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.

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.

Free Arts Lab EP update

After Jeroen, Petter and I made a lot of recordings during our improvisation sessions in Ouddorp, back in March, we decided to select some of this material to work on a conceptual Free Arts Lab EP: "Futuristic Ode At The Old Village To Miss Fernande".
The last couple of months we worked intensively to establish a representive release.

Our point of view for the EP was to make a selection of fully improvised parts we created during the Ouddorp sessions in the first place, and add and edit parts where required and where possible afterwards. In the end we wanted to create a good balance of improvised and studio elements.

However, the last couple of weeks, but especially recent days, we had a lot of discussion about the quality of our production. Judging various aspects of the material's current shape.
Although we fully support the concept and material, we simply think it's not good enough to release in its current form.

As a result of this, after many considerations, we decided that the cd will not be released.

With the absence of the EP, our planned release party at the Patronaat Café in Haarlem, December 20th is also being cancelled.

It's a real pity, when looking at the many, many hours and efforts we put into sculpting this project, but it is how it is.
So coming time we will just continue our activities and work on the future plans of Free Arts Lab, and where an eventual release should fit.