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.

New REMY, Mäläskä and Space Art albums

I am delighted to announce three brand new releases! These new titles will be available on April 11th.

To start with, a new REMY 'solo' album, "The Other Side", was in first instance scheduled for the end of last year. But due to the "Exhibition of Dreams" 20th anniversary celebration, this release was postponed until April 11th.
The four extensive album tracks contain some elements from the traditional electronic music, but also touch the borders of my musical interests.

With artistic collaborations by Bas Broekhuis, Judith Wesslius, Joost Verhagen, and Nausikaä de Blaauw.

For what I had in mind, this would have been the only release for early 2020. But then, during the end of 2019, plans slightly changed.

The last weekend of last year's November, Petter and I - accompanied with lots of equipment - locked ourselves into a house on the other side of the country, to create and record new Mäläskä stuff. The final day, Bas Broekhuis joined us during sessions. Read about it here.
The weeks that followed, we made a selection from the 11 hours of music that was recorded.
"First Day of Spring", is described as 'classical electronic music of the future' by one of the very early listeners.

And then, also late 2019, I was contacted by Dominique Perrier related to a brand new Space Art album. Inititally to be released as limited edition LP.
The result is new music, which is for the largest part in line with the band's early music from the 70s.
"Entrevues" is a valuable collaboration with Tommy Rizzitelli on drums, who perfectly succeeded in maintaining his father's legacy.
While the first part of the album consists of typical old-school Space Art style, some never before released tracks have also been added to the album's tracklist.


Coming days I will dedicate blog items to these individual albums.

For now, you can pre-order the new REMY, Mäläskä and Space Art albums from www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

2019 / 2020

Happy new year to all of you!

I would like to take some time to shortly resume my past musical year and look forward to some exciting things to come for 2020. Follow the links for more details.

Planet of the Arps (and Schallwelle Awards pre-nominitions)
In April my ambient side-project "Planet of the Arps" was released.
The well-received collaboration with Wolfram Spyra and Roksana Vikaluk is also in the pre-nomination list of the annual Schallwelle Awards. You can vote for the album or me as artist: www.schallwen.de/swvoting/en

Ars Phantasia
At the same time the piano album "La Papillone" by Ars Phantasia was added to the Deserted Island Music shop. Although not directly in line with the electronic music my label deals with, it has a lot of connections with the traditional electronic music scene. Including artistic collaborations by Francis Rimbert and Michel Geiss, who are also known for their work with Jean Michel Jarre.

Exhibition of Dreams
On December 22nd, two decades passed by since my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams". For the occassion of this 20th anniversary celebration there have been released limimted edition boxsets. Read more about it on my blog.







New solo and Mäläskä albums
In my first blog of 2019 I announced a new studio album, as well as the second Mäläskä release. Both didn't happen before the end of the year.
First, the new album has been postponed, because of the 20th anniversary releases of my debut album "Exhibition of Dreams". The upcoming "The Other Side" is now scheduled to be released on April 11th. Coming weeks, until the release of the new music, I will post more about this on this blog, social media and www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

Then, the follow-up of Mäläskä's "Uncle Jim's Cidney Factory" (2016) is finally being worked on.
One month ago, Petter and I did a lot of sessions during a weekend in Friesland. From the 11 hours we recorded, a selection has been made. Which will be the upcoming album release. As we are currently in the mixing process, I can't say much about it yet, with the exception that it will be one long trip, and actually not at all in line with our debut album or recent concerts.

Space Art
After more than two years of 'silence' Space Art is back with brand new music! Dominique Perrier asked me to have an exclusive Dutch vinyl release of the new Space Art album "Entrevues". Further details and plans will be announced later, but the new music is going to be available from Deserted Island Music, also somewhere in the first quarter of 2020.
I have already heard the music, and if you love the early Space Art sound and compositions, you will adore this one. With participation of Tommy Rizzitelli. His way of drumming definitely reminds of his father's style. A real treat.

And more...
And, for what is currently scheduled, there should also be released another (Berlin School-like) project I am currently producing. So, concerning new music and releases, a lot is coming up.

Then, on personal level, I am aiming to get involved into music more than ever before. Let's see what 2020 has to offer!

Radio premiere

Tonight one of my past performances is going to be premiered in its entire on Waveman's Underground live broadcast. It includes music I have never released until date, and parts were composed and performed exclusively for the concert's occassion.

Radio host John Valk has been supported my music for quite some years now, and more than once I promised him to send him the recordings from the duo concert I did with Premonition Factory (aka Sjaak Overgaauw) at the Vishal in Haarlem, on December 14th, 2012. Now, finally, 7 Years and 13 days later, John has the opportunity to air these 45 minutes of unreleased music.

You can listen to his dedicated show each last Friday of the month from 20.00-0.00 CET / 7pm-11pm (UK) / 2-6pm (US) CST via: http://www.underground-aexpaerten.de/Radio1.html

More about the Vishal concert:
https://exhibitionofdreams.blogspot.com/2012/12/live-ambient-at-vishal.html

A weekend with Mäläskä

It is really inspiring to make music in another, unfamiliar environment.
For the third time Petter and I went to such a place to try out another setup and create new stuff with Mäläskä.

This year we drove to the province of Friesland, and settled in Jannum; a small village near Dokkum.
The wonderful landscape, looking out over the Dokkumer Ee, on which the Elfstedentocht passed for the last time in 1997.


Our creative weekend started Friday 29 November. And Monday 2 December - the day we had to return to our nomal lifes - was already there before we actually noticed.

Friday afternoon we set up our equipment in a comfortable way. You can see a timelapse of this here: https://youtu.be/_ToGBj7PB18
In the evening we did the first two sessions, which felt slightly searching.

Petter brought with him a laptop running Ableton and linked to an Akai controller, some rack synths, a synth-guitar with the necessary effects.

The setup which I have been using for quite a while was slightly adjusted. This time consisting of my Korg Kronos, Roland Juno 106, Novation Supernova 2, Korg MS20, Access Virus TI and Clavia Nord Rack 2.

Almost the entire Saturday we played and recorded 6 inspiring sessions.

Just like last year's weekend in Vledderveen, Bas Broekhuis joined us on Sunday, bringing along his hang drums, cajon and electronic percussion. Throughout the day and evening there were recorded 4 sessions together.

The Monday we mainly used to pack our equipment, but in the first three days we recorded around 11 hours of music.

In the meanwhile I made some quick mixes, and started to listen to all recordings.
Normally I can still remember what I have played recently, but it might have been the combination of the extremely relaxed atmosphere, state of mind, and perhaps the fact that we were fully focussed on creating music the entire weekend, which resulted into some very unexpected output when listening the first couple of recordings afterwards.
Not exactly as planned (which is the most exciting about our musical approach) we seem to have been in an ambient mood largest part of the weekend, which resulted into some serious space trips.

Coming days Petter and I will be listening to the remaining recorded material, and discuss future plans for Mäläskä.

To be continued...

"Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" released

Two "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" boxsets have been released at the E-Live Festival in Oirschot, October 26th.
It was another nice - sold-out - edition of the annual festival, with some great performances, and a lot of pleasant talks and discussions with many people.

In the meanwhile all pre-orders have been shipped
There are still limited and numbered boxsets left, so don't wait too long ordering your copy!
 

"Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" boxset.*

Boxset 1: "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" - Limited to 50 numbered copies
Content:
Exhibition of Dreams 2-CD
Exhibition of Dreams revisited CD
Exhibition of Dreams in progress - limited edition CD
Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - 20 pages artbook

"Exhibition of Dreams in progress" boxset.*

Boxset 2: "Exhibition of Dreams in progress" - Limited to 50 numbered copies
Content:
Exhibition of Dreams in progress - limited edition CD
Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - 20 pages artbook

Additional offer
Buy two or more CD's from the REMY catalog, and get the "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" 20 pages artbook for free. 
The artbook can also be bought seperately from the Deserted Island Music shop: www.desertedislandmusic.nl.


While there are still some upcoming acitivites around the twentieth anniversary of my debut album, I am already making up for the release of completely new music.

More information soon within the coming weeks about the new studio album, scheduled for the first part of 2020.

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 5

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, past weeks I have shared related facts, stories and more. This is the final 'episode', as next week "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary" will be available.

Boxset 1: "Exhibition of Dreams
20th anniversary" (4 cd's + artbook).

As soon as "Exhibition of Dreams" follow-up album "The Art of Imagination" was released, I took the opportunity to have releases of most of the next albums during the annual E-Live and E-Day Festivals. Simply because a large part of the target listeners of my music gathers during these days. Which also will be the case again for this year's edition of E-Live ("Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary") on October 26th, and next year's E-Day (the upcoming new studio album) on April 11th.
Visit http://www.e-live.nl/ for event information and tickets.

While current focus is on the 20th anniversary of "Exhibition of Dreams", I am also nearing completion of my next studio album. Although I am constantly searching for new directions within my music, I chose to slightly refer to my main influences back in the days of "Exhibition of Dreams". Including long and stretched out pieces, some serious sequencing, dreamy and psychedelic surroundings, detailed layering, and... Oh well, more about it soon!

Boxset 2: "Exhibition of Dreams
in progress (cd + artbook).

For now, be sure to order your copy of one of the limited "Exhibition of Dreams" 20th anniversary boxsets.
If you are planning to visit E-Live on October 26th, just mention this with your order, so you can pick up your copy there.
Ordering and information: www.desertedislandmusic.nl.

Thanks a lot to all of you who have been supporting me in the previous 20 years! 
Although I am 'officially' still an amateur musician (as I still have another full time job, and because I don't have to make a living out of my music), and although in the first place I am creating music for my own needs, I couldn't have achieved everything without any of your support, motivational and critical comments, friendships, and whatever supported me during my musical journey. Your presence has been proven to be necessary to continue what is most important in my life: making music, and being involved into it!