the traditional electronic music, but also touch the borders of my musical interests.

With artistic collaborations by Bas Broekhuis, Judith Wesslius, Joost Verhagen, and Nausikaä de Blaauw.

For what I had in mind, this would have been the only release for early 2020. But then, during the end of 2019, plans slightly changed.

The last weekend of last year's November, Petter and I - accompanied with lots of equipment - locked ourselves into a house on the other side of the country, to create and record new Mäläskä stuff. The final day, Bas Broekhuis joined us during sessions. Read about it here.
The weeks that followed, we made a selection from the 11 hours of music that was recorded.
"First Day of Spring", is described as 'classical electronic music of the future' by one of the very early listeners.

And then, also late 2019, I was contacted by Dominique Perrier related to a brand new Space Art album. Inititally to be released as limited edition LP.
The result is new music, which is for the largest part in line with the band's early music from the 70s.
"Entrevues" is a valuable collaboration with Tommy Rizzitelli on drums, who perfectly succeeded in maintaining his father's legacy.
While the first part of the album consists of typical old-school Space Art style, some never before released tracks have also been added to the album's tracklist.


Coming days I will dedicate blog items to these individual albums.

For now, you can pre-order the new REMY, Mäläskä and Space Art albums from www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

E-Day Festival 2017

Last Saturday, April 29th, E-Day 2017 took place at the usual location of Theater De Enck in Oirschot. With approximately 225 visitors it was an nicely average attended festival.

I have been on stage on various editions on both E-Day and E-Live throughout the years, but Saturday evening was most likely the one I was most excited - and perhaps also most nervous -
about.

Dominique Perrier.

As you could have read on previous blogs, I was invited by Dominique Perrier to join his legendary formation Space Art for E-Day 2017's headlining concert.
It was an absolute honour and privilege to be part of this!

Last Wednesday I already had to get my stuff together for the weekend, because I was about to have a small holiday.
Thursday and Friday I luckily had some time to have final rehearsals before the actual showcase.

All of you who are familiar with my music may perhaps know that I am really into improvisation most of the time.
For my solo music (sometimes as part of my arranged compositions, sometimes entirely improvised) as well as with for example Mäläskä (where we don't know at all in advance what we are going to do).
There have been various projects which I composed and arranged, but performing structured songs - like those from Space Art - live on stage, is something I hadn't been used to for a long time.
That was the reason it cost me some more efforts than usual to get the parts and especially song structures into my head.

Space Art (from left to  right: Lilli Lacombe, Marc Hazon, Dominique Perrier, and me).

According to the many reactions I got afterwards, people really seem to have liked the concert.
At least I really enjoyed every second of this gig.

Because I was focussed on the Space Art concert, I unfortunately didn't catch anything of the other concerts during the day and evening.
Throughout the day I had various nice conversations, including some which might result into some exciting new projects in near future!

Thanks a lot to Ron Boots for organising another flawless edition of the festival, and for having Space Art as headlining act.

Also many thanks to Erwin, Carina, Michiel and Petter for their assistance with the sales.

Featured photos taken by André Stooker.

Space Art

Marc, Dominique and Lilli checking the JD800.

It's only two weeks to go until the E-Day Festival in Oirschot!
There will be a great line-up containing a wide variety of electronic music acts, including Moonbooter, Arcane, Pyramaxx and Space Art.

After five years, legendary French synthesizer formation Space Art returns to Theater De Enck in Oirschot.
Where the band first entered this stage in 2012 as part of their promotional tour, it's now time for a full headlining concert.
This year, Space Art celebrates the 40th anniversary of their first record from 1977. While we speak, there is being worked on a new album, and the band prepares for a world tour.

Lilli, Dominique (in mirror) and Marc
rehearsing.

Since the last series of concerts the band's line-up has been slightly changed. This time co-founder Dominique Perrier (synthesizers) invited Lilli Lacombe (keys, violin, vocals) and  Marco Hazon (drums) on stage.

And I am extremely honoured since Dominique also asked me to be part of Space Art too.

End December 2016, I visited Dominique, and we talked about Space Art concerts for 2017. Of which the first is going to take place during the E-Day Festival on April 29th. Last week we have been rehearsing for this upcoming electronic music event.

Dominique and Patrick having
a technical discussion.

It's a real pleasure to make music together with such a talented group of musicians. Looking forward so much to perform this project on stage!

If you haven't obtained your ticket yet for the E-Day Festival, don't wait too long buying your ticket, and support the festival and performing artists.

Tickets and details: www.e-live.nl

2016 Overview

I would like to wish you a wonderful, prosperous and musical 2017.

2016 has been a very active musical year for me.
It all started with my new album, called "Fears", which was already scheduled back in 2015. For this first solo studio album in 5 years there was done a lot of studio work.
Details:  https://desertedislandmusic.nl/shop/cd/remy-fears-3-detail

While working towards the new album's release date of October 27th, there were published re-releases of my existing albums so far. All remastered by Wouter Bessels, and including revisited artwork.
In between May and October, each three weeks another title became available as digital download.
Details: http://exhibitionofdreams.blogspot.nl/2016/09/all-remy-remastered-albums-available.html

Then also episodes 3 and 4 in the "Archives" series were released in respectively April and October.
"Archives 3" contains tracks from 2007. "Archives 4" covers earlier musical years (1999-2000).
Details: http://exhibitionofdreams.blogspot.nl/2016/10/archives-4.html

Completely unexpected was the fully improvised output, established together with Petter Janse. With Mäläskä we released our debut album, "Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory", as well as we did a couple of concerts in the Netherlands and Germany.
Details: http://exhibitionofdreams.blogspot.nl/2016/06/malaska-album-release-and-concerts.html

Another special moment was the My Breath My Music in Concert event in Zoetermeer, on October 9th. For this ocassion I wrote a new piece which I performed together with members of My Breath My Music. On this day I also received a special award.
Details: http://exhibitionofdreams.blogspot.nl/2016/10/concerts-with-malaska-and-my-breath-my.html

The November edition of LivePodium Magazine featured an interview about my music and new album: https://www.joomag.com/magazine/livepodium-magazine-uitgave-19-november-2016/0928803001479832643?short

In December I submitted an unreleased song for the 100th edition of Sequences podcast.
Details: http://exhibitionofdreams.blogspot.nl/2016/12/sequences-podcast-100.html

And, during the last days of 2016, I visited my friend and legendary musician of electronic music, Dominique Perrier. This year is the 40th anniversary of his formation Space Art, which is going to be widely celebrated. I am very excited and honoured to be part of this! Within the coming weeks there should become available details about this celebration, including the announcement of worldwide concerts. 

Visit www.desertedislandmusic.nl for all releases by REMY, Mäläskä and Space Art. 

Now the new year has started, it also is time to vote for the Schallwelle Awards again!
REMY and Mäläskä both have been included in the list of pre-nominees, in the categories "Artist International" and "Album International".
During January you can vote here: http://schallwelle-preis.de/voting/en/

I am looking forward a lot to the musical year 2017. I have a lot of plans for new releases, concerts, and organizing another event myself again. Hopefully there will be enough time to establish everything (or at least as much as) I want to do. Probably not, but we will see...

To close this overview, here are some announcements of broadcasts: 

1-1-2017
E-Cloud - Electronic Music Radio Online, hosted by Marc van Oers.
My new album "Fears" is album of the month. A track from this latest released is aired.
Stream: http://178.21.116.54:9090/live
22:00 - 23:00 CET 

January 2017
Dreamscape Radio, hosted by Ron Boots.
Featuring the first 36 minutes of the New Years Party concert in Theater de Enck, back in 2015.
Participating musicians:

Harold & Eric v.d. Heijden, FD Project, Remy Stroomer, Jeffrey Haster (Synthex), Bas Broekhuis, Rene Splinter, Rene de Bakker, Martin Peters.
Stream: http://www.dreamscaperadio.nl/

E-Live Festival / "Fears" released / Space Art

Yesterday my new album "Fears" was released at the E-Live Festival.

A sold out Theater De Enck in Oirschot again was transformed into a gathering of people with passion for electronic music. Ron Boots and his entire crew again did an excellent job with the organisation and smooth course of the day.
 

Loom.
Photo by Wouter Bessels.

The venue was fully packed, mainly because of the headlining Berliner formation Loom. The already legendary line-up consisting of Johannes Schmoelling, Jerome Froese and Robert Waters, established their status 5 years ago with their sublime debut concert at this same venue. Without doubt the best concert I ever witnessed during the existence of the festival, so these three musicians had all eyes and ears focussed on them.

Kicking off with a subtle very fine first hour, mainly consisting of new material, it really got loose two tracks before the end, with some hypnotic and energetic sequencing. Great stuff. Halfway there also was an emotional part dedicated to the in 2015 passed away Edgar Froese. Accompanied with nostalgic and historic video images. After this a break of half an hour followed.

Johannes Schmoelling playing grand piano.
Photo by Wouter Bessels.

The second part contained a pretty amount of classic Tangerine Dream songs, including one of my favourites, "Towards The Evening Star". This rocked! Johannes also performed wonderful versions of his "Kneeplay no.9" and Tangerine Dream's "Pergamon" on grand piano. Epic.

Compared with the 2011 gig, the focus was more on Loom's own material. Which was a daring move, but absolutely the best decision to show the band is definitely not a Tangerine Dream reincarnation or clone. Exposing the musician's individual talents and skills in a sublime way.

After the last track, Loom did an encore, and made an end to the second part after approximately 90 minutes.
Although this concert didn't have the overwhelming effect it had during their debut, Loom delivered an outstandig and solid show, without a dull moment.

On this day I also attended the second concert by Michael Brückner, Sammy David and Thomas Betzler in an upper room of De Enck. It contained some pleasant parts. Nice addition was the projected ecoline / oil blendings, which were manipulated in real-time.
Although I would have liked to, I unfortunately didn't manage to attend the other concerts.

And then, for me the main reason of being at this edition of E-Live was the release of my new cd "Fears". After months of working on the album it was finally the moment to share the new music with the world. Although "Fears" is my 10th studio album, it always is exciting to release something new.

I received many nice and positive reactions of people who already heard some of the tracks, and saw the artwork.

All of you who don't own "Fears" yet, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev8o5kxGbFo

for excerpts. The album is available from www.desertedislandmusic.nl

Stefan Erbe interviews Dominique Perrier.
Photo by Paulien Bouw.

Around 19:00 Dominique Perrier arrived at the venue to present some new releases.
These releases will be added to the www.desertedislandmusic.nl webshop within the coming days.

He did a video interview with Stefan Erbe, which will be published soon.
After the festival we talked about future plans and concerts for 2017. Hope to have some exciting updates before the end of the year.

In the end, everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves on this wonderful day. Paulien (who took care of the sales) and I also had a great time, with nice people, dito conversations, fun and good music. Next stop will be the B-Wave Festival in Belgium.

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/