Mäläskä live at Pletterij and Patronaat

Mäläskä @ Pletterij (Photo by Albert Laanbroek).

Last week we experienced some really great vibes during our Mäläskä concerts.
The inspiring artistic collaboration of some lovely fellow-musicians resulted into an exciting output which we could never have predicted. And that is exactly what I like so much about Mäläskä!
Both evenings were a real blast sharing our musical journey with a lot of you. And it felt good to receive so much positive response.

Monday we kicked off with our full show at the Pletterij. In first instance intended as try-out for our performance at the Patronaat the day after, but as we had the whole evening, we also planned to do a full session for a second part.
The try-out part was Mäläskä featuring Tristan 'Lama Waaien' on bass guitar. This also was the line-up we intended for the Patronaat.

After having finished our threesome of 40 minutes, a break followed.
For the session, also Bas Broekhuis (percussion) and Joost Verhagen (vocals) joined us on stage.
We played around 35 minutes, and took another short break before doing an encore of 10 minutes.
I can try to describe the performances' content, but why not watching the entire (live streamed) concert yourself?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNsfPRsScNY

Mäläskä @ Patronaat (Photo by Nausikaä de Blaauw).

Tuesday we entered the stage at the Patronaat. Performing half an hour as support for the main act, Acid Mothers Temple.
The approach was slightly different, as we now really had to stop playing at the 30 minutes mark, instead of playing and seeing where it should end. Besides, we wanted to anticipate musically on the main act. Which was another challenge.
After the fruitful collaboration at the Pletterij, we decided to also invite Joost Verhagen for this gig.
For both evenings Petter prepared some different loops. None of the musicians heard these loops in advance, so we had to fully rely on the moment.
And to be honest, I think it worked out quite well on both evenings.

This Patronaat gig was also filmed. The material is being edited right now, so this will soon be shared with you too!

Many thanks to everyone at the Pletterij and Patronaat, crew, musicians, Acid Mothers Temple, and indeed everyone who attended the concerts and was part of the experience.

Coming time we are planning to bring more Mäläskä to you. So stay tuned!
If you have suggestions for us to perform, don't hesitate to share it with us.

Upcoming Mäläskä concerts

I am excited to announce some upcoming Mäläskä concerts.

Although we seem to have not been very active recently, Petter and I haven't done nothing in the last months.
A little while ago we did a private gig in Rotterdam, and most of the times we did sessions together in my studio.
Many, many hours of material has been recorded, so it is be likely that we will do something with parts of it in near future.

For upcoming concerts we invited some friends / fellow musicians. Both gigs will be completely different from each other, so if you consider to come to see us, please think twice before making your decision which one you will attend. Or maybe combine both!

Acid Mothers Temple.

The performance we are 'working towards to' is the one at the Patronaat in Haarlem, Tuesday October 23rd.
We will be playing as support act for Japanese space-gaze band Acid Mothers Temple.
For this opportunity we invited Tristan, aka Lama Waaien.
Tristan and I already played together a couple of years ago during one of the first editions of "Pletterij Impro Sessies".
Petter and I wanted to add some more low (by means of frequencies) to our music.
So, when thinking about an improvising bass player, I instantly came up with Tristan.

When we talked about a try-out for this show, we were warmly welcomed by Arno to perform at the Pletterij again.
Mäläskä also performed here with the "Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory" album presentation, back in 2016.
Because we will do a full show at the Pletterij on Monday October 22nd, we decided to do this as following:
Petter, Tristan and I will kick off with a try-out for the Patronaat gig. This first part is aimed to take approximately 30-40 minutes.
Then, after a break and some stage adjustments, we will come back with a second part.
Also inviting Bas Broekhuis (Broekhuis, Keller & Schönwälder) on percussion and vocalist Joost Verhagen (Grey Lotus) on stage.
We have never rehearsed or played together with this line-up, so on the day of the concert we are trying to find out if this is going to work. Really exciting.
In the case things work out positively, it might theoretically affect the Patronaat's line-up.


For information, tickets and reservations, please visit the links below:

22-10 Pletterij, Haarlem (try-out + session with guest musicians)
https://www.pletterij.nl/event/22-oktober-malaska-try-out/
https://www.facebook.com/events/247992502732564/

23-10 Patronaat, Haarlem (support act for Acid Mothers Temple)
https://www.patronaat.nl/23-10-2018/acid-mothers-temple-jpn-
https://www.facebook.com/events/1813872398704126/

Mäläskä mini concert tour

Last week Petter Janse and I did a couple of concerts with our improvised space electronica project Mäläskä.
The idea was to create something unique and spontaneuous live on stage, in the same way the material for our debut album, "Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory", was recorded in my studio.
We got the opportunity to do a couple of concerts at the time of the release. Based on completely improvised sessions, which should make every session and performance a totally unique and exciting experience. And performing this project in front of people makes it even more exciting. At least in our opinion.


Here is an overview of our mini-tour:

June 29th - Pletterij Debat- en Cultuurcentrum, Haarlem
Wednesday afternoon, around 15:45 we arrived at the Pletterij. A familiar place, because Petter and I (together with Jeroen Hagen) already performed here back in 2014 with a Free Arts Lab try-out. And I participated on an edition of the Pletterij Impro Sessions, earlier that same year.

Announcement @ Pletterij.

It is always a big treat to be at one of the most intimate and nicest venues in the centre of Haarlem. We got all the time to set up our equipment, and sound enigneer Rob and his assistant again did a great job to take care of the sound technical part.
Everything seemed to go flawless, while dinner was being prepared. We were actually ready for the soundcheck. Then, a significant power supply broke down, only 1,5 hours before the beginning of our concert.
First there was tried to solder the broken part, but the best option seemed to get a replacement at my home in IJmuiden. I had another similar power supply, but at that moment I wasn't sure about the technical specifications of it.
We departed from Haarlem around 18:30. A wonderful time for the evening's traffic jam. So it took us a while to get where we wanted. After picking up the power supply, we went straight back to Haarlem. Where we arrived one hour later.
Luckily the power supply was exactly the same as the one that was broken. Finally, we got everything working, and did a sound check.

Tonight was the album official release party of Mäläskä's debut album, "Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory".

Mäläskä @ De Pletterij.
(c) Ab Laanbroek

Although 20:00 was scheduled as the start of our concert, at the door the time was mentioned half an hour later. So we entered the stage slightly past 20:30.
I did a short introduction talk, after which Petter set in the first sounds, and there we started.

The first part of this evening last 53 minutes. Afterwards I noticed this set might have a couple of comparisons with what we created on our just released album.
Without the intention to recreate anything from our album, this first hour might incidentally have been most representive for what we were actually promoting.

Remy & Petter
seconds before the show.
(c) Michiel van Tilburg.

A break followed. Hereafter we continued with quite a different 58 minutes set. We experienced some very exciting moments, and enjoyed ourselves a lot. Musically seen we were very satisfied. And also the audience seemed to like it a lot.

We finished around 23:00. Hereafter the food we missed due to the power supply issue was warmed, again. Delicious.

The Pletterij video-recorded the first 15 minutes of the first set, and the last 15-20 minutes of the second set. The montage of this will follow soon.

Thanks a lot to all visitors, Arno Duivestein for the organisation and the delicious food, Rob Brakel for the sound, light and technical support, all volunteers at the Pletterij, Paulien Bouw for assistance and support, and Ab Laanbroek for photographing.

Announcement @ De Hommel.

July 1st - Muziekcafé De Hommel, Vlaardingen
Our concert in Vlaardingen was perhaps the one which I was most excited for.
Muziekcafé De Hommel is a location where anyone could just walk inside - even people who didn't come to listen to (our kind of) music - so we didn't have any idea what to expect at all.

We arrived around 20:00 and started to install all equipment in the back of the Music Café. In between this, we had some nice chats with the people who were already hanging around.
This time no technical issues during the setup and performances. Only 'issue' was a snare drum resonating during our first part of the evening. For the second part this background noise was removed.
The first people at the bar specially came to see us perform. Later on we also traced quite some unfamiliar faces.

Mäläskä @ De Hommel.
(c) Marco Blom.

22:30 the musical part of the evening started. The following 70 minutes we created a piece of music, which felt good to us. Hereafter we took the time to relax a bit and have drink and a chat.
A couple of people already start to leave the Café because they had to get their train. Unintentionally there was decided to do a second set. Luckily we did, because this might have been the best thing we did so far. This part last some 50 minutes. When overlooking all concerts from this mini-tour, this definitely must have been our musical highlight. Probably caused by the relaxing atmosphere and the fact we were expecting not too much from it.

As soon as the last note was struck (at approximately 1:45 a.m.) we where overwhelmed by the extremely positive response by all audience. Including the people who 'just' visited De Hommel this evening / night.

A couple of minutes later, Petter and I were interviewed by Iris Hidding for Grendel HQ. Information about the broadcast will follow soon.

Iris also reviewed the concert, and filmed the first performance.

It was about time to break down our setup, and head back home.

It would be a very short night, because within a couple of hours we already had to travel to Germany for the next gig. I got back home somewhere near 5 a.m., and got some sleep.


Thanks a lot to all visitors, Ben Visser for offering the opportunity to perform at his Muziekcafé De Hommel, and Iris Hidding for assistance.

July 2nd - Schwingungen Garten Party, Hamm, Germany
After barely 2,5 hours of sleep, I had to wake up to head to Germany.
We appointed around 10:00 somewhere halfway The Netherlands to get the remaining equipment into one car. Otherwise we would have travelled with three cars. Which wouldn't have been very practical.
From that point it was 2 hours driving to be in time at the Garten Party.
Then we got a two hours delay, because of an issue with a key which was left in a closed car.
After the incident we (Paulien, Petter, Michel and I) travelled directly to Hamm. As soon as we arrived at Winnie's, we carried all equipment into the garage.

As soon as we refreshed ourselves at our hotel, we headed back to the Garten Party to enjoy the music, the great atmosphere, nice chats, and delicious food. We were definitely having a great time.

Although I didn't actively attend the concerts during the day, I heard some nice music from the place in the back of the garden, where we sat for a large part of the time.

Different from what was announced on the concert poster, we were scheduled as the last act of the evening.
During Steve Baltes' very nice gig (which was before ours), I decided to not kick off our performance with the planned track from my upcoming solo album "Fears". Simply because I felt this should be something else at that moment.

Mäläskä @ Schwingungen Garten Party.
(c) Anke Betzler.

As soon as we started to install all our equipment on stage, it became clear that the time to do so was very limited. At that time we were already behind 3 hours on schedule. We were planned for 23:45, but our part of the programme started around 2:30.

One of the organisers, Frank Gerber, announced "Mäläskä". Petter set in the first sequence. Thomas Betzler, who was joining us especially for this ocassion, added the necessary percussion. While largest part of the day the sun had shone, it started to rain heavily slightly before we were about to start. The first 15 minutes I was absolutely unable to hear what was going on, so I decided to interrupt the thing we did at that moment. It was needed to take some time to adjust the sound to be heard on stage. Until that moment, I was totally unable to get the right focus.
The next 50 minutes we created things I wasn't aware of for a large part of the time.
Petter described it perfectly afterwards as "This is not music, this is a state of mind!" And I agree with him 100%.
Nearing the end of our gig, Petter decided to take a step back to enable me to create something that had to be created.
This lead to an intense piano solo piece, straight reflecting my feelings at that moment, joined by Thomas Betzler on percussion, who made the right additions at the right moments. Hereafter, to answer the audience's request for an encore, I did another solo improvisation.

We finished about 3:45 a.m. With which came an end to our mini-tour...

Mäläskä feat. Thomas Betzler @ Schwingungen Garten Party.
(c) Anke Betzler.

The next morning we had breakfast at 11:00, after which we headed back to the Netherlands.


A remarkable conclusion of this last performance of our mini tour I realized two days after the Party.
Actually when fellow-musician René van der Wouden posted the video from our entire concert on YouTube.
On the moment itself, the over-all feeling I had about the musical output, was not really positive. Until I saw that specific video. With some exceptions, there are some really surprising things to be heard. Anyone could have noticed some 'lack' of communication between Petter, Thomas and me. Especially within the first part. This can be explained by the technical issues, combined with the midnight time, and the lack of sleep we had the nights before.
However, in the end I think our appearance wasn't that bad at all. Although we didn't realize so at the moment of the performance. This might also explain the positive responses we got right after our performance. Actually pretty interesting.

Remy, Thomas and Petter after the gig @
Schwingungen Garten Party.
(c) Paulien Bouw.

Thanks a lot to all visitors (especially everyone who remained until the late hours to see and support us), Winfried Wiesrecker, Frank Gerber, Hans-Hermann Hess and the Electronic Circus crew for the organisation, Lutz Hilker for the sound, Thomas Betzler for getting involved into Mäläskä's musical journey, Paulien Bouw and Anke Betzler for assistance and support. And, last but not least, René van der Wouden for the realistic insight into our concert's output.

Three concerts in four days was very intensive and cost a lot of energy, but above all, it was a lot of fun, a real pleasure and wonderful experience. It always is a privilege to get the opportunity to create music together with people who are on a same musical level. Like in the first place Petter, but also Thomas. Until now Mäläskä has been an exciting journey full of surprises. And I am convinced there are a lot more surprises ahead. To be honest: I need more of it!

We are looking forward to your reactions, photos, videos and recordings. Please forward them to info@desertedislandmusic.nl.
And, stay in touch with Mäläskä's Facebook page for any updates.

Mäläskä album release and concerts

Exactly one week to go to the album release party of Mäläskä's "Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory", at the Pletterij in Haarlem.

For all of you who consider to visit one or more of our upcoming concerts (see all details below), I can assure you the content of all of the gigs will be completely different.
Although the stage appearances are linked with the presentation of our debut album, we are not going to reproduce any of the material. Everything is 100% improvisation.

So the output will be unpredictable for the audience as well as for Petter and me. We are definitely very excited and looking forward to each of the gigs a lot!

The most exciting of our concept is that everything could evolve into something beautiful, but in the worst case scenario, it also might lead to something terrible. So to speak.

Anyhow, we hope to welcome you during one or more of our upcoming concerts and it would be great to have you involved into the things we create on stage!

Concerts:

29-06-2016 - Mäläskä - "Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory" - Album presentation @ Pletterij, Haarlem

Debat- en Cultuurcentrum Pletterij definitely is one of the nicest and most intimate locations in Haarlem to perform. I already performed here before as part of the Impro Sessions and we did a try-out with Free Arts Lab.
Reserve your ticket and buy our cd in advance via remy@desertedislandmusic.nl and receive €2,50 discount.
Details: www.pletterij.nl

01-07-2016 - Mäläskä @ De Hommel, Vlaardingen 
Music Café De Hommel offers their stage for a wide variety of musical acts. The owner was very excited to have us when he heard our music. Entrance is free, so we are looking forward to share our music with everyone who is curious to attend our gig.
Website: www.cafedehommel.nl

02-07-2016 - Mäläskä feat. Thomas Betzler @ Schwingungen Garten Party, Hamm (GER)
Six years ago I already performed at one of the nicest EM events around, which is being held in the back garden of EM lover Winnie. After the final act, I will first premier a track of my upcoming new solo album "Fears", which is going to be released in October. Hereafter Petter Janse and Thomas Betzler join for a Mäläskä late night improvised 'space' session. With seven acts throughout the day, there is a full programme and I have been told that there is no concrete ending time, so also here it should be an event full of surprises.
Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1758129834400015/

For tickets, mail to: party@electronic-circus.net

Free Arts Lab @ Pletterij

Friday, October 3rd, Jeroen Hagen, Petter Janse and I did a try-out at the Pletterij in Haarlem for Free Arts Lab's upcoming appearance at this year's final edition of the Awakenings concert series, taking place in Burton-on-Trent (U.K.). This specific edition is called the 'All-Dayer' and features 6 electronic music acts throughout the whole day, instead of 3 evening concerts during the previous editions of 2014.

Early in the afternoon we set up our equipment, did a soundcheck, and we had the time to already play the entire set. It was the first time we rehearsed our show accompanied with the final visuals, which were created exclusively for our show, by Sietse Bruggeling. And it was the first gig in our current line-up.

In the first case this try-out was meant to test and fine-tune our current (relativeley complex) setup. It worked quite well, also thanks to the professional assistance and advise of sound engineer Rob Brakel.

In the end there were made some slight adjustments to our setup.

We decided to create a setup which should make it as comfortable as possible for any PA and sound engineer at any thinkable venue we are performing our music.

Each of the musicians has his own mixer, from which the output is going directly to the PA. Normally any onstage monitoring is being sent from the PA. But we chose to do our own monitoring, via routing through our own mixers.

We prepared everything in such a way that it practically doesn't need any adjustments during our show. So only configuring the PA of the venue for the main mix is an issue.

When starting our afternoon sessions, I noticed that my Korg M1's pitch bend joystick was broken.

Quite frustrating, because I really use to use it a lot. In the meanwhile I replaced the joystick with a working one from one of my spare M1's, so I am glad the pitch-bend and modulation control it available again in time for next weekend's Awakenings All-Dayer.

Free Arts Lab. Seconds before the evening concert.

After our afternoon session, all sound settings seemed to be satisfying, so we had a very relaxing break while dinner was being served.

Around 20:00 the first people entered the venue. In the meanwhile we changed costumes, and 'prepared' for the evening part. In the end around 30 people attended our try-out. Not bad, because I had no expectations at all.

Slightly past 20:30 the sequencer started, and 72 minutes later we played our last note.

Except for some wrong notes and an improvisation that could have been slightly 'better' (hey, that's live), we left the stage very satisfied.

And we were glad to hear that most of the visitors enjoyed our music and experienced a nice evening too.

Special thanks go out to Arno Duivestein (who offered us the opportunity for this try-out at this really nice and comfortable venue. Which was arranged on a very short term (only two weeks in advance). And Rob Brakel (sound engineer and video registration) from the Pletterij.

Both gentlemen were present, helpful and supportive the whole afternoon and evening.

Also many thank to Lionel Calvetti (assistant sound engineer), Angela Boogaard (video registration) and Roni Klinkhamer (cook). The Pletterij crew really made us feel at home.

Thank to Dennis van der Made for arranging the beamer, Jeroen Hagen and Petter Janse for getting involved into this musical journey, Paulien Bouw for her infinite support, and last but not least: big thank you's to all of you who attended our try-out and wished us luck for our upcoming concert in the U.K.

Free arts Lab in concert

Yesterday evening we did a very satisfying final session with Free Arts Lab before some upcoming gigs.
The last months we have been rehearsing really a lot, and since our first performance together (although this was meant as support to a REMY gig) at Theater De Wegwijzer in January, I think we are evolving into the right direction.
Within the last months, we decided to work on my music as the core of Free Art's Lab set (at least for the moment), and adjusted the setlist to create a stable basis, so all musicians have the opportunity to get comfortable with the music.
From here on it is the intention to extend all musician's individual input and influences, which might eventually lead to new musical creations. Which already is the case with our improvisational intermissions, which evolve into something completely different, each time we play through our set.

At this moment Jeroen, Petter and I prepared a 70-minute solid show, accompanied with exclusively created visuals by Sietse Bruggeling. The musical content was premiered at the Ruins of Brederode, during "Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition", 3 months ago. and now, there are some more upcoming concerts, of which the first two have been confirmed:

October 3rd

Try-out concert @ Debat- en cultuurcentrum De Pletterij, Haarlem
Tickets: €5, reservation required
http://pletterij.nl/index.php?page=12

October 11th

Awakenings All-dayer @ Paget High School, Burton on Trent, U.K.
Tickets (includes VT with the complete recordings of all concerts): £30
http://www.awakenings-em.co.uk

It would be great to share our musical adventure with you at these or any of our future gigs!

Pletterij Impro Sessies

Last Thursday I was part of an unprepared improvisation session at the Pletterij in Haarlem.
It was the fourth time the "Pletterij Improvisatie Sessies" were being held.

The edition that kicked off the concept in november 2013, in fact before the actual first edition of this series of improvisation sessions, was done by the improvisational formation "Lumière".
Two members of this band, Fedde ten Berge (self-made electronic devices) and Tjalling Schrik (drums and percussion), also joined last week's session.
The line-up was supplemented by me playing synthesizers, Just van Rossum (guitar) and Tristan "Lama Waaien" (bass guitar).

We did two sessions of approximately 45 minutes. Can't tell you exactly how long, because it felt like we played only 5 or 10 minutes. Which is a good thing, I think. Because I was rather focussed on my part and anticipating on the other contribution of the musicians, I wasn't totally aware of the final result we created together.
During the sessions I had an indication which direction the music was evolving into, but through the stage monitors it was hard to judge what the output really sounded like.
According to the many positive reactions from the audience, our sessions were well-received.
Now I am waiting with excitement for the recordings that have been made during the evening, to judge myself.

For now, there can already be seen an 18-minute excerpt from the second session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDqQFQ67-HY

Thanks to Arno Duivestein and Rob Brakel from De Pletterij and Joost Verhagen from the Haarlemse Popscene for making this series of unique collaborations possible.
I think it's a great initiative to organise these kind of events.
Where normally musicians with the same backgrounds are being put together for improvisation sessions, there has been carefully chosen to put together musicians with various backgrounds. Which might be a good starting point to create surprising music and discover unexplored musical areas.
Although there is a certin risk that a session might result into something disastrous, the organisation can be congratulated with the fact that (the chosen selection of musicians participating) recent sessions lead to very satisfying results.

Hopefully a lot of inspiring sessions will follow in future. And it would be great to be part of it again.
The next edition will be during the World Championship soccer-match Netherlands - Spain, June 13th. Where another selection of musicians improvise around the live broadcast of this match!

And for now, I have to focus on the preparations and rehearsals for the upcoming "Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition", which I am organising at the Ruïne van Brederode, on June 27th.