Visit to Brussels and Paris

Last weekend I went to Paris, together with Peter Dekker, for some business purposes.

Peter, myself and Mark at the Brussels Planetarium.

Friday, February 28th, our first stop was the Brussels Planetarium. The location where Peter Dekker, Mark de Wit and myself join forces for an evening of electronic music on June 21st. Three new albums will be presented and performed live by Peter Dekker (Synquentium - "Immersion in Total Emptiness"), Mark de Wit (Rhea - "Soon") and myself (Planet of the Arps - "Planet of the Arps 2"). Ticket sales start within coming days.

Hereafter we travelled to our hotel in Poissy, west of Paris. We were about to stay here, in the provence of Yvelines, until Monday.

A couple of months ago, Peter and I did a recording session for our next collaboration, which had also been filmed partially. To complement these recordings, and to visualize the concept connected with the music, we wanted to make film recordings on the location of Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, to integrate into the video.
I will tell more about the story behind this later.
Saturday morning and early afternoon, and Sunday morning, we focussed on filming around this 12th century castle and its surroundings, 20 kilometers west from Paris, including a wonderful view of La Défense, on the other side of the forest in between.

Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Then, on this same location, we had two meetings, both related to this project, as well as Space Art.

In the evening we had an appointment with Dominique Perrier's son, Jimmy. We spoke about his father, Space Art and exchanged ideas about the future (or at least about keeping alive the legendary's band's legacy). It still is too early to say something about this, but coming weeks or even months we will sorting out and digitalize various material.

Sunday afternoon we had another appointment, again with Jimmy, and Marine, on the east part of Paris. Marine also had been connected with Dominique for quite a while.

Monday after breakfast, we drove back home, and had another stop near Brussels to meet another friend.

Back home again, I have to prepare the last bits for my upcoming "Exhibition of Dreams 25th Anniversary" and Martijn Comes' "Frixtis" releases, which see the light on March 7th.

Session with Däcker

One week ago I recorded an exciting new project with Peter Dekker (aka Däcker).

After I produced Däcker's debut album "Pareidolia" back in 2020, we were on stage together for the first time later that year, at BYSS (of which the registration was released earlier this year). Hereafter Peter was involved into a couple of concerts with Mäläskä in 2022, and I again did some production for his second solo record "Anthropomorphic Personifcation", which was released last year.

However, this new project had been in my mind for quite a while, which got shape when discussing this with Peter last couple of months, and which finally came to life last Monday, thanks to good friend David Smelik.

David and I go years back, where we made music together in several settings. However, this was the first serious project we did together.

Peter and I had a clear vision of what this project should more or less sound like. Recently, we rehearsed a couple of times and tried out several settings. Only thing was that we had to do play the main instrument with a synthesizer, instead of a real one, but that already worked out very well.

The core of this project had to be a grand piano. And David was able to arrange one.
Despite some minor cosmetic trifles, a wonderful and very characteristic 19th century Steinberg (not to confuse with Steinway) grand piano, at a acquantaince's living room, which we were permitted to play and record for a whole day.
With David's ideas regarding the recording and registration of the piano and environment, we decided to invest into renting some of the best possible recording equipment. Better not having regrets afterwards.

The evening in advance, David, Peter and I moved the grand piano in place, installed all equipment, and set up the microphones and audio and video recording equipment, so we didn't have to lose much time on technical stuff on the recording day.

Initially we were aiming for a piano-based project (which might eventually lead to an album release), 
which should be entirely improvised (just like "Live at BYSS").
But an album full with only piano pieces wasn't the way we wanted it. We also didn't want to have a common electronic approach we are used to, by means of using synthesizers with sequencers or whatsoever.
Where you can cover up any irregularities or mistakes with electronic sounds and effects, playing the piano requires some kind of play-technical skills. Indeed things don't have to be super tight, but any miss-hit will be noticed. Things also have to be built up different instead of 'securely' starting for example a sequencer or pad chords. In the end Peter and I see ourselves skilled enough to establish this.

However, for the variation and dynamics, we did involve some synthesizers and electronica.

We made use of my Korg MS20 and Korg ER1. Both instruments have audio inputs, which we used to process sounds (in this case, the piano parts) in real-time. Then, the  MS20 was also used for effects, while the ER1 also produced some rhythmic elements.
Additionally, Peter's Sequential Prophet 5 was added, to have some analog sounds contrasting the clean piano sounds.

And last but not least, we also experimented with prepared piano, making use of a bow, percussion sticks and brushes, keys and a drinking glass.

Currently I am mixing a selection of the audio recordings.
As it's now, we have selected 1,5 of around 6,5 recorded hours, which might be useable for an album release.
David sorts out the many hours of video recordings and photos. I have only seen some short excerpts so far, which looked awesome! I assume there will definitely be something to share with you on short term, so stay tuned!

Session with Synth.nl

Last weekend I visited Michel van Osenbruggen (aka Synth.nl) to record new music for the first time since our 2013 "PrimiTiveS" collaboration.
Although we have always been in touch, we both simply didn't have the opportunity to be in the studio together much earlier.

In the meanwhile Michel got a new place and new (temporarily) studio, and it was a pleasure and inspiring to have a good time and create new music together again.
We spent largest part of Sunday and Monday to record the structures of at least eight pieces.

As we both have some other projects running too, it will be earliest 2025 that any results should be ready for a possible album release. Indeed I will keep you informed!

Thanks to Michel and Sonja for their hospitality.

REMY & Däcker live at BYSS

All packed.

Last Saturday Peter Dekker (aka Däcker) and I did a concert live stream at the BYSS studio of Bas Broekhuis.
BYSS was recently established by Bas, who already did something similar almost two decades ago with his Virtuele Theater.
In the meanwhile techniques have improved, and current times demand online events more than ever before. Great iniative, and a pleasure to follow recent concerts by Ron Boots and Skoulaman (Hans van Kroonenburg) at this same location.

I was looking forward to it so much, because of a couple of reasons.
It was my first and only concert of this strange year 2020, and it definitely felt good to be back on stage.
On top of that, it actually was the first live concert stream I ever did. Ok, I did concerts with an audience which were also streamed, but this was different.
Then, it was a pleasure to do this concert together with my good friend Peter Dekker. Recently I produced his debut album "Pareidolia", which was released on my Deserted Island Music label, under his alter ego Däcker.

Initially I was quite sceptic about live streams. Especially when loads of artists decided to do free streaming concerts at the start of the pandemic, while they normally would have played for a paying audience, didn't feel right.

FoH view at BYSS.

When Bas Broekhuis contacted me two monts ago, it was the intention to let perform me or Mäläskä on his virtual stage. Although I have released my latest solo album "The Other Side" earlier this year, it didn't feel the right moment to perform this, because I was focussed on other more recent projects, including the one with Peter Dekker, and the new Space Art album. However, I am looking forward so much to bring "The Other Side" to the stage with another opportunity.
Then, Petter (with whom I do together Mäläskä) currently had other priorities, so it immediately came in mind to join forces with Däcker for this BYSS session.

You all have to know that "Pareidolia" by Däcker was born out of an improvisation session, recorded by Peter in August 2018. Peter had doubts he could fill 1,5 hours of live music himself, so we soon immediately agreed to do the performance together. Not focussing of any existing material, but let go all expectations, and just play. Blending both our influences and visions into a non-prepared improvisation session.
However, I did a lot of studio work with his 2018 recordings, and added my part to it, but it was only two weeks ago that we played together for the very first time. Although this might have been risky, it luckily worked out pretty fine! So the basis was set for this concert.

Setup at Peter's living room.

 

Last Friday I went to Peter's home to set up all gear we were about to use during the concert, and we took the afternoon and evening to technically prepare the gig, and do a rehearsal. Then we wrapped all equipment together, and headed to the most Northeastern part of the province of Groningen Saturday afternoon.

After Peter and I arrived at Bas' farmyard (the studio is built in a former pigsty) around 15:15, we set up all equipment, which went really smooth, and prepared for our live appearance really easy in the remaining hours.

Last couple of days I had already been busy preparing the visuals, but I also worked on something special for Peter. His musical heroes and inspirators Rob Papen, Steve Baltes, Michel Huygen, Eric van der Heijden and René Splinter recorded some very nice messages about their connection/friendship with Peter, "Pareidolia", and the upcoming concert. While featured as introduction of our performance, Peter only got to see this after the concert, and I was pleased to know it moved him.

Live!

Then, at 20:00 the video intro started and 5 minutes later we kicked off our concert. The only thing we appointed was that Peter would set in the first note, and the part which concluded the performance. Outside of some pre-programming, nothing of the one and a half hour to come was discussed in advance. Which I like so much about improvisation.
Then, the first note was struck by Peter on his E-Pro Spirit, and the next 90 minutes we played passed by before we realized it, and left us with satisfaction. It was a real pleasure to watch and listen the entire concert myself the day after, and read all comments. Thanks a lot for everyone involved, and the positive vibes. I think I am also speaking for Peter that this really gave us a boost.

After the concert we had a little chill out, before packing all our gear together, and headed to the west again. For me it was almost a three hours drive, but still kicking from all adrenalin, and the good conversations together with Peter, made the time pass by without noticing.

It was a pleasure to do this concert together with Peter. Hopefully there is more to come in 2021!
Thanks to Bas Broekhuis for this great opportunity and the warm welcome, and I expect to come back to BYSS in the new year with Mäläskä and perhaps also REMY.

The entire concert stream, including the introduction can still be watched (and commented on) on Facebook. I will also put it on YouTube later this week.

The final 30 minutes of the concert were also broadcast live on radio Haarlem 105, hosted by Wim Dekker. The archived program can be listened to via this link.

And also write down January 2nd, 2021. The entire concert is going to be broadcast during Electronic Fusion #278. Normally hosted by Jos Verboven, but for this episode, Peter and I will take over the show. Supplemented with more of our recently released music.

Then last but not least, for all gear nerds, here is the list of used equipment:
Peter: ASM Hydrasynth, E-Pro Spirit, Moog The Rogue, Roland VP-330, Sequential Prophet 12.
Remy: Clavia Nord Rack 2, E-Pro Minisynth, Korg Kronos X, Novation Supernova 2.

Mäläskä - First Day of Spring [new album release]

For April 11th there are scheduled three new album releases on my Deserted Island Music label:

- Mäläskä - First Day of Spring
- REMY - The Other Side
- Space Art - Entrevues

I will spotlight each of these albums on this blog within next couple of days.
Starting with the new release of Mäläskä: the improviational project of Petter Janse and me.

Pre-order your copy from www.desertedislandmusic.nl

First 50 physical orders include a free poster!



Mäläskä - First Day of Spring

Deserted Island Music | DIM-009 | CD and digital download | Release date: April 11th, 2020

Then we felt the wind.
And we knew that this was an omen of things to come.
We’d let go of our luggage and personal belongings.
Then we threw away the map and the book of rules that kept us on well-known roads.
We’d forget all rhythms and melodies that attached us to the old world.
For the first time we felt freedom.
This energy inspired us.
It was the first day of spring.
From ‘The secret teachings of Gerhard Schultz’

TRACKLIST
1. First Day of Spring
2. Dialogue Between Birches and Oaks
3. Song for the World
4. Die Morgenlandfahrt
5. Green Glasses Don’t Make the World Green
6. Crisis? What Crisis?
7. Dawn for the Pollution Eating Elves
8. In Loving Memory

THE ALBUM
From November 29th to December 2nd, 2019, Petter Janse (guitar, electronics and stuff) and Remy Stroomer (synthesizers, sequencing and stuff) locked themselves into a house in the small village Jannum, in the Dutch province of Friesland. They brought a large amount of equipment which was put in the right place in the living room, all cables were connected, and from the moment there was any sound, the recorder was turned on. Within the next days, Petter and Remy recorded 11 hours of unprepared improvisations. Joined by Bas Broekhuis (drums and percussion) on the final day.

Although the musical output was quite varied, the over-all loom state of mind during these days resulted into the ambient mood of the tracks selected for First Day of Spring.

Anyone should listen to the music to know what it sounds like, however, the musical content has already been described as ‘classical electronic music of the future’ by one of the very early listeners. This soundtrack sets the mood for this year’s first day of spring.



THE STORY SO FAR
Petter Janse (Rotterdam, 1963) and Remy Stroomer (Haarlem, 1979) are the core of the improvisational act Mäläskä since 2016.
Their first creative studio sessions instantly resulted into the well-received debut album Uncle Jim’s Cidney Factory. A soundtrack about party animals and dropouts at an American college.
After their first offense, Petter and Remy invited various artists to join their studio and live sessions, resulting into fruitful collaborations with Thomas Betzler (drums and percussion), Tristan ‘Lama Waaien’ (bass), Joost Verhagen (vocals) and Bas Broekhuis (drums and percussion).

Since Mäläskä’s establishment, the formation performed several times in the Netherlands, Germany and U.K. Own evenings, festivals, as well as support shows for Acid Mothers Temple and Monomyth.
From the very start, the promise of Mäläskä has been affirmed through international reviews and airplay.
With this second album release and some upcoming shows, Mäläskä threw away the map and the book of rules that kept them on well-known roads.

Bas Broekhuis, Petter Janse, and a lot of equipment in the living room.

Environmental view from the house in Jannum.

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.

A weekend in the life of Mäläskä

Last weekend Petter and I rented a house to focus on our Mäläskä project, by means of creating new music and adjusting our setup / equipment.

We travelled to the province of Drenthe, in an environment with a lot of agriculture, and in the middle of an area where some serious Dutch music history was established.
And because we were a couple of kilometres away from the nearest big city, it was the perfect location to gaze to the very bright starry sky.

Our intention in fact was to get inspired and work unforced on new material when being in a different environment than where we normally make music. Fact is that we have to be productive once we are in my studio, within the limited couple of hours we have once in a while. Last weekend we didn't have to cope with that, which resulted in more than eight hours of newly recorded improvised music.

Friday and Saturday afternoon Petter and I adjusted some of our equipment, programmed a bit, and did a couple of jams together.

Saturday evening Wouter Bessels visited us and critisized the two sessions we did during his presence.

Sunday we got accompanied by Bas Broekhuis, who brought a drumpad and his very cool Oval electronic hangdrums. During the day and evening we did a couple of sessions together. At the moment of the jams we experienced some great vibes.
When Bas left the building, Petter and I did another session, after which we already had to unwire our equipment.

The next morning we headed back home again. In the meanwhile I listened back to a large part of the recordings of all sessions, which sound at least as satisfying as on the moment of creation. These very inspiring couple of days generated many new ideas and insights. And I have a strong feeling that the beginning of Mäläskä's next chapter started here.

To be continued soon!

2016 + new album

Happy New Year!
Hope you are having a wonderful and healthy 2016.
Indeed surrounded with a lot of great music.


A very large part of last year I dedicated to activities with and around Free Arts Lab. On which I will definitely spend a lot more hours in 2016. But more about this later.

New studio album
Last summer I also recorded the material for what will become my tenth* studio album. Actually my first new solo release since 2011's "i-Dentity".

* Despite the fact "i-Dentity" partially consists of live recordings, you might consider 2009's "EoD" as my last solo album. And if you don't count this re-interpretation from my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams" - so not 100% new material - as a new solo album, it must be guaranteed "This Is Not The End", from 2008.
So it took me somewhere in between 5 and 8 years to come up with a new long player.
I am excited to finally have something completely new to share with you, very soon!

In the past five years I worked on a couple of other projects with for example Synth.nl, My Breath My Music, Ron Boots, Planet of the Arps and Free Arts Lab, and did some performances. Also a concert registration, "The Great Church Trilogy", was released on cd in 2011, and download only compilations "Archives 1" and "Archives 2" saw the light in 2015. And then there are even some projects on which I have also been working in the background. Which might have been the main explanation of the fact that the announcement of a new solo album took so long.

Besides, there was a need to come up with something slightly different from my recent albums. This simply needed time.

About the upcoming release
The new project is called "Fears".

One of the emotions that intrigues me is 'fear'. Just like all other emotions, it is part of human life. And there are moments that emotions affect our lives more than we want.
The impact differing for each situation. Some emotions - and so fears too - can be controlled. Some can't.

You can fear losing someone dear, fear failing a test or losing your job, fear stupidity or power, or you can have a phobia for creepy crawling creatures. Fears might be there when you encounter certain confrontations or when you enter a plane.

With our activity on the internet and the power of various media, more negativity than ever is being spread. Sometimes creating a lot of unneccessary fears. Today, terrorism, racism, hate, attacks and war are getting much closer than we want and than we are used to, by means of for example the large amounts of refugees, confrontations with extremism. But also in mind comes the increasing extreme weather. Just to name a few. 

In the end we should keep in mind that - especially in current times - fears should never get the upper hand of our regular lives! And that is not always that easy.

Airplay
The first excerpts from the new album can already be heard during upcoming radio shows:

- January 10th: House of Prog, REMY-special and interview (recorded in September, last year) by Iris Hidding:
https://www.facebook.com/events/981384411920205/

- January 16th: The Hawke Chill Out Sessions @ Harborough FM, live interview by Terry Hawke:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1641507272770596/

More details about the album, artwork, release, etc. will follow within the coming months.
There has not been set a release date yet.

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!

Free Arts Lab update

It might have seemed rather silent around Free Arts Lab, but the last weeks we have been very busy making music in my studio.

In first instance Jeroen, Martijn and I rehearsed for recent "Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition".

After this event it was decided that Martijn would go into an other direction after we discussed the band's future plans.

While preparing for the upcoming Awakenings gig in the U.K. (Burton-on-Trent, October 11th), as well as other future performances, Petter Janse joined Free Arts Lab, after a couple of try-out sessions.
Petter is an experienced and wide-oriented composer and guitar player.
According to me and Jeroen, the new collaboration feels like an excellent addition to Free Arts Lab and the musical output our band would like to achieve.

But there is more!
Besides the musical developments, Sietse Bruggeling did a great effort creating and customizing visuals for Free Arts Lab's current setlist.
Within the coming period this part will be fine-tuned, but for now you can already watch a preview of this part of our show: http://vimeo.com/103143972

The next weeks we will continue rehearsing and developping their set for the upcoming shows. Any media will be updated as soon as here is something to share with you. So stay tuned!

Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition

As you could have read in my previous blog post, I am organising an music evening at a very special location.
Here is all information:

On the evening of Friday June 27th, 2014, Deserted Island Music and Heerlijkheid Brederode present:

“CHILL AT THE CASTLE - ELECTRIC EDITION”

A magical evening at the historic location of the Ruïns of Brederode, situated in Santpoort-Zuid (just outside of Haarlem), featuring a wide range of live electronic music performed by the finest musicians in the electronic music scene around:

• Free Arts Lab (Remy Stroomer, Jeroen Hagen, Martijn Scholte)
• Wolfram Spyra
• Planet of the Arps (Remy Stroomer and Wolfram Spyra)

The Castle of Brederode was founded in the second half of the 13th century.
In between 1351 and 1573 the castle did undergo several attacks and pillages. And in the 19th century the remains were one of the first buildings to be restored by the government, and the became the first national monument of the Netherlands.

The concert site offers place for around 200 people, seated in front of the stage, which is situated in front of the large wall of what once was the kitchen.

Information and tickets: www.desertedislandmusic.nl/brederode

FREE ARTS LAB
The group Free Arts Lab is founded in 2014 in Haarlem by Remy Stroomer (keyboards/ synthesizers), Martijn Scholte (guitar/bowed guitar) and Jeroen Hagen (drums/percussion). All three come from a different musical background. With Remy’s electronic and ambient compositions, the name refers to the Zodiak Free Arts Lab or ‘Zodiak Club’. This club in Berlin once was a place where musicians were unlimited in developing their experimentation. From the same point of view and free state of mind of musical creativity, Free Arts Lab combines different art forms together in live perform-ances and studio recordings.

Remy Stroomer (1979, keyboards/synthesizers/compositions) starts to take keyboard-lessons at the age of nine and around the same time, he creates his first com-positions. At the end of 1999, Remy’s first album “Exhibition of Dreams” is released as a double-cdr on the independent AKH Records and that marks the start of a enduring career as an award winning solo-artist. Besides, Remy also collaborated with Ron Boots, Synth.nl (Michel van Osenbruggen), Gert Emmens and My Breath My Music. He has released thirteen solo-albums under his own name.

Martijn Scholte (1978, guitar/bowed guitar) has played and sang in various poprock and progressive rockbands, besides his singer-songwriting. His musical inspirations are mainly This will destroy you, Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin, Helios, Sigur Rós, Hammock, Patrick Watson, Gravenhurst, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd and Radiohead. By combining and experimenting with a variety of styles, Scholte aims at a wide sound. His choice for bowed guitar stems from his affection for Sigur Rós’ music and his love for the cello. This results in an extra dimension and a soundscape from his guitar.

Jeroen Hagen (1970, drums/percussion) has a broad interest for music and art. His musical foundation is influenced by bands from the sixties, the early seventies and the nineties. He has been part of several bands, covering symphonic rock, rock, grunge and folk, mainly from the Rotterdam-area. His most important influences are The Beatles, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Yes, Bob Dylan, The Who, Neil Young, Stone Temple Pilots, Norman Cook, Pearl Jam, Weezer, Johnny Cash and The Black Crowes.

REMY discography
Exhibition of Dreams (1999), The Art of Imagination (2000), DisConnected (2003), Connected (2003), Different Shades of Dust (2004), Sense (2006), This is not the End (2008), EoD (2009), Exhibition of Dreams - 10th Anniversary (2010), i-Dentity (2011), The Great Church Trilogy (2011), PrimiTiveS (2013, met Synth.nl), Sessions 2012 (2013, with My Breath My Music).

WOLFRAM SPYRA
Wolfram Spyra (1964) is a composer of electronic music, sound artist born in Eschwege in Germany. Sound is his art form. He has worked for film, television, theatre, dance and as sound designer.
Spyra began his career in the early 1990s constructing soundscapes and installations around Germany. He has collaborated with a wide range of visual artists, musicians, producers and DJs and released several albums, starting in 1995 with “Homelistening Is Killing Clubs”.
Spyra’s focus is on electronic music. While sometimes experimental, most of his music has a certain acces-sibility in terms of the rhythmic and melodic components.
Spyra’s new album will be released in June 2014 and reveals the complexity and strangeness in analog synthesis. He calls his new found genre ‘post-electronic’. The record will have its world-wide live premiere at “Chill at the Castle - Electric Edition” at the Ruïns of Brederode on June 27th.

Spyra discography
Homelistening Is Killing Clubs (1995), Phonehead (1997), My Little Garden of Sounds (1997), Future of the Past (1997), Sferics (1998), Etherlands (1999), Elevator To Heaven (2001), Invisible Fields (2003), Meditationen (2005), Orphan Waves (2006), High Phidelity (2007), Gasoline - 91 Octane (2008), January in June (2009), No Beats For One Hour (2010), tba (2014).

PLANET OF THE ARPS
As the ‘grand finale’ of this evening at the ruin, Wolfram Spyra will join Remy Stroomer for a real-time rework of Remy’s one hour ambient piece “Planet of the Arps”.
This original composition dates from 2010 and has been performed live by Remy at the Zeiss Planetarium in Bochum (Germany) in September 2012.
From the time the musical piece was finished, Remy wanted Wolfram to rework this track.
Now, four years later, this project has finally brought both artists together and an excerpt of this piece will be created live at the ruin.

Another very productive "Primitives" studio session

Last weekend was a very productive and intensive one, having worked for two days in a row in the Apollo Studio with Michel (Synth.nl) for the production of our "Primitives" album.
Although we are in the final stage of the process, there still is a lot of work to do.
Everything is absolutely manageable, but we really need to tune both our schedules as efficiently as possible the coming 4-5 weeks.
We now particulairy focussed on the mixing of two tracks which needed most attention. They also got a nice boost with the addition of some extra solos and effects.
And unfortunately we have had an very unexpected technical issue with another track, which took a lot of our precious time. Luckily, this morning I received a phonecall from Michel that he fixed the problems.

Another part of our recent session also consisted of discussing the mastering and post-production process with Wouter Bessels.
Wouter (who has been doing the mastering for my solo albums since 2008) is going to concentrate on this final phase of our project, before the audio master is being sent to the factory.

Next month we should  at least have two more studio sessions to complete "Primitives", and in the meanwhile Michel and I both will make some more adjustments in our own studios.