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.

Sequences podcast #100

Back in 2000 I was asked to contribute a track for Sequences magazine. This track was to appear on the accompanied audio cd with Sequences magazine #25 in 2001. For this occasion I submitted a 15-minutes track, called "The Long Night". At this time I had just released my second album, "The Art of Imagination", and therefore I was really surprised with the many positive reactions I got on this track.

After nearly 20 years of exsistence, the publishing of the physical magazine came to an end, but back in 2012 - after editor Mick Garlick moved to Australia - Sequences was continued as music podcast.
As we speak, in December 2016 the 100th episode of this electronic music podcast is being celebrated with a 3-hours special edition.

Mick follows and supports me since the very first hour, which is something very special in my opinion.
A couple of months ago he asked me to submit an exclusive track again. This time for current anniversary. Which I indeed did! This unreleased piece of music can be heard below, starting at 35:10:



Initially this (edited) track was recorded as tribute to Edgar Froese, who passed away almost 2 years ago.The piece was symbolically written in the minor keys of E and F, at 70 (Edgar's age) BPM.
In the end I wasn't happy with the result as honorable tribute, so I didn't submit it for the Edgar Froese tribute release it was intended for.

Last months I have been busy with the completion of my new album "Fears", as well as performing with Mäläskä. So I decided to browse through my archives where I ran into this track. I though it would fit perfectly into the show. Because it also contains similarities with the piece of music I submitted 15 years ago, I decided to call it "The Long Night - part 2".

Enjoy the nice show!

Congratulations to Mick and all at Sequences. Keep up the good work! Hopefully with many years to come.