"The Return of Planet X" album release, Tangerine Dream, and more @ E-Live 2017

A bit belated, but here is my impression from recent E-Live festival, held at Theater De Enck in Oirschot, October 21st and 22nd.

Ron Boots talking to a full house. Photo © Rob Enzlin.

This year's edition was a special one in the festival's history, because the event was spread over two days instead of Saturday only.
When the regular festival day was already sold out rather quick after the announcement of the headlining Tangerine Dream, E-Day's organiser Ron Boots decided to add a second concert date, which was set to the day after.
This second concert didn't sell out, but in the end an approximate 500 people visited the weekend.

I decided to only visit the Saturday.

In the first place because I was about to present my new album release, "The Return of Planet X".
Secondly because I didn't have the urge to book an overnight or travel quite the distance another time the next day.
And third, Tangerine Dream.

Let me explain this third reason:
Since early 00s I stopped following Tangerine Dream's activities, until I saw Edgar Froese performing at the T/U Eindhoven (E-Live's previous location) and Tangerine Dream's concert at the Loreley, both in 2008. In my opinion both concerts contained nice moments. Nothing more, nothing less.
When tickets went on sale for Tangerine Dream's first concert in Oirschot, I decided to give it another chance. My friend Wouter Bessels convinced me to do so. And on the other side I was curious what Tangerine Dream was about without front man Edgar Froese.

Slightly with mixed feelings, because of the fact that the band Loom (consisting of Froese's son Jerome and fellow ex-TD member Johannes Schmoelling, as well as Rob Waters) sounds more Tangerine Dream to me than the original band's line-up since the passing of Edgar Froese.
It might not be a surprise that this situation generated some discussion between both bands, as well as amongst fans from the first hour.

Edgar Froese's wife Bianca fully supports the continuation of her (in 2016 passed) husband's heritage in its current form, with band members Torsten Quaeschning, Ulrich Schnauss and Hoshiko Yamane.
Coinciding on this day she presented her husband's autobiography "Force Majeure", which was long awaited by the fans.

As usual, during the day there were a couple of concerts. This year's time table contained concerts by Beyond Berlin, David Wright & Carys, Sonic Rider, and so Tangerine Dream (presenting "The Quantum Years - in honour of Edgar Froese").
Mainly because of the fact I was presenting my freshly released "The Return of Planet X", I 'missed' all concerts, with exception of the main act.
However, I already saw David and Carys during last summer's Schwingungen Garten Party. Same goes for Beyond Berlin, which I witnessed performing at De Enck a while ago.

In between the concerts a nice amount of people visited the stall to buy my new release "The Return of Planet X". People who already pre-ordered the album, also picked up their bonus disc.

Tribute to Edgar Froese.

Then came the moment that Tangerine Dream entered the stage. It took me 10-15 minutes before I could let go the fact I was listening to Tangerine Dream with expectations. From that point I enjoyed every bit of it. First the brilliant first two hours, containing new tracks, as well as some classic TD tracks, like "White Eagle", "Rubycon", "Logos" and "Song of the Whale", of which the latter memorated Edgar Froese, sentimentally coincided with projected portrait photos.
Followed by a 50-minute fully improvised jamsession after the break. Craftmanship and simply amazing!

The global sound mix was hypnotizing. In my opinion a brilliant decision. Without doubt containing clear Tangerine Dream elements and links to Edgar Froese's trademarks, this time carried over by the new generation of musicians.
It was good to see and hear the effective collaboration between the musicians on stage. Only point of criticism could be the fact that the violin player seemed to have not much to do a large part of the time, and just stood there silently. While she was set up in the middle of the stage, there was no opportunity for her to leave the spot. But who cares, especially when you had closed your eyes to enjoy the concert?

Thorsten, Hoshiko and Ulrich. Photo © André Stooker.

Concluding this concert, I was more than surprised about the brilliant output. It definitely has an reason that these musicians are still performing together as Tangerine Dream, despite the fact it will never be Tangerine Dream anymore after the passing of Edgar Froese.
But attending their concerts without any expectations, it was one of the best electronic music acts I have seen and heard in a while.

Nice detail: both evenings featured completely different music. Which must have made it an absolute treat for everyone who visited both concerts.

Hat off for organiser Ron Boots, who once again did a lot of efforts to organise a valuable event proving electronic music is still alive.

As always it was a great pleasure to talk to and have fun with a lot of people during the day.

Also thanks a lot to my lovely wife Paulien, who took care of my album sales.

Finally I got back home around 2:30 a.m.

Coming time I will continue activities around "The Return of Planet X" and some upcoming projects.

Recently there has already been quite some airplay of "The Return of Planet X", the first reviews start to come in, and besides the physical release the album will soon also be availble as digital download from Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and many more sites.

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

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.

Groove New Year's Party

Last Sunday I participated on Groove New Year's Party, at Theatre De Enck in Oirschot. The same location as where the annual E-Day and E-Live festivals are being held.

 In 2012 I also joined a previous edition of Ron Boots' new year's concert, where a lot of Friends played along on the host's music, but this time the concept was slightly different.

The first part of the afternoon started around 13:30 and lasted approximately 75 minutes.
For this part Ron invited some Friends to join him on stage. Besides the usual suspects (and members from the band Morpheusz), Eric (keys and flute) and Harold van der Heijden (drums) and Frank Dorittke (guitar), there were introduced some fellow musicians from the electronic music scene. Bas Broekhuis on percussion, and on keys: René Splinter, Martin Peters, René de Bakker, Jeffrey Haster, and me.

At the beginning all where introduced one by one to enter the stage. Jeffrey starting with the first effects, joined by the others as soon as they entered the stage.

Ron Boots took care of the main mix, so he didn't play along with us during the first set.
This first part consisted of 100% improvisation. Actually Ron prepared a track to improvise on, but he decided to offer room for all other musicians to do their thing in the first place. Martin, Jeffrey and I also prepared some sequences / arpeggios, on which everyone could improvise. This was the core of the first part of the afternoon session, which didn't leave time for Ron's track.
The session was a challenge, because we never played together in this combination.

From time to time it was hard for myself to judge what this first part of the show sounded like. There were moments that I couldn't hear myself very clear, which resulted into some out of key chords and notes (but it could easily be that this wasn't noticed by the audience). And sometimes it took quite some effort to hear who was playing what. Simply too much to hear. Not unexpected when keeping in mind the large amount of musicians (10!) on stage.
The first half was concluded with a new track by René Splinter and Eric van der Heijden, dedicated to special guest and 'mother of the EM-scene' Sylvia Sommerfeld.

Then a break followed. People also had the opportunity to buy cd's from the various present musicians.

The second part of the afternoon was done by Ron Boots, Eric and Harold van der Heijden and Frank Dorittke, who delivered an excellent and decent performance. Playing music from Morpheusz, Eric van der Heijden, and Ron Boots, including the respected opening track from his "Acoustic Shadows". And Frank Dorittke performed a great Pink Floyd collage.
After approximately 75 minutes, Ron once again invited all musicians on stage for an encore. For the second time everyone on stage improvised on the sequencer by Martin Peters.
I think this piece worked out fairly nice.
Here you can see an audience video recording (by Yolande).

After around 15 minutes of improvisation, Ron again named and thanked all individual musicians. All stepped forward on the stage. Except for Jeffrey, who played the last notes of the day.

It always is a pleasure and experience to create music with other people. And I totally agree with Ron Boots' conclusion: these kind of events should take place more often.
To gather various musicians with just one purpose: making music. And it would be a great thing to share the magic that is being created with as many listeners as possible. A successful concept that for example could already have been experienced in the past at the legendary Ricochet Gatherings.
Looking forward to the next occasion.

All used photos (except for the first one, which I shot myself, just seconds before we kicked off) were made by André Stooker. Here you can see the entire impression by André Stooker.

E-Live 2013

Although yesterday ended with a bitter aftertaste, we could look back on a very successful E-Live Festival.

Saturday October 19th was the day that I got the opportunity to expose the collaborational project I started more than a year ago, with members of the My Breath My Music foundation, at this annual electronic music event.

With only one track for each of the students as base (featured on our recent “Sessions 2012” release, as the result of the session we did back in August 2012). I had to compose new tracks for a full performance (of 45 minutes). Containing one new solo track, as well as another track with one of the Magic Flute players.

During the day we did three performances. One of the students representing one set. Due to health issues Korneel Oskam couldn’t join us unfortunately. So Glenn Nugteren, Christian Gouweleeuw and Karin van Dijk got the opportunity to show their skills.

Set 1: With Glenn Nugteren.

13:15 I started the first set, with Glenn Nugteren. Due to some technical issues we started a bit stressful (but in time), but I think this didn't reflect into the music at all. In fact everything worked out excellent. Glenn seemed to be completely relaxed and from the beginning his chill Magic Flute sounds were absorbed perfectly into the pads of the opening track. Indeed I will still have to listen to the recordings, but at the moment of the performance, the flow of the complete set felt really natural. Starting this first set with a full upper room, and also ending it with all seats filled, gave a lot of energy.


Set 2: With Christian Gouweleeuw.

Then, three hours of waiting before the next gig could take place. Due to the late ending of the concert on the main stage, we started about 20 minutes later. Christian Gouweleeuw made his appearance. He also didn’t seem to cope with nerves or so, which also resulted into a very smooth performance during the second set. Unfortunately not all seats were taken, but (as known) 17-18:00 isn’t the most comfortable time for a performance, because of dinner-time. So be it!

The beginning of the final track, the volume of the choir produced with the Magic Flute started a bit too loud, but very soon I already forgot this happened. Looking forward also hearing back the recordings of this set.

Soundcheck for set 3: with Gert Emmens, Karin van Dijk and
Ruud van der Wel.

20:15 Should have been the start of our third set, but also here we started about 10 minutes later because of the ending of the preliminary concert on the main stage. We kicked off with a new track which I wrote together with Gert Emmens. To start with Gert on keys. As soon as Karin van Dijk joined on Magic Flute, Gert took place behind his drum kit. After only one rehearsing session, one week ago, I was very satisfied with yesterday’s output (in fact this goes for all three sessions).

The 20-minute opening track was followed by an energetic sequencing solo track, joined by Gert on drums.

Once this track was finished, the situation occured that one of the E-Live crew members asked me - while I was playing - about the remaining length of my set. Which was not a very proper way to handle in my opinion. While this question could have better be asked to my sound engineer, it already got me out of my concentration.

Secondly the organisation was known with the length of my sets (max. 45 minutes per concert), and should have known better.

Then... 90% of the present audience (and it definitely was a full room) left all of a sudden,, like a herd, after the second track was finished. Still one to go... The audience noticed what just happened, and apparently found it more important to be the first to enter the main hall and get their front row seats. Leaving 5 minutes before the hall doors actually opened. So we could have easily finished our remaining 15 minutes without any of this have happened, as in the end there where at least 5 minutes left before the headlining concert was actually about to start.

Afterwards, festival organiser Ron Boots told me that - due to this situation – he decided to open the doors of the main hall 10 minutes later. Only problem was that the spectators of our concert weren’t aware of this, which yet resulted into the sudden departure of most of the audience.

Thanks to the driven Karin, I decided not to abrubtly end the gig, but to complete the remaining part. Which felt like an eternity to accomplish... So actually I don’t have any idea what it sounded like, as from the moment of disturbance on I had not a single clue what I was doing but pressing some white and black keys...

After the regular programme I’ve had a good talk with Ron Boots to empty my thoughts and get things clear. Although we didn’t agree on all points, it was all o.k. in the end.

Nevertheless I still have a bitter aftertaste, but my anger has already cooled down on this day after. 

Just for your information: with my plea above, I will not make any offends or start another discussion, but I felt the need to tell the situation the way I experienced it yesterday. Mainly because we didn’t come to E-Live ‘just’ to play some music, but to share a part of our lifes and emotions with the audience. It sounds sentimental, but it is just the way I experience it. notwithstanding it concerned an upper room concert, and not the main stage. You should know that this was my fourth appearance at the E-festivals (and I hope this definitely wasn’t the last one), which I see as an absolute privilege. But despite the upper room is mainly used for 'newcomers' or 'less known' artists, I expected a slightly more careful treatment. Again, things have been spoken out, so for now, for me, the discussion is closed.

 

In the end it’s always easy to let negative issues overrule the positive things. When resuming the whole day, we could only agree that all of us had a great experience, which was received very well by a lot of people.

Musicians and crew.

 

Big thank yous go to the organisation of the festival. Thanks to Ron Boots (who gave us the opportunity to expose this project to a larger audience, which is definitely highly appreciated very much), All present audience and people who supported My Breath My Music by buying the “Sessions 2012” cd. Thanks a lot for your interest and for all your positive and motivating reactions.

And despite the fucked up ending, I especially want to thank all of you who did not leave the room 10 minutes before the end, and had the respect and patience to stay with us until the very end of the show. You didn't give a fuck to just take the seat behind the one you could have seated when having joined the rest of the herd to witness the concert of ARC. Thanks to you we were able to finish our set (although it felt like one of the longest 10 minutes in my life...). This meant a lot to us! So much appreciated!

And last but not least: this project couldn’t have taken place without the help, support, assistance and cooperation of Ruud van der Wel (My Breath My Music, sounds and musical assistance), Wouter Bessels (sound, mixing, technical assistance) and Paulien Bouw (sales and assistance). And most important, the musicians: Glenn Nugteren, Christian Gouweleeuw, Karin van Dijk and Gert Emmens!

Enough for now! The coming days I will concentrate on one of my other passions: computer gaming! And then... reloading for some very interesting other projects to get involved into. First of all preparing my solo concert at Theater De Wegwijzer.

And getting busy with another event I am going to organise myself at a very special location. More information soon...

Above featured additional photos were taken by Paulien Bouw, Karin van Dijk and Erwin Wolters.

E-Day 2013, "PrimiTiveS", and more...

"PrimiTiveS" released
One week ago, "PrimiTiveS" - the album by Synth.nl and me - was released and presented at the E-Day Festival in Oirschot. The cd can be ordered from Groove Unlimited (www.groove.nl) or directly from me (www.desertedislandmusic.nl). Also MP3 and FLAC downloads are available from Groove Unlimited.

Information and soundclips: http://www.synth.nl/music/collaborations/primitives

Besides the 'casual' airplay and announcements, an extensive 2-hours "PrimiTiveS" special (including interview with Michel) was aired during April 7th edition of 'Sunday Synth' by Bruce Gall. And here are links to the first reviews:
- A Ultima Fronteira Radio (Roberto Vales)
- Sonic Immersion (Bert Strolenberg)
- Synth & Sequences (Sylvain Lupari)

Within the coming days the Ambient Visions website should also feature an extensive interview with Michel and me. And I hope to announce more reviews and media appearances very soon.

E-Day 2013
A couple of weeks ago it was very uncertain if the festival was going to take place (due to dissapointing ticket sales), but in the end about 200 people found their way to Theatre De Enck. Even more visitors than last year's edition.
Besides chatting a lot and promoting and selling my music, I've also attended some of the concerts. Strangely enough I am not always in the mood for electronic music at these kind of festivals, but this time I more or less was.


Synthex and Gert Emmens.

 One gig I was really looking forward to was the one by the 14-years young Synthex (aka Jeffrey Haster). He was accompanied on stage by Gert Emmens on drums and keys. According to his first appearance (which was the one I saw), I think the young boy from Eindhoven did an excellent job.
He was very conscious about every thing he did, and together with experienced colleague Gert Emmens, things worked out very smooth and natural. A pleasure to listen to.

I unfortunately missed the concert by Bernhard Woesteinrich, but did catch most of the TMA & Alien Nature gig. The kind of electronic music I really like. And very attractive to whitness due to a dynamic line-up: Torsten 'TMA' Abel and Alien Nature on synths, Martinson on guitar and Thomas Betzler on drums and percussion. Their show consisted of strong and intriguing themes. Great stuff!


René Splinter in action. (c) Phil Booth.

 Another concert where I was looking forward to very much, was the one by René Splinter.
The day in advance René phoned me somewhere in the evening, a little bit in panic, because his transport cancelled at the very last moment. Although completely not on the route, Paulien and I picked up a lot of his gear. Luckily René's concert could go on, and it definitely was the highlight of this year's edition of the festival. His 'old' as well as new material matched perfectly and his skilled keyboard-playing made the whole concert a pleasure to listen to from the beginning until the end. The excited audience also got two encores, to conclude with an excellent performance of "Palace of Dreams". René's variation of the famous Tangerine Dream piece - which was also performed on this same stage by its composer Johannes Schmoelling (as part of the legendary Loom concert) on grand piano, during E-Live 2011 - was at least as exciting as Johannes' version. Excellent!
For me this was the musical end of this - again - very nice day. Code Indigo headlined E-Day 2013, but at this point I've had heard enough music for the day.
Neil Fellowes gave me Code Indigo's new cd-release afterwards, so I am going to listen to this formation's new album very soon!
Instead of the concert I have had a very nice chat with Ruud Heij. Hereafter Paulien and I left direction Rotterdam, to drop René Splinter's equipment.


From the archives: early 1999.

And more...
Last Thursday I performed at an intimate "reunion" evening at my former high-school.
Kicking off the event with one of my solo electronic music pieces, and concluding the "classical, jazz and vocal" concerts (as it was announced) with a performance of an occasional formation (consisting of a singer, saxophone player, bass player, drummer, and me on keys) I've been part of in the end-90's.
We've actually only made music during festivities related to the school, but after our recent rehearsing studio sessions, we decided that it would be fun to eventually play together more often and write new material. Really looking forward to this very much! Besides this and an upcoming studio session with another band, I am working out plans for some exciting upcoming "solo" projects for the end of this year / early 2014.


With students of My Breath My Music.
Press photo (c) Paul Oomen.

 With about two months there will be released a musical session I did with physically disabled children from the establishment 'My Breath My Music'. End 2012 I've already wrote a blog item about this special and spontaneous session, but now it will also come to a cd publication.
De basis consists of some of my tracks on which the students improvise with the special developped Magic Flute wind controller.
The students were totally unfamiliar with my kind of music, and we had never played together before, but all of the four skilled children contributed to the very unique output, of which we find it of significant value to have a release of. Proceeds of the album sales will go to the establishment 'My Breath My Music'. More information on this upcoming release follows soon!

"PrimiTiveS" final stage

"PrimiTiveS"
Last weekend Michel van Osenbruggen (aka Synth.nl) and I completed the final mixes from our forthcoming "PrimiTiveS" album release. It was a very exhausting part of the process, only listening very focussed to every detail, and trying to trace any kind of unwanted clicks or errors which might eventually appear. After last Monday's final listening check there can be concluded that everything sounds excellent.
In the meanwhile Wouter Bessels started his mastering and post-productional activities.
Exactly one month to go for the release and presentation at the E-Day Festival in Oirschot. Really looking forward to it. Hope to see you there!

Here is a render of the artwork, created by Michel:

To give you an impression what the album sounds like, there will be uploaded some excerpts on my websites within the coming days.

For all of you who have a Facebook account, and haven't yet seen photos of our previous sessions in the Apollo Studio, check out Michel's photo album.

And... the album can already be pre-ordered from Groove Unlimited.