x-mess almost here

Almost 3 years ago, Roel Meelkop, Giuseppe Ielasi, Howard Stelzer and me came together on a cold January sunday morning in my studio at Extrapool. The day afters Giuseppe and Howard did their Brombron presentation. We set up our gear and did a spontanous recording, right there. Roel played his roland sh 101, Giuseppe guitar and electronics, Howie played cassettes and me the Korg MS20. Everything was recorded on a multitrack and in the months after that I spend mixing the whole thing, which sounds quite far away from the original session. It's now released as 'Zondag' by Japanese Port label on a compact disc, and it looks and sounds great. It's perhaps the first time I mixed such a thing that had a minor involvement for me, and something will be released soon. The start of a promising producer career. Hohum. Get a copy today without delay. From me, or from Port
Christmas is there and I can lock myself away with the 500+ book on Dick Raaymakers, which I received yesterday. Without reading muchI already spent a whole day looking a pictures, diagrams and such like. Nice book so far.

pic of the day

Today we did the Beequeen concert at the Radboud hospital. Frank read a nice story by Burroughs about a junkie and christmas, while we provide a musical environment and sang a few songs. No mp3 yet online since Frank made a mistake and perhaps we'll do a studio version anyway. But Miranda took some pictures of which this is nicest one.

New Freiband release, beequeen concert

Today Freek and me rehearsed for our concert next week, and he asked me wether I was posting anything to my blog. Well, not really, I guess. Perhaps silence before the storm. But I got home and thought there are two goo reasons to post something. First of all there is a new Freiband CDR on Tosom. It's called '298', it has three pieces, which are dedicated to Phill Niblock. It has a great package too. It's a limited edition of 150 copies.
Then, next tuesday, at 12:30 in the afternoon, Beequeen will play at the local hospital, together with Frank Anthonie, who will read a story. Freek and I will provide the background music and do a couple of songs of our own. It's free. It's at 'Poliplein in gebouw Vrouw & Kind (richting Route 790)' - if you don't read dutch never mind. It means you won't make it anyway...

New DVD

Today I received only a very small handfull of copies of 'Live DVD Atak Night 3', which is basically the concert at Unit in Tokyo, of Goem, Evala, Keiji Haino, Keiichiro Shibuya, Pan Sonic and a separate section of the next night which had a whole bunch of solo concerts by all of these people, and various collaboration, including a set by all of them (like Paul McCartney's Rockestra, but a little bit different). I have watch it all, but my stuff I checked and I look so great. Well, a bit, you know. There is a small portion on Youtube to sell it:



so erm: get it...

concerts soon

October is less busy, concert-wise, than last month, with only one gig ahead. Wednesday THU20 will perform one their rare gigs in Paradox in Tilburg. I think their last concert was at least 5 years ago, well more perhaps. A while ago I was in Tilburg and met up with Jos, Jacques, Peter and Roel to talk about 'good times of the past', while they started discussing this gig, and I thought it was a good moment to have a smoke in Jos' beautiful garden. But they wanted me to stay and discuss with them. I played with THU20 before, in Parkzicht in 1987 (screaming for five minutes) and in Bordeaux in 1989 (which is all carefully edited out on the Merzbow/THU20 LP), so they asked me to join them for this one. Great. THU20 is one my favorite dutch bands...
Then on November 1st, Roel and me will head out to the Stubnizt, lying in Amsterdam for a long night of futuristic retro entertainment. I will play my Goem set, Roel will play his slo-fi set, we both play as Zebra and there will be some dj-ing by us. And if that isn't enough, Rechenzentrum will also play. Google stubnitz to see what they exact location is. Be there, it's going to be not so difficult music and loads of dancing.

Cuba, Munster

Last friday Roel Meelkop had to play a concert in Cuba in Munster, Germany and asked me if I fancied coming along, to watch the road and such like. I brought my laptop, in case of you never know, and Till Kniola asked if I fancied to play. Of course I do. It was a long programm with Roel solo, Marc Behrens solo and the two of them in collaboration, so I played just 'Profieldeel Zes'. Funny thing was of course the presence of a journalist, who wrote the piece that comes along here, in german. If you can read that, too bad, but we look good right?

and free film

The 'proceedings' in Tilburg have been captured on audio (more on that later) and film, probably a phone camera by the looks of it, and popped up on you tube. How strange the events looked is something you can now judge for yourself although it might not be easy to switch your computer in angle of 90 degrees.

free music

My concert as Goem|FDW at The Warehouse in Washington DC is now available for free download from the ever so lovely Zeromoon website. I edited a little bit. The picture of the flags I made myself outside the FBI building in DC. have fun

http://www.archive.org/details/zero086

Jonathan Richman

Obviously I could bore you with tales of Rotterdam and that Zebra was in great shape, but that was something that couldn't be said from the installation. So the example how things could be done was presented to the Plinkity Plonk A&R team (alcohol and restaurants) on friday night when Freek and I headed out to Cultureel Centrum Roepaen in the middle of a black hole, but still in The Netherlands, to see the man who made that great 7" in 1977 for which I headed out to buy my first record: Jonathan Richman, without the Modern Lovers but with a drummer. What a great concert, Richman on the acoustic guitar, singing is part sad part joyful tunes, with that twinkle in his eye. It's been a while since I enjoyed myself this much. Freek and I headed out to the dressing room to get my 7" and Freek's LP signed. Jonathan came out with a note that the docter ordered him not to talk post-concert, but kindly signed the stuff and we took the picture above, without saying a word. I made a recording of which I made a low resolution mp3 for whoever. If Richman doesn't allow this, I'll remove it. Two more pictures are in the folder, taken by Freek. What a great night!

enjoy the recording:
roepaen.zip

Video Killed The Radio Star

When I was in Stavanger, the same night a young French man by the name of Lingouf played also, a two and half hour breakcore concert. He and his girlfrien videoed the whole event, and compiled a nice film of it. It contains them travelling, for monsieur Lingouf the very first flight actually, but also my little talk about Vital Weekly and my concert. Certainly worth watching!

ZANG : Frans de Waard et Lingouf @ Tou scene - Norvège
Uploaded by mrcarotte

Busking Tilburg

Two more concerts last weekend and both by Kapotte Muziek. The first one, last friday, at Steim in Amsterdam was our usual set of cracks, electro-acoustic and silence. The space was quiet. I missed Noetinger/Marchetti, because I had to head back to Nijmegen, but I am told it was good. So different situation on sunday when we played for the very first time acoustic on streets of Tilburg. No electronics anywhere in sight. Before us was Vulvax who put on quite a performance, which of course the three elderly men don't do. It was short and highly flux like. Jos Smolders and me made recordings, and Jos will see if he paste them together. Our concert was part of Zxzw which was multiple day festival with loads of all sorts of alternative music. It seemed to me that The Netherlands finally have their own Sonar, and thank the lord it's not in that other city. It was crazy meeting all those people that I came across in recent years, like Dirk Serries, Sietse van Erve, Kasper van Hoek, Meeuw, The Hitmachine, Peter Zincken and bizarre enough G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, who I met too briefly after fourteen or so years. He gave me the standard Jupitter-Larsen ruler, so I am now re-measuring my house. Genesis P.Orridge walked about too, but in stead of watching Psychic TV I went to see Lewd, who played after eleven years again. Lewd is a heavy trio with my dear friend Jacques, and I must say his trio rocked. Much better than anything I heard from them on CD. Great.

The New Big Guy, Let Me In

I know I am late. This is a long overdue recount of my current activities. So first on August 30 I went to beautiful Stavanger to play the day after a solo concert under my own name, which is actually a rare thing. I played three pieces, 'Profieldeel Zes', which is a remix of 'Vijf Profielen', 'IX (For Christian Nijs)' and a new piece, which has no name yet. Things went well, despite the fact that my ribs hurt like hell. I forgot to tell I fell off my bike in the rain, the week before that. A night of no sleep didn't speed up the healing process, but the plane went on six in the morning. Straight to Rotterdam, were I slept for an hour or so at Roel's house, before heading off to Deventer, to play as Zebra. Despite some technical problems things went well, even when no one but one danced. Audience response was low, where they were enthusiastic about the rock bands. It made us think: old guys play laptops, the young ones play guitars. Doesn't that seem odd?
Not much time to contemplate the answer as on thursday 6th I left for Washington. Immigration let me in, once again (what a nightmare that is) and I played three concerts at Sonic Circuits: on friday as Freiband,on Saturday as Goem|FDW and on sunday as myself. Schizophonica in optima forma. Friday and Saturday were packed nights, with lots of bands, some technical problems which affected Humcrush and Christoph Heeman, but it was nice seeing the latter as well as Kevin Spencer of Robot Records fame. 'Profieldeel Zes' from Washington comes as a 3" on My Own Little Label, and Zeromoon will have a MP3 of the Goem|FDW concert.
On 9/11 I took the above picture, which subtitle is: 'I'm the new big guy, let me in'. Looking around the corridors of power, I think it's most likely the only tourist thing I did this year.

new concerts, new release

ok, so I have pretty good view of the forthcoming concerts. This should be it:
August 31 concert as Frans de Waard @ Tou in Stavanger, Norway
September 1 concert as Zebra in Deventer September 7 concert as Freiband at Sonic Circuits, Washington http://www.dc-soniccircuits.org
September 8 concert as Goem|FDW at Sonic Circuits, Washington http://www.dc-soniccircuits.org
September 21 concert as Kapotte Muziek @ Steim in Amsterdam
September 23 concert as Kapotte Muziek @ SXSW in Tilburg (afternoon)
September 29 concert as Zebra @ Stichting Bad.nl in Rotterdam
There might be another one or two concerts in the usa. Jeff Surak is working on that. If that's not happening than I guess I will be recording all extra nights with Jeff on new music.
Speaking of old music, if I ever had to choose one release from the past to be re-issued on CD I would probably choose the IMCA LP. That album was the product of endless tape exchange between me, Jos Smolders and Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, which in the end was mixed to the various pieces by Jos and me in the hot attic of the Smolders residence. I have good memories of that, learned a lot from the master. Jos lovingly remastered the LP and the previous cassette we made with John Hudak and the great Nicolas Malevitsis released it on CD and mister Meeuw made a great cover. As happy as I was with the LP when it came out, as happy I am with the CD version. Timeless classic stamped all over it.

forthcoming concerts

The Frans de Waard concert in Stavanger, Norway is happening on August 31st. Don't know the location. Also playing that night is Zoviet*France, so hopefully there will be a re-run of them and me, from 1998, when we played at the Stubnitz together in Stockholm. I fly back the very next day, at 6.30 or so in the morning, since there is a Zebra concert on the 1st in the evening in Deventer. Then, if all goes well, I may head out for america on the 4th until the the 11th or 12th for a concert at Sonic Circuit in Washington DC. Also in September Kapotte Muziek will be playing at Steim on the 22nd and Zebra at the Momi festival in Rotterdam.
Just released is a gorgeous 5LP set by Fear Falls Burning. Each side is a rework/remix of Fear by one artist. As Freiband I also do a side. Great box!

Machinefabriek

Over the weekend I got a copy of the remix set that was put together by Machinefabriek. It's a double CD set, with loads of great names and loads of new ones, in nice, no great cover. I'm proud that Freiband is right on disc 1, track 2, following the piece by Machinefabriek we had to remix. I talked Rutger into doing 2 cds, so he's a bit worried that he doesn't get his money back. Buy one without a delay.
I might play in Stavanger, Norway on August 31st. More on that when I know more.

(g)rant

Recently I applied for a grant at the FAPK (the Dutch institute for performing arts), for three concerts in the USA (Sonic Circuits, Princeton University and Issue Project Room). Today I got word that I don't get the money for three reasons. First only one of these places is 'respectable'. I have no idea which one they mean, but me thinks both Sonic Circuits as well as Princeton are well-known. Secondly the organizations in the USA don't pay enough (but 'we think that for such a modest tour Frans de Waard can pay for it himself') and lastly Freiband didn't present itself on Dutch stages in 2006 and 2007, so there for can't be 'an ambassador of dutch stage arts abroad' - despite the fact that I played in these years in Lithuania, Greece, Sweden, Canada, USA, Japan and oh The Netherlands (but the plethora of names I use work against me here, no Freiband in The Netherlands). Playing in The Netherlands is something that I indeed don't do very often, for the simple reason that concerts are in places that can't even pay the travel expense or are organized by the likes of former Barooni boss R. Spekle, who has received again the annual award of best reader of The Wire (where he bases all his work as a 'curator' on and never on independent research), and since I am hardly in The Wire ('we rather write about the new kid on the block with a record company that advertises here, thank you'), he doesn't bother about me and my music (until the very late nineties he kept measuring my work by the first (and probably last) cassette he heard of me in 1984). The only time he showed a bit of interest was when Freiband had a CD on Ritornell - now that was hip. And oh besides programming for all those places in Utrecht, Rotterdam and the city which name I hate to pronounce, he's... ratatatata on the committee that judges grants at FAPK for low time losers like me. Such expertise finely used through out the country.
And that concludes my rant for the day and my final grant application at the FAPK. There is a small chance that I may go anyway, since the Dutch Embassy in New York may have a bit of cash left. If that would work it would be great.
On the bright side, I am playing as Goem|FDW in Den Haag on saturday the 28th late at night at Gallerie King Kong as part of the Langweiligkeit Festival. You'll have to google that a bit. Zebra has two concerts, september 1 in Deventer and september 29 in Rotterdam and Kapotte Muziek the 22nd of september in that city at Steim. The total net income will be around 50 euros - all four together, but "hey man, it's good to your face on a dutch stage. You may now apply for a new grant".

Surround

Unofrtunally I don't have a surround set-up at home, otherwise I could have enjoyed the release by Leerraum today better. It's, if I am correct, the sound to an installation Zimoun did in Switzerland for which he uses a whole bunch of sounds supplied by people they are in contact with. The forty minute piece includes sounds by me, Autobam, Bloom, FM3, Jason Kahn, Heribert Friedl, Kenneth Kirschner and others. I played it on my stereo and it sounded great - I even recognized my sounds! (www.leerraum.ch)
Also I received a CD by Kraig Grady today for Vital Weekly which blew me away. It easily matches with the best Phill Niblock CD (Music By on XI) and is a stunning stunning piece of work. Review next week, but this is an add for it. check out http://www.anaphoria.com for more details and get a copy right away.

The final (?) Shifts release

Today I received copies of 'Trees/Leaves', a LP on Entr'acte. The first Shifts release with real liner notes, by me. There you can read this might be the final release by Shifts. I feel the whole concept of Shifts is done and said with, 'until I learn to play the guitar properly one day, this is it'. Well, after I wrote that I thought I should do a real final release, by burning the old 1 euro acoustic guitar I once picked up and make some field recordings out of that. I think I'll do that this summer some beautiful day. Maybe it's nothing and this LP is it. It looks great with orange paper and sealed like all Entr'acte releases. Next month they will also release a 7" by Idea Fire Company, which I recorded and mixed in my studio. Highly psychedelic drone music that is...

the new old one

You can wonder how much time someone could need to release a simple CDR (white cover, attach with glue a full colour print out), but it to Evelyn Records about three years to release a Shifts CDR, 'Vertonen 14'. I already got one last year, but now they are out. Wow, couldn't believe that. Can't say I'm happy with that, but it's one of the better in the series I guess. How would I know?
I still feel uneasy of one day manual labor at Extrapool, my body is just not fit for any sort of physical slavery and a fall down of my bike, while not even driving the thing myself. I am old...

Moll

Ah, last sunday. Despite making a very late and intoxicated night on saturday I stumbled out of bed to pick the phone and be rude to someone, which I didn't mean (sorry, Joep, hope all is well now), but it was good to get out and go the place where the farewell party of Dagpauwoog was planned. This local trio, including Maaike, whom I knew from Girlfriends and Rutger, of machinefabriek fame, made a CD and DVD, but called it a day and didn't perform. In stead they had asked five people to do something, which made, along with food and drink, a perfect sunday afternoon - a good way to recover a hangover. I played last, was a bit so so, but the good thing is, I made a 'studio' version before. My piece is entirely based on samples of their music, including drums, vocals, guitar and electronic bits. When I recorded this piece, which last in the studio 17 minutes and live 13, I thought it would be a good idea to do a CDR label. I enjoyed releasing CDRs when I did Microwave, Bake, Korm Plastics and all those others, but the new one is entirely devoted to my own music, MY OWN LITTLE LABEL, a.k.a. Moll. And why not release 3 to start with? So 001 is the remix of Dagpauwoog, the second is 'Ice Field' with six tracks originally recorded for a compilation by Ideal Recordings and the third one is a re-issue of the thingy Twenty Hertz once released. Three 3" CDRs by Freiband. The next three releases will be a businesscard CDR by Beequeen, one by Roel Meelkop and a 3" from me as Frans de Waard. The covers are designed by Rutger Zuydervelt and printed at the Hema on photo paper, and they look gorgeous. Rutger is brided to be Moll's own Peter Saville. I spent everyday looking 5 minutes at them. Go to www.kormplastics.nl/moll.html to see more.

robbed

no no, i haven't been robbed, but it's the title of the goem cd. Not that the famous trio sat down to record, it's perhaps even unlikely that will happen, but it's title of the Goem CD produced by Roel Meelkop. Following my CD on Atak (in 2004) he took a CD, of which I am not at liberty to tell which, and sampled, well robbed, the hell out of it and created his version of Goem. Now it's released by Small Voices (who released the Wander as well, but that's an old story) and it has eigth tracks. I must say I quite enjoyed it. It's quite playful, more than the old 'goem-as-trio' version and has lots of funny sounds and approaches. The thing I don't like that much is that it's quite digital, which is not very goem-like. My Goem CD was only part digital, since lots of the sounds were taken of the analogue synthesizers. This CD doesn't break that much with the Goem tradition as I did (well, in my humble opinion), but it's overal a great CD. Get a copy today (www.smallvoices.com And let's hope Peter Duimelinks will do one too, as to complete the trilogy.

all work and no play?

Still too busy with too many things, some of them even no fun. Was out camping with Elise, which was great (all play and no sleep). Today I got a copy of Dream Magazine number 7, which has an interview with me and Freek about music mainly and also a bit about dreams, on which subject neither of us to say anything I guess. On the CD there is a Freiband track which is called 'Rob's Beard'. It is one of those shelved remixes - I'd say be clever and make a good guess. The next concert is this sunday at 'Kunstuitleen Kunstwerk' in Nijmegen, where at around 7 i'll play a short concert, entirely based on samples of a local band Dagpauwoog, who say goodbye that day. Me, and others are doing a bit there. Should be fun. The second part on this to follow shortly

and Andrew, Asmus, Frans & Freek...

Beequeen hardly appears on compilation CDs. You know. One of the good reasons is that we are very slow and precise when working on something and we rather keep it for our own full length CDs. Did I mention that our next CD 'Sanddancing' is nearly finished? All the music has been recorded, and just a bit of vocal(s) will be added by Olga this week and then it all goes to Erik Drost who will produce it for us, again. It's going to be a great CD, more song based than 'The Bodyshop', although there are two short pieces, well of sorts. You know. So 'Sanddancing' started out with recording a track called 'Where No Doves Fly' (Freek gave it a title, I keep thinking about the artists formerly known as simple), but it's not on there. We gave it to yet another compilation, called 'Listen To Something Different', which celebrates 10 years of a record shop in Rostock, called Ars Macabre. The only time I visited Rostock I really didn't like the city, quite aggressive people and such like, even at our concert in the port harbour (the Stubnitz was closed or something like that), but the only flickering light in this dreadful city was Ars Macabre, maybe a touch too gothic for my musical taste, but it had a great design, like an electric chair as a listening post. Come to think of it, it might be right after they opened when we were there? Oh no, this CD was compiled when the shop existed 10 years, but that was two years ago. Anyway behind the nice social-realism cover we find the old boys network: Muslimgauze (his tracks was submitted by Staalplaat), Ditterich von Euler-Donnerspeg, The Hafler Trio, Asmus Tietchens, Windfahnenamt, Troum, Inade, Columne One (it says so on the cover), Rapoon, Etant Donnes, Aube and Controlled Bleeding - well that makes Beequeen and Troum quite young. It's a dark matter this compilation, but not as gothic as one could perhaps anticipate. I'd say: buy loads! www.arsmacabre.de

Brian, KarlHeinz, Frans, Freek

I know, I know. More than a month has passed and not a single entry in my blog. I was never good at keeping diaries. Many things have been done. Received an invitation to play in Washington early september, applied for a grant for that, had a large sale in the first two days of May and today I receive 'Otherness' a compilation CD curated (ho-hum) by David Cotner. He once flaked doing a Beequeen 12" ('Gund'), but perhaps to make up for that he invited us for his 'Otherness' compilation, about 'in betweenness' and such like. Hard to explain. It's part of the Sonic Arts Network series and besides our Wander track, it also features lesser known composers such as one Brian Eno, Karlheinz Stockhausen (you'll never be famous with that name), Roland Kayn, Conrad Schnitzler, David Toop and Eddie Prevost (all from the old people's home), but luckily also z'ev, Ramleh, Mick Harris, Faust and such like. Not every track is exclusive it seems, but it makes a fine listen, and hopefully they will all benefit from the sales power that Wander usually have. Nice one, David.

buzz

Although I hate to use the expression 'busy busy busy', things have been slightly crazy. The show at De Onderbroek went well, I got even a nice buzz on the dutch vpro 3voor12 site (http://3voor12lokaal.vpro.nl/magazines/news/index.jsp?portals=18019&magazines=18020&news=513040). It was nice evening that ended in quite a blurr for some, me included. The rest of the days were spent on assembling my latest three releases, a 7" by The Hafler Trio, a repress of The Hafler Trio's 'Kill The King' and a CD by z'ev, which is entirely based on sound samples I mailed him, and thus is called 'Forwaard'. It has a nice Wozencroft rip off cover. And oh, I approved a test pressing of the Shifts LP on entr'acte and even wrote liner notes for it, as it might very well be the final release I do as Shifts. No concerts in the immediate future. Perhaps a short one on june 3rd in Arnhem.

various things

Lots of things to report. Yesterday evening I played a Goem solo show in Tilburg at the Batcave, which is part of 013 (sold out yesterday because of Fall Out boy, of whom I never heard). In the Batcave Vincent Koreman organised a Britney Spears theme event, with a Britney hairdresser and free CDRs (which I forgot to take). My thing went ok, except that Sickboy put out of my concentration with a stupid on stage question. I don't mind that breakcore artists may not apply any concentration - I do need it.
Good news on the release front is that Bertin send me a copy of a CDR he released with remixes of his Joyeaux release. I did a Freiband remix of 'Videorecorder', of which I am particular proud. There are also remixes of David Fenech, Gunter Adler, Roel Meelkop, The Hitmachine, Marieke Verbiesen, Rili Sun, Simone Zacharias, Uw Hypotheekadvies, Propeller and Danielle Lemaire - and yes that includes some new names for me.
Also released is a Kapotte Muziek vs Goem mini CD on Hushush. Already proposed in 2002 by Dimitri of Hushush that there should be some sort of mix between the two bands which have the same members. We actually recorded something keeping this in mind, which I edited into a piece that ended up on the 'Not Lost' 4CDR boxset. But Roel also did his piece, using a Kapotte Muziek live recording, adding Goem elements in the mix. It's quite a nice release, but you have to play it quite loud to hear the Goem elements. I don't like the cover, I must admit.
Tomorrow is the Goem solo concert at De Onderbroek here in beautiful Nijmegen. And I am working on assembling three new releases. But more on that later.

finally

Finally the CD 'Vijf Profielen' arrived. I know I know. When I start this blog (or is it 'to blog'?) it was coming my way, but now they are really here. The first pressing had 2 glitches which shouldn't have been there, so now it's re-pressed and it sounds as it's supposed to be. I have 250 copies of the first pressing which I am handing out en masse. Friends in the music field tell me it's a great work, while people in my direct surrounding (most of whom never hear anything I do) think it's 'interesting', but 'not for me'. There you go. I am quite happy with it, I must admit, and it's very first 'real' CD by me under my own name. My my.

the next 2 concerts are...

again under the Goem|FDW name. The first is wednesday march 28th in Tilburg's Batcave (part of 013) on a britney spears theme event. also playing are Franz Fjodor, Eustacian, Vytear, all three are new to me. The venue opens at 21:00 and i'll probably go on first. Then two days later, on friday, there is an event called Fischer Fritz Fischt Frische Fische at De Onderbroek, Nijmegen. It's a sort of ballroom dance night thing with short gigs. Also playing Bertin & P Hitmachine, The Titmachine, Rene SG, Fifi Hengsten, DJ J Smoke, DJ P and DJ Meeuw. Open: 21:00 Start 22:00. I am surely the first one to play here.

a small gift

With the consent of Freek, there is the full Beequeen concert to be downloaded for free, for the time being at least. Point your browsers to http://www.beequeen.nl/goudvis.htm to see one picture and download the concert (minus the introduction tape), let's say about 30 minutes to popmusic.

the previous beequeen concert

There are loads of people at Arnhem trainstation when Beequeen arrives, going to shuttle busses. None of them goes to see Beequeen and The Legendary Pink Dots, but all are there to go to Shakira. Not really any sort of comptetion for us. The evening is not very well attended (ours, unlike Sharika) and the audience is very responsive. To eachother. Among the loudest people are the girls who run the bar and two old hippies who started drinking at home, to arrive in good mood. But Beequeen manages to do well, going through their set of songs. We even have to skip one, because of time pressure. Our plan to play a few Beequeen songs and few Brunnen songs with some additional sounds that wasn't part of the show Freek played by himself in Munster in February works well. Beequeen as a little pop band. Who could have guessed that? I may upload some portion of the live recording soon, when Freek and I know which part. And oh, perhaps a picture or two.

the next beequeen concert

As you (hopefully) know Beequeen is well-known for not playing live very often, for various reasons. One reason these days is that we are working on our new CD, which goes fine, really fine, but slow, really slow. So we don't have too much time to ponder over new songs to play live. So by stroke of (bad) luck, we will play at the Goudvishal in Arnhem on the 17th, as a support to Edward ka-spel and/or The Legendary Pink Dots. Say, hold on. Didn't we play there last year? Yes, we did, one of the two concerts from 2006 was there at a 'gothic' (yuk) party, which means half the audience is more interested in talking and looking at eachother than at anyone (pink dots included) being on stage (and getting slagged off on some internet site as a thank you for using a laptop, yeeh did anyone notice?). If you would run around naked, nobody would notice. Holy mozes and we are playing again there with no new songs to present live? We could do our more moody 'Long Stones & Circles' thing but the careful character of that piece would probably even be more lost. So, we go for a little experiment. Since Freek played a solo Brunnen show in Munster last month, he still knows all the lyrics to 5 Brunnen songs and the 3 Beequeen songs he played over there. Now we turn matters upside down and inside out and play the same songs as Beequeen. I will 'fill' in the gap here and there with a loosely found sound on my laptop. Again not that anyone could matter at the next gothic party. We start early I hope, so that every gothic is still at home putting up their make up or getting in too tight latex pants.

releases

I'm to happy to report that Wander has now has their cassette release (in our attempt to release every format once). It's released by Throne Heap in the USA in an edition of 40 copies, in a nice silk-screened cover. It's a c20 - for those no longer in the know: that is ten minutes of music per side. Freek and I worked each on a side. Go figure who did which.
Also released is a double CDR called 'Cassette Culture Compilation 1 & 2'. Compiled by Hal McGee (also known as Mental Anguish of whom I released a cassette in 1989), it has old dudes like yours truly but new music. I have a Freiband track on there, which I was to release myself: a remix of Antenne's 'Black Eyed Dog', which of course sounds entirely different than the original, the uber-original or the Beequeen version, just the vocals are the same.
I hate to complain or be negative, but I have to unleash some grief about a label called Tantric Harmonies. They wanted to re-release Beequeen's Der Holzweg' and it was agreed he would do 500 CDs and we would get 75 free copies as a sole payment. It was released on June 30th last year. We had to ask where our free copies were after it was released. It took the 'label' some 2 months to send us 25. Just yesterday, believe it or not, I received the third batch of 25. I really don't get this. Is he poor? Is he an idiot? Or does he just don't care? I have not been treated this bad in a long time. I think the very very first box a label should send out is to the artists who make their music. We have some for sale now, and we recommended not buying anything at from Tantric Harmonies.

arigato!

yes, i made it back home. Safe and sound. Saturday was spend buying a new laptop and one of those new recording devices and had the best sushi near the fishmarket of Tokyo. Sunday I didn't do much until the evening. I played a piece which wasn't great, I think, but the short improvised with Evala was great. The second half of the evening started with Haino is great mode, then him and Pan Sonic, then those with Keichiro (another highlight) and the evening with everybody, including me and Evala. Followed by the last short and restless night. I am still dizzy, but hopefully jetlagging will be alright. Strange to be back, and looking at the pile of CDs for Vital Weekly (unfortunally some people still think its great to send 5 cds at once).
But a big thanks is in place to Maria and Keichiro, Evala, Mika and Ilpo for a great week in Japan, and of course everybody at the various venues. It was simply a great trip. I love to go back any time.

at unit

Last night Unit, the disco of Shibuya was packed to the roof with people, and everybody seemed to enjoy the music. Keichiro was in a more straight forward beat style, and so was Evala. I made some changes in my set too, and played the Wolfgang Voigt remix that Goem-as-trio also used to play as the final track. Unfortunally no recording was made - well, the first five minutes. Keiji Haino made also an appearance to a bewildered audience who was not used to his music, but took it well. Pan Sonic was in great shape too and in the afterparty Terre Thaemlitz played some nice techno/house music. I sold 1 CD (as opposed to 19 in Yamaguchi and 11 in Kyoto) - so I still have to beg with my hat in hand. And oh, by special request of my Dutch friend Koen I wore the t-shirt requested - photo's will be coming your way.
What is no longer a secret is that sunday, the final night of my stay in Japan, there will an extra concert at Superdeluxe. Ilpo and Mika will each play solo, and probably something with Haino (who may also play solo) and I will play a Freiband piece. I am not sure which one yet, as I brought several ('tonspur 2', 'Leise' or '11 (for Christian Nijs)'). I strongely feel towards the last, but it will depend on the place. It is going to be listening music, and not beat music. Sit down rather than stand up. It will start at 19:30, I believe. I don't know where it is exactely, but if you are in the area, you probably know.
Today, or what remains of it after a night that ended at 6:30 this morning, we will head for Akiabara to buy one of those new small recording devices and perhaps another laptop.
As I fly back monday morning early this is probably my last posting from a sun covered Tokyo.

oh well...

The Symposium was well attended last night at the Uplink Factory (which relocated and is no longer on the fifth floor of a building, but on streetlevel). It took two hours which was a bit long, as far as I'm concerned. But some interesting questions, ranging from wether talent is born or can be learned (I must believe the latter for various reasons) and what Ilpo's hobby's are and lots about the (mis-) use of computers. After that Ilpo and me went for a small amount of drinks, which costed (as we sadly found out when we left) only 23 euros a piece. If you see a man with a hat in his hand on the streets begging for money, with a vaguely western look: that's me.
Today there is a meeting planned with P*distribution, the official Korm Plastics distributor in Japan and of course tonight's late event at Unit. Starts at 23:00.

and now: tokyo

Today we left Kyoto and have arrived in Shibuya, Tokyo. For those who don't know: it's an area with lots of high buildings and lots of light. I now have access to my own computer for e-mailing and such, and left the shitty keyboard of Kyoto. Last night concert was great. Pan Sonic were in good shape, I was too, a bit better (different??) than in Yamaguchi. A bit more tight let's say. The lightening guy was a bit strange, turning the lights off at the second half of the programm, which didn't serve the Japanese players on the programm (first half) right, as they depend more on visuals than me and Pan Sonic. About 150 or a bit more people showed up. Sold some more CDs but less than in Yamaguchi.
Today we went to Paralax Records, a store, after two failed attempts, and left the nice but cold guest house behind. The only heated item in the building was the toilet seat - but to spend a night sitting with your pants down... The hotel room here in Shibuya has the same thing, but I switched it off. Evala and the Shibuya couple went home, as the live around the corner (in a way of speaking). Tonight is the first night I went out to eat on my own. Not easy, but there are restaurants with menu's with pictures, so I went into one, which turned out to be a steakhouse, but even a regular hamburger tasted great. And so cheap for 2 of them, and two large beers. And speaking about food, today we had kaiten sushi again (the belt suhsi) which had fugu sushi. Nice, but not the end of the world (or my life to say the least). At night it's still crowded on the street, with even the hairdresser having a full shop. When do these people sleep?
I have never been that many in taxi's than in the past few days, of which I noted that they are cheap. But all the drivers have gloves and they all look the same. Is there a hairdresser for just taxi drivers, Ilpo and me wondered.
Smoking is still allowed, in most bars and restaurants, but not in official buildings. Or on most of the train. But some carriages there is, which are blue with smoke of course. And I started to enjoy the hotto coffee from the vending machine. I try out many different blends. A great invention that somehow went past by me in 2001.
Tomorrow we have a quiet day. In the afternoon I have a meeting with my old friend Satoshi Morita, with whom I have been in contact for a long time, but never met. He just phoned and his english is remarkable good. In the early evening there is a symposium. Friday or saturday will be spend shopping - to make sure everybody gets what they requested (hallo freek, eva, roger, jos)

kyoto

Since my last post we have been in Kyoto, but I haven`t seen a temple yet. Or rather: I saw them all, but from some distance. The Kyoto University of Arts and Design were tonight`s concert is, had a dance performance yesterday evening by two Butoh dancers, and improvised music by Keichiro Shibuya and Mika Vainio, and is located somewhat up the hills, on the edge of Kyoto. I walked the hill up a bit further and from there a great scenic view over the city. So perhaps I saw all temples. The weather has been beautiful here, warm (for the time of the year) and sunny, so the forest walk was quite nice.
Ilpo has arrived, recovered from the flue, so we are all complete for tonight`s concert in the same place as yesterday. Which is great: yesterday 2 people thought I was Ilpo. `I am a big fan of Pan Sonic` - `Me too`, I responded. Otherwise nothing lost in translation, if you know what I mean. No pictures yet, since I didn`t bring my camera with me to Japan. It`s a shitty thing anyway...

first night

The first night at YCAM went really well. YCAM stands for Yamaguchi Center for Media and Arts and in studio B they have a great sound set up. The symposium in th afternoon went well, although it seemed like the japanese were talking about different things than Mika and me. There was a translator at hand who swiftly translated everything, which was really helpful. In the evening Evala started with a set that was very digital, sounding, with abrupt changes but with a great motoric drive to it. Then me, which went o.k. (at least thats what I think) and then Keicchrio Shibuya who sounded a bit like Evala but with minor yet vital differences. After the intermission Mika played with Keij Haino, because Ilpo hasn`t arrived yet (he was ill and arrives on monday) a true wall of sound. About 150 people showed up, which apparently was a good turnout. Sunday we moved to Kyoto where we are staying in a tradtional japanese hotel, which is somewhat cold. Tomorrow is a day off for me, but PanSonic are playing something improvised with dancers. On tuesday it`s Pan Sonic, Evala, Shibuya and me again.

japan!

The easiest thing I did was the ten minute ride on my bike to the trainstation in Nijmegen, after a short and restless night. From there ninety minutes to the airport, 1 hour to frankfurt, 11 hours to osaka (where they immigration let me in with much ease, much to my surprise, after last time's hassle), then 1 hour to fukuoka and 40 minutes on the train to yamaguchi. But I arrived! Mika Vainio is here too, Ilpo will arrive later because he has the flue. Mika will play tomorrow with Haino Keij here in Yamaguchi. The first sushi has been eaten, apperently it's very good here in Yamaguchi, which is near the sea and in the mountains. Lovely cold here, as opposed to my 2001 visit in soaking hot weather. The YCAM where we play tomorrow is a large arts and media institute and we play in a nice big room.
On my way here I played 'Hello Young Lovers' by Sparks twice. I never heard this and recently got it by someone's recommendation. What a great and over the top album that is. Highly recommended. Now I'm in my hotel room with the box provided by the hotel for internet, two beers and classical music, before I hope to get a long night of rest.

From Brussels With Love

Early 1981 various interests merged together: the first issue of the Dutch magazine Vinyl, including a flexi disc by Mekanik Kommando, the 'guide to Ultra music' in Muziekkrant Oor and Willem de Ridder's 'Radiola Improvisatie Salon'. In all three the release of music on cassettes were propagated. I went to my local music store and bought the cassette on which Vinyl wrote that it wasn't very good, but it featuring some Factory Records artists, I decided I should have it anyway: From Brussels With Love. I was thrilled. A 7" cover, but with a tape that lasted in my opinion an hour. If one side a, Brian Eno would say: "the problem with doing interviews...", you could turn the tape over and fall right into Richard Jobson's poem "Armoury Show", thus effectively skipping both Eno and Jeanne Moreau (although I think I heard them both once). From Brussels With Love featured all my favorite Factory Records artists, such as Durutti Column, A Certain Ratio, The Names, but it also brought me new names such Harold Budd, Micheal Nyman, Gavin Bryars or those I just read about, Der Plan and Gilbert/Lewis. Several things made this into a great compilation: the diversity of the music: the post-punk doom of The Names, Repetition, A Certain Ratio versus the experimentalists such Martin Hannett, Der Plan, Gilbert/Lewis, the modern classical approach of Bryars, Nyman and Budd and the mixture with spoken word. Neither the subsequent and partly re-release on 2LP and CD worked in a similar for me, but I am so glad that the original cassette is now available on CD, less the A Certain Ratio (which is already re-released on another CD by Les Temps Modernes). With the original booklet and new liner notes and interesting recording information (learning that Rob Gretton produced Repetition). Les Disques Du Crepuscule set a mark with this, their first release, and went on to release many more interesting compilations later on, such as a Christmas record and 'Fruits Of The Original Sin', but never reached this peak again - although still being on of my favorite labels from the past and hopefully some sort of inspiration of what I am doing. No doubt: the best re-issue of 2007.

Address: http://www.ltmrecordings.com

something wrong

unfortunally something is apparently wrong with the pressing of 'vijf profielen', so Alluvial tells me, and it will have to be repressed. some more patience is required...

Japan tour

In 8 days from now, I'll be on an airplane going to Japan to do a little tour with Pan Sonic, Evala and Keiichiro Shibuya. We'll be playing in Fukuoka, Kyoto and Tokyo, whereas the first and the last will have a symposium too of us rambling about our work. I'll be playing my solo version of Goem. It's all organised by Atak, who also released my solo CD as Goem. During this tour I'll be selling a few Goem CDs and a special CDR of all the various pieces and remixes since doing the Atak CD. I made thirty copies, all numbered & signed - hohum. It will have a nice cover. More information:

http://atak.jp/events/ataknight3/

Last monday Kapotte Muziek played their 101st concert at DNK in Amsterdam. Roel Meelkop was sick so it was just me & Peter Duimelinks. We both thought it was a great concert.

a fresh start?

Well, no, not really of course. No fresh start. But as extension to my 'self-indulgent newsletters' of a decade ago, first as a piece paper and then as an e-mail, which nobody wanted, now a blog. But perhaps also because today, february 8th, my very first CD under my own name will be released. I know, Bake Records did 2 CDR releases, and there are the odd pieces for compilations under my own, but now a real CD. It contains a piece called 'Vijf Profielen', which I recorded in Vlissingen, The Netherlands in late 2005. A marine shipping yard was to be moved to a different part of town and to close their immense building there was an art exhibition and three people with composition assignments, I was the last. I spend a week recording the sounds inside the building and in the evening I put them all together, as a requiem in five parts for this disappearing building. A live version was already released on a DVD from the exhibition catalogue, but the studio version I completed in my studio at Extrapool is of course much much better. Roger NBH did the cover, Knust printed the cover and Alluvial Recordings released it. Great.

And today it snows. Probably the only winter we see in The Netherlands. It's no longer a season, winter time, but a day in a week.