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!

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 4

 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, I will share related facts, stories and more, within the next weeks.

The typical and recognisable "Exhibition of Dreams" artwork was created by Ewout Koek.

During his foreign trips he took photos from the ruins of Persepolis in Iran and 'La Dame de Warka', with which he composed the cover artwork for what was to become my debut album.

For the inside of the CD cover there were used technical sheets from the Eminent 310 Unique organ, which can also be heard on the album.

 

Throughout the years various color adjustments have been made for the various releases:

Exhibition of Dreams 10th anniversary, EoD (Exhibition of Dreams revisited), Exhibition of Dreams bonus tracks, Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary and Exhibition of Dreams in progress.

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 3

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, I will share related facts, stories and more, within the next weeks.

Original 1999 "Exhibition of Dreams" 2-CDR release.

Shortly after the release of "Exhibition of Dreams", on December 20th 1999, the album rapidly sold out. Because of ongoing negotiations with Groove Unlimited for the next album release, it was decided not to make another run of CDR-sets. And because of ongoing demand for the debut album, I already had in mind to re-release the album in ten years. Which happened.
In the first place I recorded new versions from a selection of tracks from the original album, to be released as "EoD". Secondly, the original double album was entirely remastered, and released for the first time on factory pressed CD's, instead of CDR's. Everyone who didn't have the opportunity to obtain the original album back in the days, now could get hold of the original music from 1999.

Although the original CDR release (limited to 50 copies) is still in the collection of a couple loyal listeners of my music, it is likely that these discs won't play properly (or even not at all) anymore, due to the course of time and quality of this early CDR generation.

Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary - facts, stories and more - part 2

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, I will share related facts, stories and more, within the next weeks. 

Today, it is exactly one month until the release of "Exhibition of Dreams 20th anniversary".

Original 1999 "Exhibition of Dreams" 2-CDR release.

"Exhibition of Dreams" is a collection of the best tracks I had to offer at that time. They were composed and recorded between 1997 and 1999. For the release of an album, there had to be recorded better versions. Which was done after having moved all equipment to the attic of the home of the parents of my musical partner in crime, Ewout Koek.
Where we had in mind to release a single disc, it became clear during the recordings that it simply had to be a double CDR. Quite daring for a debut album, but it felt good. And we didn't have to take big commercial risks, or obligations to a label to restrict to just one disc. Besides, we just established our own label, AKH Records.

As I didn't have a clue if my music could be interesting to other people, "Exhibition of Dreams" became a testcase to find this out. And, surprisingly it became clear that it moved people. My debut paved the road for my musical journey since then.

When I got in contact with the dutch Groove Unlimited label, there was discussed to release a selection of "Exhibition of Dreams" tracks as a single CD. The album was not meant to fit on a single disc, so I came up with an entirely new album, "The Art of Imagination". It was released the year after my debut.