Sandancing - what the liner didn't tell

Never believe a musician when he writes 'this is the best thing I've done'. So don't take my word for it, but 'Sandancing' is the best work that has come out of my - well, our, hands as Beequeen. It's now released by Important Records, along with a lovely, utter lovely 10" of 'demos'. Here are some personal details on the tracks... 'A While A Way' (CD/10") started as the piece that is on the 10", with audience recordings from America, Bucla sounds from the EMS studios in Stockholm and airport sounds from Narita airport - if you are a while a way you have not much time to work on the music so you have to wait for the new Beequeen CD. The opening voice is indeed Howard Stelzer. Freek suggested to strip the piece and make it more jingle like, as an unobvious opener of the CD. 'Breathe' (CD/10") is mainly Freek's song, although I supplied a lot of the crackling sounds, 'taken from air' as it were. Olga sings lovely here, and Erik Drost - put him next to George Martin Hannett please - did some great mixing on the track, along with some great slide guitar by Kees Rietveld. 'Melt' (CD/10") is even more Freek's song and the very first Pink Dots guitarist Barry Gray supplied the solo guitar. Great double tracking of Olga's voice here. Our beloved Edie Sedgwick speaks on 'The Edie Three Step' (CD) and no doubt - Freek may disagree - this is the one true 50% Freek/50% Frans song on the CD. A complex piece, and certainly a bit grim, enlighted by 'The Honeythief' (CD/10"), of which I had no involvement. 'Tomorrow' originally had lyrics: 'tomorrow, tomorrow and oh, tomorrow', but we skipped them. It's longest instrumental piece on the CD. 'The Maypole Song' (CD/10") started as a pure Freek song, but through our concert last year in Arnhem, I added some more bits to it. Very dense piece, with up to 32 tracks. It's about dancing around may poles, I guess. The title cut (CD/10") has the voice of a well-known Japanese musician, and its more an inbetween song - appropiate to make the title track, since nothing is that simple in life. On the 10" demo version there is a bit of me playing guitar. 'There, It Has Been Said' (CD) is a standout piece of vocal charm, great organ playing and the screams are by Elise, whom we forgot to put on the cover. A great way to end the CD, had it not been for 'The Illogical Song' (CD), which is entirely a Frans piece and a radical Erik mix. Come to think of it, the long original could have been on the 10" too. As a bit of perversion, on the 10" there is also 'White Bike', as sung by Eva and as not on this CD, but on the business card My Own Little Label put out. If life would be easy, it would not be this long. So thanks to Olga, Barry, Kees, Erik, John, Elise and whom we forgot, for their input in the best release of 2008.

Replicas

I'm very happy to inform you that the fourth official Freiband CD 'Replicas' is now released and available by Monochrome Vision. It's a CD that I wanted to make ever since the start of the Freiband project, and it involves the 'Daseinsverfehlung' CD by Asmus Tietchens, where all the pieces are called 'freiband'. I used every piece on that CD to create a new piece with exactly the same length. Roel Meelkop and me will probably in Russia to promote this and other delightful music at the end of may.
I'll be playing in Maastricht on March 14th at the presentation of a 2LP by Audioscoop, an irregular musical event. It's going to be, if all goes well, some spoken liner notes with sound samples.
Arturas Bumsteinas of the Quartet Twentytwentyone will perform (with the quartet) in Riga, Skanumezs festival on the 7th of May. They will perform a graphic score from 1990 '7 Constructions'. I am delighted. I don't think they fly me over to be present.
Thanks everyone for the warm response to the previous post. Hot as a campfire.

"I hate art galleries"

oyeah, art galleries. i never learn any lesson, don't i? no, i don't. so in eindhoven it was the opening of some art space and i forgot my lesson at the fucking appel with wander years ago (sorry freek for being so blatantly stupid). but visual artists just don't like sound art, music. they want to be entertained. if not, they talk. on end. probably on their color schemes, multimedia projects or whatever abstract and theoretic they thought of now, but more likely how to skam any grant for their drinking habits. and there is always a fat guy turning down the volume because he can't himself talk. probably a 'musician'. well, a big fuck you to. may all art be erased right now. wiped off the face of the planet. the best music piece is an art gallery on fire.

At Last: News!

Ok, I know I have been quiet here and wanting to write an update, but you know how these things go. Three weeks ago I was in Berlin for the opening of a new club O Tannebaum, run by the Ole Records people. I played the 'ouverture o tannebaum', which i may release on My Own Little Label. It's the picture shown here. Then I have been recording with Martin Luiten, formerly of Girlfriends and now of Uw Hypotheekadvies. We have a lot of material which we will start mixing soon. Quite spacious guitar music. Martin also provided some hawaiin guitar which me and Rutger Zuydervelt used for our collaboration as Freiband/Machinefabriek and which will be released by Low Point somewhere in the next 6 months or so. Tomorrow I will be playing in Eindhoven at the opening of the Onomatopee space. See site for details.
Then today I received some copies of 'Enhance Room Acoustics' which was a cassette on B/b in the mid nineties, but now it has been re-issued on CDR by the same people, new name: Lunhare. It looks great. As Freiband I created a remix of the material, which is now the bridge between both pieces, and hopefully a good antidote between the two.
Coming soon is a Freiband CD on Mononchrome Vision, who are also playing some concerts for me and Roel in Russia early May. Herbal Records will re-issue Beequeen's 'Time Waits For No One' soon, and 'Sandancing' should be out any minute on Important Records, as well as a 10" of demo's of that CD on the same label. Busy times indeed.