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.