Awakenings #98 (All-Dayer)

A couple of months ago Peter Dekker (Däcker) and Hans van Kroonenburg (Skoulaman) were confirmed as part of the line-up of the 98th edition of the Awakenings electronic music concert series.
Not to be confused with the Dutch dance festival with the same name, but the English - quite underground - traditional electronic music event, to be held several times a year since 2004, at the current location of Lea Hall Social Club in Rugeley.

Shortly after the confirmation of Däcker and Skoulaman's appearance, the idea rose that I could also be part of the line-up. Which came together nicely, as their first collaboration was going to be released on my Deserted Island Music label, as well as I was already working on some new solo material.
Then, it had already been a while since I performed there. The first time in 2012, with a REMY solo performance, followed by appearances in 2014 (with Free Arts Lab) and 2017 (with Mäläskä).
The first of these were at the Paget High School in Burton-on-Trent, and the 2017 and current editions took place at Lea Hall Social Club in Rugeley.

So I was added to the list of performers, as part of the Awakenings All-Dayer.
The All-Dayer takes place once a year, and features five live acts during the day and evening, instead of the 'regular' two or three artist editions.

As the festival took place on Saturday, November 25th, Peter, Hans, my wife Paulien and I travelled to the U.K. by ferry one day earlier.
Peter and Hans stayed the night at Steve Whitlan's (fellow musician, and also involved into the Awakenings concerts) place. Paulien went to visit some friends, where we were invited to stay.

The next day was concert day. Because we all had to travel another 3,5 to 4 hours to the venue, we should have left far too early in the morning to be in time at the build-up time of 10:00. Instead, we arrived slightly past 13:00, when the opener of the Awakenings All-Dayer, Ashok Prema, just started his performance. Ashok and I had been on the same stage before, also during Awakenings, back in 2014, so it was a pleasure to meet again after his performance.
As the 'stage' was already full of equipment for the three acts playing the afternoon (Bouvetoya and Monkey Trial followed), we got the opportunity to set up our gear in the large break, between 17:00 and 19:00. So more than enough time to get everything working.

Photo by Phil Booth.

The evening program / my concert took off at 19:00, and improvised about one hour around new music, potentially for my next solo album, due for 2026.
After a short break Däcker and Skoulaman entered the stage and did their improvisation, including some themes and sequences from their just released "Saudade" collaboration album.
I slightly got lost in time, but I thought their part of the evening lasted for 70 minutes.
For an encore, I joined my two friends, and we improvised for another 15-20 minutes. I think it worked very well, keeping in mind we had never performed together before in this setting. And then an end came to the Awakenings All-Dayer 2025.

Encore. Photo by Genghis Postlethwaite.

In between the concerts I spoke to quite some people. It was a pleasure to meet a lot of you (again).
Thanks to everyone being present at this edition of Awakenings, and supported the artists and organizers by purchasing a Virtual Ticket and merchandising. Without you these kind of wonderful initiatives definitely have no right to exist.

When the hall was emptied from all equipment and cables, and our cars were packed, we parked our vehicles at our appartment, just around the corner of the venue.
Time for a drink or two and aftertalks, and finally back to our appartment when we were kicked out of the bar due to closing time.

'Afterparty' selfie with Hans, Peter, Phil, Mike and myself.

Sunday, after one hour extra sleep, because of winter time, Peter and Hans returned to Steve's home, and Paulien and I had some sightseeing in the wonderful Cambridge. Where we had plenty of time, as we only had to be at the ferry for our trip back around 21:00. After the sleep-over on the ferry, we came back home rather early the next day.

Thanks a lot to Phil Booth, Jez Creek and Dave Buxton for the organisation, and welcoming us again at their Awakenings event. It's always a pleasure to perform here.
Thanks to Peter Dekker and Hans van Kroonenburg for their good company and making music together.
And thanks to my beloved Paulien, and Hazel and her friend Phil for their hospitality. Really cool you were also there during my performance.

Remains the good luck for the 99th, and upcoming editions, and indeed the many Awakenings concert series to come! Looking forward to come back again soon!

Coming weeks there is no time to relax, as there still has to be done a lot of work for upcoming Deserted Island Music label night at the basement of the former V&D building in the center of Haarlem, on November 13th. There also has to be rehearsed for my participation together with Däcker at De Keuken at Pletterij in Haarlem, November 17th.

Awakenings

Last Saturday it was time for the September edition of Awakenings. The electronic music event, where I performed twice before (a solo performance in 2012, and with Free Arts Lab in 2014) at the previous location in Burton-on-Trent, is now being held at Lea Hall Social Club, in Rugeley.
A smaller and more intimate venue than Paget High School.

Petter Janse and I were invited to perform here with Mäläskä last weekend.
We departed from The Netherlands on Friday morning, September 15th, took the ferry from Duinkerken, and overnighted in Folkestone, just south from Dover.

The next day we drove to Rugeley, while having a lot of heavy traffic on our way. Anyway, we were in time to get our equipment installed.

Sinewaves Light.
(Photo by Phil Booth)

The first concert, by Sinewaves Light started at 18:10, and ended at 19:00.
Mike Parrott exposed a wide variety of different touches of electronic music.
Despite the fact that the performance was technically sloppy from time to time, it contained some really good parts and themes. Very enjoyable.
The different tracks were clearly inspired by (or at least they contained clear comparisons with) the music of John Carpenter, James Horner, Vangelis, Jarre, and also featured some serious Berlin School sequences.

Infinity Curve.
(Photo by Phil Booth)

After the first break of half an hour, routiniers and frequent Awakening performers Jez Creek and Peter Challoner debuted as Infinity Curve.
Some dark and sinister ambient sound sculptures kicked off their one-hour set.
Subtle evolving and constantly emerging layers made this a very delightful and exciting listen.
After ten minutes a sequence appeared and evolved into some nice uptempo ambient.
From time to time some very subtle solo leads in the background, and also more than enough happening constantly, by means of sound effects, structures and samples.
After every following sequence part, another ambient passage made the bridge to the next sequencer sections.
Excellently balanced, great sounds, interesting layering, and brilliant sequencing. Really awesome!

Mäläskä.
(Photo by Phil Booth)

Then another 30 minutes break (in which we checked the final technical things) before Petter and I made our appearance.

We set off with some soundscapes, after which the first sequencing was done. Alternated with atmospheric passages.

A short impression from the first part of our gig can be seen here.

After a little longer than one hour we finished our set. At that point Petter suggested that I should do an encore on my own. So I started an improvised piano piece. Ending up with some more sequencing.
No idea what our output sounded like, but I will listen to the recordings within the coming days.

Unfortunately it was not the best visited edition of Awakenings ever. On the other side, many people did buy a virtual ticket, and supported the event this way. Which is much appreciated.
In any way we have had a great weekend; it was really good to be back!

Thanks to all who visited the concerts, and bought virtual tickets.
And many thanks to Phil Booth, Dave Buxton and everyone involved.

Mäläskä live at Awakenings

Mäläskä - the improvisation project together with guitar player Petter Janse - are invited to play at the Awakenings concert series in Rugeley, U.K., September 16th.

Free Arts Lab live at the Awakenings All-Dayer, 11-10-2014.
Photo by Phil Booth

Petter and I already performed here (although on the previous location of Burton-on-Trent) with Free Arts Lab in 2014, and I debuted with a solo concert back in 2012.

This edition's complete line-up also includes Infinity Curve and Sinewaves Light.

In the meanwhile I am preparing visuals. The hard part of this is that we never know the output of our gigs in advance, so hopefully I can manage to create something that fits within the development of the things we are going to create live.

Last week Petter and I already made adjustments in our setup, and later this week we will have a final rehearsal.

For tickets and information, visit www.awakenings-em.co.uk
 

or the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1413084412106266/?ti=as

Note that every ticket includes virtual ticket. Which means you will get the recordings of all performances in your mailbox afterwards. So if you buy a ticket, even if you are not able to attend the event, you directly support all performing artists. And you get something exclusive in return.