Esprit Flottant

This week I received the copies of the new release by Kaon. I composed the music based on the field recordings of Cedric Peyronnet. Recordings of the river Taurion. Good recordings, nice recordings. I really liked working with them. Today I relistened for the first time in a year to the composition. To my astonishment I was at first a bit taken aback by what I heard. It sounded alright but somehow the 'rhythm' or cadence of the work was not what I had expected. I played it a second time and then remembered how I conceived this composition as a circular work. It starts with the end and then works its way towards the end again. That way it feels alright if you replay it again and again. The second session was much better. I was adapted to the pace of the work and the coming and going of sounds and the transitions felt much better. Pheww!! So, I advise anyone to listen at least twice. Thanks to Cedric for making this production available.

please visit [ Kaon ].

Other than that, I have been working on several projects, as usual. I also have been preparing my live show in Cologne on June 9. More details will follow shortly.

I will also be present in a performance by the great Arturas Bumsteinas, who will do perform at the Kunstvlaai project in Amsterdam from May 16-21. It is called "My Own Private Bayreuth" which refers to both the state of Idaho and to composer Richard Wagner. I will be present there in the afternoon of May 20. Westergasfabriek Amsterdam. More info on this project at [ kunstvlaai ]. The site is a bit strange, but I guess more info will follow.

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Intro In Situ

Performed at the Intro In Situ in Maastricht last weekend. I didn't make it to the end, but the first 30 minutes were quite alright. The sum total was positive. The more because the audience and the venue were good. A really attentive audience is a blessing for a performer. And afterwards several of them came to ask about the setup. And I sold a few of my releases. What else would I need? Oh, yeah. Afterwards a real nice guy came up to me asking if I would be interested in participating in a performance evening with Kapotte Muziek in October. 

Next gig will be in Cologne, early June. I'll update you beforehand.

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Intermittent activities

There were quite a few things taking place at the same time last week. I have been working on an electronics and guitar works that was challenging but yielded "hurrays" from the original artist. I pulled an interesting trick by sidechaining the reverb on the guitar which worked out quite well. This is of course only possible when the original work is good. Unfortunately I have also encountered commissions where the original material was 'difficult' to say the least....

Next there was some final text work for my release in Kaon's [ Taurion series ]. I haven't heard the piece in more than a year so I am curious. Kaon (Cedric Peyronnet aka Toy Bizarre) is doing a wonderful series about this river and releases the works on a bi-monthly basis.

Please order the complete series!!

Then I received news about my work for [ Brombron ]. After more than three months I got an answer to a series of questions. Unfortunately I now have to dig deep into my memory to understand my own questions :)) So I will have to give this some more time.

There was a request for the mastering of a complete CD. This is quite a challenge as it consists of 10 songs (catchy tunes) which are quite different in sound quality as they have been recorded over a period of more than 3 years..... How am I going to bring it down to something coherent? Or should simple NOT make it into something coherent? Sometimes the answer is to do the opposite of what one aimed at first.

I have been preparing a new concert. Next Saturday I will be in [ Maastricht ] and on June 8 I will perform in Cologne (Koeln), Germany. These sets will be different from the earlier Extrapool concert. They will be twice as long and thus have more room for depth and detail.

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Alive on stage

Well, the crowd went wild as the artist turned the knobs, spun the reels and blasted his insane beats out of the speakers after a (quoth Radboud Mens) "almost Gothic" intro. Seriously, it was fun! I was the headliner (meaning I was the last in the line up, because the others wanted to get drunk asap and I don't drink (much)) and got a lot of shoulder bashing afterwards. So I guess I must have been doing something right.

The set (20 minutes) went well enough for the audience not to notice that in both occasions my connection of Audiomulch with the midi controller Behringer BCR2000 was broken and I had to resort to mouse scratching. What can you do? The show must go on, right? Anyway, the use of a real reel to reel deck was a huge success. The younger guests stared at a dinosaur, whereas the old geezers stood there mesmerized and thinking about the olden days.

Other performers were: Kapotte Muziek, Radboud Mens (really nice setup!), Asmus Tietchens, Howard Stelzer. I'm sure some photo's will pop up in the next few weeks. And: everything has been taped and will be released somehow (edited) in the near future by Korm Plastics.

EDIT: [ here's ] an mp3 of the Extrapool concert

Today it was also made official that I will do a performance in Maastricht at March 20. I will give more info when it arrives.

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A score for Kapotte Muziek 2

Have been tweaking the setup yesterday. As usual I also twoke the score. I was listening to the OST of The Shining (awesome work by Wendy Carlos and others!!) earlier yesterday and heard a little motive that will fit excellently into the score. More still: it fits excellently as a second leitmotiv for the performance.

I rehearsed and was able to add to the whole thing. Also streamlined the controller settings. Had some troubles with that old tape recorder, which at first refused to record......After disconnecting and reconnecting several times the thing did what it was supposed to do. That's one of the charms of working with ancient equipment! :)

Let's see if things go well tomorrow and on Sunday.

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A score for Kapotte Muziek

Working for the live performance (I had a new invite to come and play in the South of the Netherlands late March), it's been a long time ago. And I don't want to be a guy behind a laptop (alone) but also use different material. That's why that old timer of a reel to reel tape deck came in handy. I;ve prepared it for more creative use and started freaking around.

Now I've got several things ready for performance. I've worked on a score. This is basically it. It works around a single composition of 20 minutes that I worked on late 2009. It offers various possibilities for further treatment and additional instrumentation.

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It's been quiet this week. I am finishing up two projects. And I'm preparing the live session. I want it to be a misture of tape manipulation and a presentation of new material. In Nijmegen and Amsterdam the session will be some 20-25 minutes and I am setting up a score for it. What I want to avoid is that the music will just be a blast of noisewith a lot of incidents happening. Just like with my studio work I want to work with a defined structure in a live situation.

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Preparing performance

As some of you know I have invited myself to the Kapotte Muziek 25 year anniversary party. I shamelessly presented myself before Frans de Waard and offered my services. I support the ideas that are the basis of the KM music as long as I know about them (which is approx. 25 years) and also know Frans personally as long as that. Frans has also, through the years, slowly grown from being a groupie to kernel partner of THU20. So I figured I just HAD TO be in with the crowd there.

So, since I have not performed since that night in Eindhoven (which I think was 2007? any archivists around?) this is something exceptional for me AND the audience.

I am preparing material for this show. I am thinking of using quite a bit of the new material that I've prepared (percussive, heavy material), Audiomulch in conjunction with my midi controller and a Tape Recorder. I have gotten an old Akai GX 4400D which is about as old as Kapotte Muziek itself. So that's sort of appropriate. Dunno what I'm gonna do. Frippertronics perhaps?

Aside of this: reworking my Karawane material. Yes, again!! But the more I learn with the mastering skills (EARLabs.services) the more often I think that something or other could be done better. A pain in the butt, but also very gratifying.

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Visit Odradek festival in Gent

I will be visiting the Odradek festival in Gent (Belgium) next Friday (25th July 2008). There will be presentations by Esther Venrooij, Helena Gough, Yoko Higashi and Lionel Marchetti. Plus I will finally meet Allon Kaye of Entr'acte! I'll write up a review of my experiences. If anyone wants to meet up: I'll be in Gent probably from 15.00 until late in the evening before I drive back home.

More info:
Entr'acte
Odradek

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New THU20 album mastered

April 30 Roel Meelkop and I have mastered the new THU20 release that is due later this year by Korm Plastics. It will be a mix of a live session we did in October 2007. There are two tracks on vinyl, 17 minutes each. That's actually rather short, but should garantee maximum dynamics. The concert was given in my hometown Tilburg at the Paradox. Some 30 visitors listened to 2 sets of approximately 22 minutes. Each of us recorded their own part on minidisk or harddisk. And there was one tape recording made by the engineer. Unfortunately the Revox he used recorded with heavy compression so a lot of mixing was required to get it into a good listening experience. We think we succeeded in this. The first mixes have been done by myself and dj DMDN early this year.

Snapshot 1
Snapshot 2

It's all quite noisy, which is not very surprisingly considering the fact that five musicians were on stage. THU20 were, that night: Peter Duimelinks, Roel Meelkop, Frans de Waard, Sjak van Bussel, Jos Smolders. Our fee: 80 euro's each. We had a good time (as usual).

EDIT: RELEASE WAS October 23. SEE POST THERE

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Preparing lecture

On April 10 I will spend the day at the Avans art college of Den Bosch. There will be interviews and presentations by Dutch sound artists like Frans De Waard, Hans Kulk, Ad van Buuren and Anton Viergever. I hope the audience, students, will be able to concentrate on a whole day of (relatively) old farts telling them sound art.

What will they expect? I am really an lab rat when it comes to making music. I have done performances in the past (and hope to do more in the future because I actually like it) but when I tell them about my music production it really is about building and constructing sound.

I expect that the context of these art students is about plastic arts, rather than sound art. Hmm, maybe I could construct (there and then) a piece that could serve as a sonic installation piece. Hmm, yes, that might work.

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