New release: The Return of Planet X

I am delighted to announce an upcoming new release, scheduled for October 21st:

After last year's very well received "Fears" - REMY's only solo album from the last five years - Dutch synthesist Remy Stroomer comes up with the release of the project which partially inspired the 2016 album.

2012 marked many prophecies and theories about 'the end of the world'. Also Hollywood heavily anticipated on the doom scenarios mainly based on predictions by the Mayans, more than 5000 years ago.

Strangely, the scenario of the return of the so called 'Planet X' - as predicted by the Sumerian people from approximately 5000 b.C. - wasn't highlighted.
When browsing the internet, and digging into available sources, the story of Nibiru (a huge planet from another 'nearby' solar system which enters ours every 3600 years and passing earth closely during its ellyptic orbit) and the Anunnaki (the planet's inhabitants) could also be a good reason to cause more panic when it concerns earth's destruction and the demise of its inhabitants.

Remy got intrigued by the subject of Planet X after a conversation with a friend about a 'second sun' - which was spotted by many people lately all over the world.
When doing research Remy found many sources and facts suggesting the story - or at least parts of it - could easily be real.
On the other side, there are also enough sources that reject all theories or prove opposite.
In any case the story of Planet X remains highly fascinating and mysterious, and therefore became the inspiration for a musical interpretation.

May 19th, 2012 - in the estimated year of the arrival of another planet into our solar system - a musical tribute to Planet X was performed live at an one-off event organised by Remy
Stroomer and Ron Boots. The wonderful location of the Grote of St.Bavokerk in the centre in Haarlem became the scenery for this project to be staged.

"The Return of Planet X" was divided into three concert-parts:
- Part 1: Composed by Remy Stroomer, and performed by Remy Stroomer (synthesizers and grand piano), Wouter de Ruyter (violin), Dick Bijlsma (violin) and Martine de Ket (cello);
- Part 2: Composed by Ron Boots, and performed by Ron Boots (synthesizers), Eric van der Heijden (synthesizers), Harold van der Heijden (drums and percussion), and a 10-piece choir.
- Part 3: Improvised by Remy Stroomer (synthesizers, grand piano and C. Müller Organ), Ron Boots (synthesizers, grand piano), Eric van der Heijden (synthesizers, C. Müller Organ), and Harold van der Heijden (drums and percussion).

Remy Stroomer's new release, "The Return of Planet X", contains the entire first part, as well as the third part's improvised piano prelude by Remy and Ron and the 'grand final',
where Remy and Eric play the historic and impressive C. Müller Organ.
Part 2 was already released back in 2012 (Ron Boots - "Signs in the Sand"), and is available from www.groove.nl.

"The Return of Planet X" will be released on CD and as digital download and is going to be presented by Deserted Island Music at the annual E-Live Festival in Oirschot, on October 21th.

Order your copy from www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

Mixes for "Fears" finished

Mixes for my upcoming studio album "Fears" are finished! Last week I did the final touches on each of the tracks. Within the coming days all music will be listened carefully to. If there are no issues, Wouter Bessels will start the mastering. In the meanwhile I can finish the artwork and prepare the promotional stuff.

By the way: have you already pre-ordered "Fears" from www.desertedislandmusic.nl? First 50 orders will get a free strictly limited and numbered bonus disc, containing never before released music.
There are still copies left, so don't wait too long.
 

"Fears" ready for pre-ordering

As from now, the new REMY solo album "Fears" can be pre-ordered from www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

This pre-order offers you to get the album at latest 1 day before the official release date of October 29th. But, there also is something exclusive for the first people who buy the album.

Everyone who orders the cd, gets a strictly limited and individually numbered cd-r (only 50 copies available), which will be included for free with your order.
Everyone who orders the download (MP3 or FLAC), receives the cd-r's exclusive content in the same format as you have ordered the album. However, the download version is not individually numbered.
This bonus material consists of never before released music.

Pre-ordering is available until October 28th, 2016, or until stock lasts. So don't wait too long ordering your copy!
Eventually remaining physical copies after the pre-order period will be available for the first customers.

And yes, currently there are no direct sound clips, and no artwork. But, I hope you have a little more patience. Things will be revealed within the coming days and weeks. So stay tuned!

New studio album in 2016?

Recent weeks I have been mixing for the upcoming Free Arts Lab EP, as well as my 2012 project "The Return of Planet X". Both should be released within the coming months, so detailed information on these releases is going to follow soon.

And in the meanwhile, I even found time and inspiration to record a nice amount of new music, which is very likely to become my next solo studio album.
Although there still need to be made minor adjustments to the tracks, most of it might already be considered as finished.

With the new REMY-album in the making, I am attempting a slightly different strategic approach.
As part of this, Concertzender's X-Rated* radio host Bob Rusche visited my studio yesterday, for an exclusive pre-listening session of the upcoming album.
And yes, indeed this was combined with delicious food and drinks, pleasant conversations, and more of these things.

While my most recent studio release "i-Dentity" (and after this there were also released a live registration ("The Great Church Trilogy"), as well as two collaborational projects (with Synth.nl and My Breath My Music) and the first episode of my archives recordings ("Archives 1")) already dates from 2011, I didn't have any urge to release another new album. Simply because I felt that the music I recorded since then, didn't add anything new (or at least insufficient) to my current catalog. In the years in between I did write and record a lot of new music for various occasions, and although I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with these established tracks, I didn't have the feeling that any of these tracks would lead to the base for a new long player, in a way I had in mind.
But then, with the recently recorded new material, this situation changed. Actually without being planned so.

The new REMY-album is likely to contain 7 tracks with a total duration in between 70 and 80 minutes, with a rather minimalistic and slightly sober approach.
A total of 7 tracks, which might sound quite different from each other, but are clearly connected.
Having in mind to have a physical release early 2016, I already hope to reveal some audio within the coming weeks / months!

The idea for this project evolved indirectly from the concept of "The Return of Planet X".
A intriguing subject which I have already planned to write about detailed as soon as the release date has been set.


In the meanwhile I will focus on publication opportunities and schedule for this new release.


* X-Rated is aired each Sunday from 21:00-23:00 (CET), and can be listened to via the audio player on the Concertzender's website.

New music pc in the studio

Last week I picked up a new music pc.
My previous computer had been in my studio since 2007 (after having worked for years with my precious Atari ST), and after having done the maximum cpu and memory upgrades and having installed Windows 7, last year, this 'oldie' seemed to have more and more problems to run stable.
Within the last years I got more demanding concerning sound quality and useage of VST's, so I was asking more of the computer's cpu and memory.

Since a couple of weeks I already got some harddisc error-messages, and the rebooting seemed to be a problem more and more.
Recently I didn't manage to get the pc turned on anymore. When switching on the computer, only the fan started to rotate.
Although I did already plan to buy a new system somewhere later this year, I was really hoping for a replacement after the upcoming "Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition", for which I still have to do some production work. So it would have been really great if my workstation could have served me at least for another month.

My previous music-pc was built by i4-Muzique in Eindhoven, and because I was very satisfied, I also bought the new one from them this time. They customize rather silent computers, built in 19" units, so it fits perfectly into my studio rack. One of the advantages was that my old housing could just be re-used for the new system.

Within the coming days I hope to reinstall all software, connect all equipment, and get the new pc running again, so I can continue working on the last bits for the Free Arts Lab performance and collaboration with Wolfram Spyra, on June 27th.
After this I am already really looking forward to work on more upcoming planned projects with Gert Emmens, Synth.nl, C-Jay and Free Arts Lab, as well as on the continuation of a very long-running exciting project for which I finally might have some more time again. Hope to reveal some details about this soon.