Loads of work underway!

I skipped a week of reporting. Which doesn´t mean nothing happened! On the contrary: I've been very busy. First thing: I updated the discography and added a lot of my musical archive. Go check this out [ here ]. There's more to come but for the time being I think this will keep you entertained.

Next I have sent some personal invitations to people with an offer to do mixing and mastering work for them. This resulted in a few acceptances. I have been doing a mix of a composition (violin, trumpet, saxophone, synths) by Arturas Bumsteinas, and a work by Roel Meelkop. Wouter Jaspers (Franz Fjödor) announced a series of mixes and asked me to prepare them for a master. That job will take a while the next couple of weeks. A bunch of other composers have replied with enthousiasm and announced that they will make use of my services. I will keep you updated of any interesting progress, of course.

Otherwise I have worked out a composition based on a single cello sample. Am satisfied with it and will upload a version soon.

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German art - Art in Germany

Thursday we took off to Germany for an art fest. First day we visited the Isle of Hombroich and the Langen Foundation (in Neuss, near Dusseldorf). We had been there before, and were impressed by what we had seen. This time we were surrounded by students on a trip. This made things a bit noisier and the experience was less than before. Still, the architecture and the art itself in a natural environment was quite good.

The day after we went to Wuppertal, where we visited a sculpture park dedicated to the works of Tony Cragg. Astounding work in a wonderful environment again. Cragg has a very strong personal style and total control over the material. There was a temporal exhibition with material by John Chamberlain in preparation so we got to see his work as well.

The third day (Saturday) we were in Dusseldorf again, where we visited an exhibition by Per Kirkeby. Although his style ticks all the right boxes (abstract, large brush strokes, at times quite colorful) I couldn't connect to the work. That was strange. We had several discussions about this and we even went back to look at it again a couple of hours later but it didn't work out.

The last day was an unexpected surprise. We went to Duisburg to visit the Küppersmühle Museum. We had never heard of it before but read nice reviews. The museum is located in an old  (industrial) mill looking over a harbour.

The collection (a private one) was overwhelming. The collector specialized in German art from 1960's to 2000. So there were Lüpertz, Baselitz, Beuys, Kiefer, Penck. The exhibition halls were big, big, big. So the large material by Kiefer and Penck (5 meters high) fit in quite nicely. I was blown away, something that didn't happen to me for years. Sitting and watching these works really captured me and I had to take a break from it all before being able to drive the way back home, taking the catalogue of the entire collection with me.
I will definitely visit this museum again next year when they have doubled the exhibition space so that the stuff that is now in their depots will also be displayed. When you're in the neighbourhood, treat yourself to a visit!

A weekend well spent!!

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THU20, third session

Sunday, October 4, THU20 once again visited the EARLabs studio. Aside from catching up with friends it was a great musical experience. After the previous session I had made some alternative mixes of the first part of the composition which were closely scrutinized. The first 15 seconds were slightly changed and was then left for the time being. We worked on the second part which was already half way through (more harmonic, rhythmical), and made some modifications there (of course).  The middle/second part consists of loop-like sounds and back up with a.o. some bass guitar sounds (since Jacques/DMDN is now playing bass in metal band Bünkür, we were pleased with his contribution). Next it was important to get an idea about the finale. That would give us a sense of the length and forced us to decide about structure.

After some deliberations (see picture) we decided to do a tape cut up session. I rigged up my old Akai reel-to-reel. We recorded the first 5 minutes of the piece and then spliced the tape into five different sections, which in themselves were spliced into pieces of various length. Next was the recombining part. Purposely we worked quite roughly with blanks and overlaps. Unfortunately the result was a bit disappointing (not quite the Williams Mix all of us had in mind) so, after we transfered everything back into the computer we had to do some extensive extra editing. Still, it provided us with material to let the piece go out with a bang :). And it really bangs, I tells ya.

The current version takes approximately 12.5 minutes. We then decided to call it a day and go get some good Chinese meal. We exchanged discs and tapes and had a good laugh. That's what it's actually all about: having a good time together.

As usual I got some good ideas for the piece the day after, so our next session (to be scheduled) I'll have my proposal ready. Perhaps I'll upload some sketches this week, since I'll be gone next weekend for a trip into Germany, visiting no less than seven museums in the neighbourhood of Essen, Duisburg and Dusseldorf. If anyone wants to meet up: mail me.

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