What's Another Year? - It Was 2008

If you have been reading this years entries on this blog, you may think you don't need to read this years report. You could do just as well do read it. I don't think 2008 was any spectacular year, just another year, like so many. But surely some nice things were done.

Releases: there were many releases with my music and I must say I am still proud of them all. No highlights per se, as they are all highlights. The latest Beequeen, the first Zebra CD, the releases by Pick-up, the various releases by Freiband. All mighty fine.

In 2009 there will be more releases, such as the long awaited 'Mouthless' LP by Pick-up on Important Records and hopefully a third and fourth LP. The third one is done now, and had interest from a label, but we didn't hear back from them; work on the fourth one has started. In disrespect of what Wander said, one release per format, there will be a second CD, this time for Divine Frequencies, all played on analogue synths and some field recordings. Wander will also indulge in a 3"CDR with their one and only excursion in noiseland. No label yet. More releases on My Own Little Label, after a six month rest. Roel and me already did a bit of work on a new CD by Zebra, and have serious plans for a great christmas 7".

Concerts: highlight was of course the trip to Russia, apart from two trips into Germany, the only foreign expedition done. Fine gigs were also Freiband and Beequeen in Maastricht, the odd small concert at O Tannebaum and in Leeuwarden. Things could have been better at Extrapool, Lux and Worm, oh well. I wish I didn't went to Eindhoven. Next year, I have a concert on the 10th of January in Extrapool with a few cassette machines and perhaps on the 5th of february in Heerlen. I'd love to play out more. Contact me!

The Labels. Again proud of all releases I did this year, 'Outwaard' by Z'EV, 'Dislocation' by The Hafler Trio, 'Tilburg' by THU20, 'Loop End' by Pick-up and all the MOLL releases. Best sold release of this year was the 3"CDR by Bass Communion and Freiband, no surprise there. It will be released as 10inch vinyl by Tone Float early 2009 as part of a bigger package with other Bass Communion works on vinyl. Plans for releases include a new Brombron CD by Francisco Lopez/Richard Francis, a CD version of 'Fin de Siecle' by Illusion Of Safety, LPs by Mirko Uhlig and one by me (both highly limited), 'The Name Of Someone', by The Hafler Trio, ending my relationship with Andrew McKenzie and perhaps something by Jim O'Rourke - at last. I signed a deal with IODA to get MP3s on all the official sites, which should be going early 2009. I do hope physical sales will fare better, but hey 'its the crisis, stupid'.

Art? I was extremely proud of the film Harrie Timmermans did on me and my participation in 'Frozen' (which had a re-run in another Gallery in Amsterdam, which name eludes me right now, I'm sure it's on the CV). I just completed a short soundtrack for a film 'IJzig Vuur' by Jan-Kees Helms (the old man from Lor Teeps), which will be shown in January in Amersfoort. I hope to have it on a business card release before that.

Otherwise - it was great to meet Peter Hook, even though he just mailed me he still didn't hear my Zebra CD. Had some interesting new hallucination experience this year (well, three of them) - not to be repeated that often. Building now a new studio space at Extrapool - open for rental soon, if you love old analogue gear.

Future. I hate this time of the year, makes me always quite depressed, and it will be gone in a week from now. So thinking about the future is something I am not good at. But in 2009 both Kapotte Muziek and Korm Plastics will exist for 25 years. There might be some sort of celebration for the first and, if sales remain this bad, a burial for the second.

happy new ear

Seven Short Gigs

I have not been doing this for several years, say 8 or so, but tonight I returned to play Sinterklaas again. Seven 15 minute house gigs for small children. Singing (me!) and telling, and giving presents which I didn't buy. The lower the social class the more religious they were, and the more they smoked in front of their children. Amazing as usual, although not the great stories as before, when I did trailer parks, pubs, restaurants and the local youth prison, but a fine gig as usual. Well seven to be precise.

Two New Releases

Today I received some copies of a CD by Oba Masahiro, called 'Prot', which offers five tracks of ambient and sweet techno inspired remixes. Out of these five tracks four are remixed, one by me. It says 'Frans de Waard remix', which, honestly I would have preferred 'Freiband remix', since the musical style is rather from Freiband. Other remixers are by Set In Sand, Motorofaam and Aoki Shintaro. Quite nice, and of course I few some to sell. Labelwebsite


Not for sale by me, is the CDR release on Moving Furniture Records, a new CDR label by Sietse van Erve, Orphax fame etc. His first release is by Russia's Five Elements Music, with whom we travelled from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back. He took the Kapotte Muziek recording from St. Petersburg and created a new piece of it. Of course part of the big Kapotte Muziek by... series, yet not on Korm Plastics. Highly recommended for lovers of drone music. Labelwebsite

Doubts Even Here

Last years main meet & no greet was of course Freek and me going to see Jonathan Richman, this year it was just me solo going to see Section 25 featuring Peter Hook in the unlikely surroundings of Oss. Unique only dutch concert is what they advertise with. The website said they'd be playing 6 Section 25 songs and 12 Joy Division/New Order. So who'd be singing those, I wondered. I am surprised to see that De Groene Engel is somewhat like my local Doornroosje venue, and bump in to various people I know, including Mark who tipped this event for me, and Mic, Jan and Jasper. A curious gathering of goths, old grey men, some with their teenager children. Support act was Kevin Hewick, of whom I bought his first Factory 7" in what was it, 1981, and thought 'oh shit, great artwork, but they also release shitty records' (and I never got into Stockholm Monsters either). Anyway one minute of a big oversized man with an acoustic guitar is pretty much enough for me, so I joined the smokers outside (as somebody said friday night, a non-smoker actually, 'at concerts you smell all the cheap after shave and farts, I wish people would smoke again at concerts'). Then Section 25 started, without Hooky on stage, with 'New Horizon' and within minutes you know why we have to regret the death of Martin Hannett: Larry Cassidy can't hold a tune in a bucket. His brother on drums, and two youngsters on guitar and bass, were great, really great. But the singing was a major let down. They played for about 35 minutes, more than six songs that is, when Hooky comes and plays 'No Love Lost' with them. The big moment has arrived. They play a bunch of songs ('Interzone', 'Shadowplay', 'Temptation', 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', 'She's Lost Control' (with a much too loud sample I must add), 'Dreams Never End' and 'Ceremony'), of which 'Dreams' was sung by Hook, which was great, but Larry sings the rest, which again is a let down. Its a bit like seeing a Status Quo cover band featuring Rick Parfitt, if you get my drift. When things are over, people cheer, and Larry says 'you have to do better than that' (proving Tony Wilson right, with Cassidy being a big whiner), two encores are played, with Section 25 first with too many sequences running from the mixing desk, which was rather painful, with the sound continuing and the band stopping. With Hook on vocals 'Doubts Even Here' (which seemed an appropriate ending). I lurked at the backstage and see on the screen that Hook will be DJ-ing for another hour, but I have to miss that. When the man comes out, I ask for an autograph but forget the 'please' at the end (remarkable that people who use the word fucking all the time, but also need the 'please' word - there is something I fail to understand about the english language), so Hook says 'only if you say please' and walks on. I follow him and say 'oh Peter, please can I have your autograph, please' which he then does on my copy of 'Get Ready', which happens to be my favorite New Order CD (though many disagree). I pull out also the Zebra CD and Hook says, 'what's that, it looks like my Hacienda book' and says its my band and I give him the CD. He shakes my hand (I wonder how many people give him stuff, and how much will land on the bottom of the canal) and somebody asks me if I can take a picture of him and Hook, which turns out to be a great picture, and he fucks up mine with Hook. See above. Oh, well another most memorable evening has come to an end (well, in Oss, as I continue in Nijmegen of course and see various people from the concert later that night in Merleyn). Fucking hell! I wish I had a recording.

New Compilation

Today I received some copies of 'Table For Six: All Quiet? #3', which is an ongoing affair from EE Tapes. I know EE Tapes since the early cassette days and he released a Shifts CDR before and Shifts is on 'The Walls Are Whispering'. On this new compilation six artists have considerable longer pieces. My piece is entirely made from hiss taken from old cassettes, pieced together in a dramatic way. Very quiet and very loud. Its called 'Wortel (Root)' and is the companion of a piece to be released soon 'Root (Wortel)'. Other artists are Neuestrasse, Stormhat, Anemone Tube, Bruno De Angelis and (ad)vance(d). Fine line up, great CD. I have some copies for sale, or go to the label website

The workshop in Cologne was nice too, see picture above. Here is a link which includes all raw material as made by the participants, a rehearsal with them, the concert with them, and the full concert by Kapotte Muziek. Use or re-use freely. It is quite a big file. Perhaps a newspaper article will be published also.

Updates at last

I know. I have never been good in keeping diaries, so my blog is a bit behind. The Eurovision noise contest was big fun. An endurance test for the jury, but soaked in wine, so it was good. See the evidence above.
I released two new LPs. One is a live recording from THU20 from last year's concert in Paradox in Tilburg. Not that this info on the cover. We all forgot to put it on. Also the very first LP by Pick-up on Plinkity Plonk is now released, and I am quite proud of that one. Great music, great cover. me thinks.
Last friday and saturday Roel and me worked on some new Zebra music, our album of classic (rhapsody, sonates, symphony and that kind of stuff). A tiring session, in many ways, but some satisfying result, we feel. I should post some MP3s on myspace, come to think of it.
While being in Rotterdam I also played with Beequeen, the full trio line up. For some curious reason the computer was a bit slower at the concert (though tempo was unchanged, maybe its the weather, electrical or ghostly activities - Radboud Mens, the expert at hand, also had no clue, so there is hardly a lesson to be learned), so the first four songs are off, but once restarting the programm things worked out well. Still seven nice songs. Download the entire concert
here
Next thursday Kapotte Muziek will be doing a workshop in Cologne, again at the Kulturbunker ('there is no reception in the bunker' a wise man once remarked while playing shortwave radio) for youngsters (16-18 years old). They will learn to solder and do field recording. Kapotte Muziek will also play solo and there is a concert of Tarkatak (and perhaps we'll do something with him too)
And much further away is a small concert at Extrapool's Tape Treff on January 10 where I'l be using two cassette decks and two microphones - I hope. Its about cassettes, so maybe should go as Kapotte Muziek. Well, enough time to think about it.

The Good & The Bad News

I recently learned that Maria of Atak passed away in June, at the age of 30. This is very very sad news. When I was in Japan in 2007 at the invitation of Atak, Maria took care of everything, and I mean everything to make us (me, Evala, Pan Sonic and Keiichiro Shibuya) happy at concerts and in between concerts. Maria was certainly the best host one could have for such a tour. I think back with fond affection to her, and wish Keiichiro, her husband, all the strength he needs. I intend to make some music in her memory. More here

Last week I spend time to create a new blog with all known live recordings by Beequeen for free download. It shows our development, failures and success. I can't imagine anyone downloading them all, but there is some fine stuff, like our concert with Girlfriends, dream machine music, the AVE festival, Metamorphasen and if you want one good Beequeen concert from the USA (which are essentially all the same), I'd say download the one from Rochester.

On September 20th, I'll be part of a jury for the Eurovision Noise Contest."European countries compete against each other for the title of "The Best European Noise Act Of 2008." Every act gets 11 minutes to show their skills to the audience.
A professional jury constisting of Dr Bibber (performance), Frans de Waard (music) and A3 (costumes and outfits) will give a professional reply to what the act showed them. Your host for the whole evening will be Wouter Jaspers, who personally booked all the great acts. The winner will get a release on ZXZW Records and of course the honor of being "The Best European Noise Act Of 2008."
The Eurovision Noise Contest will be organised in collaboration with Vatican Analog."
More at the website of ZXZW

The Black & White Album

It is with extreme pleasure that I can say that the first Zebra CD 'The Black & White Album' is now released by Symbolic Interaction in Japan. The general theme is 'music', running through the various songs, inspired by the great wonders of popmusic. Great design by mister Meeuw, great cover text by Roel. More or less released on my birthday last friday.
This weekend is spend on painting the covers of the first LP by Pick-up which Important Records will be releasing shortly. 350 individual covers are painted in 2 colors by Elise and me. It looks like this:



And this friday Beequeen will play at Zomeravonden festival in Maastricht.

Frozen

Yesterday I visited the opening of 'Frozen', an exhibition at De Melkweg in Amsterdam, which is part of the 5days Off Festival. In this exhibition visual artists work with a music piece, and make a translation of the music into visual art. Marius Watz works with the music of Alexander Rishaug and Andreas Nicolas Fischer & Benjamin Maus, Leander Herzog and Daniel Widrig & Shajay Booshan all work with my Freiband piece 'Reflection'. The audience can choose which one to hear. It looks absolutely great, me thinks. The pieces show the structure of the music quite well. Below are pictures of the three pieces for my music. It's open until July 26th at the Melkweg Mediaroom, so if you are in that town, do something nice and visit it, I'd say!





Melkweg site

Benjamin Maus site

Cancelled

Tomorrow's Beequeen show has been cancelled, and probably rightly so. It's also football and Beequeen and football don't match up, I guess. We'll be going to Worm later in the year.
The film presentation went well, could be better on the small concert front, I guess. No Oscars yet.
There are 2 new releases on My Own Little Label. One is my concert in Leeuwarden of 2 weeks ago, and one is a release with Bass Communion. A new piece by him and a remix of it by me. It's out since a day, and its by far the best selling release on Moll. So these things go.
And the small Beequeen on You Tube inspired me to do a quick one, for that lovely small White Bike track:

All Beequeen News

While I am getting a bit nervous for tomorrow's presentation of WYSISWYH, the film by Harrie Timmermans, which is apparently reworked so I haven't seen it yet, and to which I will play some live music, this is more concerned with Beequeen news. On My Own Little Label I did a re-issue of 'Long Stones & Circles' as a 3"CDR, Herbal Records from Maleysia re-released another old Beequeen, our 2nd: Time Waits For No One. I am very pleased with how the whole thing turned out. You may want to check out your old Staalplaat copy. Due to the glue used on the digipacks back then, they might no longer play properly, so you can replace it with a fresh copy. Thanks to Goh Lee Kwang for wanting to release this. Next Saturday Beequeen will play at Worm in Rotterdam. There is also film that evening.
And speaking of film, someone created a film to the demo version of the 'Maypole Song' from our latest Sandancing CD. Please do more, anyone is invited. Have a look here.

What happened next...

I know I should have been updating this more in the last week, but after leaving for Petersburg, we have been travelling a lot, and internet wasn't always available, well, that, or we didn't look properly. The first picture you see is from Roel and me in front of the store that gave us the name Goem. At last! Anyway, on sunday night we went to the Teremin instititute and did a workshop/informal talk about our work, which went well, although the Q&A was something of a babylonic affair. Right after that we went by night train to Petersburg and I didn't catch any sleep, but was a good boy and marched past all the things to see there. At the Experimental Sound Gallery not many people showed up, but there were three from The Netherlands, whom I think were more attracted to the fact that we were Dutch than to the brilliant music we played. Ho-hum. The night train took us back and we waited two hours before hopping on the next train to Yaroslavl, again a totally different city that Moscow or Petersburg. Much more relaxed and calm. Roel played a soviet star during Kapotte Muziek, which many seemed to enjoy. Then we went back to The Netherlands. Spasiba!: Dmitry, Sergey, Artiom, Alex and Vladimir, and no doubt I forget a few.



No rest for the wicked as on friday I had to built up an installation '[untitled]' at the CBKN in Nijmegen. It's in the nuclear shelter basement and it's to announce the film presentation that is on the 15th, until which date you can see this. From thursday to sunday, 12 to 5. It's low on sound, stay at least 10 minutes to catch the drift. A slightly different presentation than at Tent two years ago.



Then on Saturday night Extrapool re-opened their doors with a long night of small concerts and performances. Martin Luiten and I played our very first gig as Pick-up, which I think, given the circumstances went alright. We played mono on a monitor speaker in one of the new bedrooms, with people talking alround. The picture shown here is taken by Elise, who is not yet the new Anton Corbijn. But she and some others seemed to like it. And now it's time to spend my entire time on the 50+ CDs for Vital Weekly.

Dziga is alive

I'd like to prove I'm in Russia, but for now the batteries of my camera are dead, so I can't upload the pictures. Friday night we play at Dom for quite some people who loved the proceedings. Yesterday we did the tourist things and played Shtopor, which is a private club with access only by fingerprint but it looked like a great club, with various rooms. Goem and Slo-fi's music was in one room, but quite loud, but apparently people like it from a distance.
So I can't proof that we're here, except for this very nice film on You Tube. Enjoy this and if you like it come to the concerts of Monday and Tuesday.

From Russia With Love

Roel and me have arrived in Moscow, where the weather is not as good as in The Netherlands, but we arrived safely and didn't do much until now, besides walking a bit around. If you are in the area, then come to the concert at Dom to night. There is a bit of promotion with a megamix for my music here
More and perhaps pictures later on..

The Touring Scheme

ok, now I know what I'll be doing in the next 30 or so days... here it is:

23.05 - concert in DOM, Moscow (KM, Freiband, Roel Meelkop)
24.05 - concert in Shtopor, Moscow (Goem, Slo-fi)
25.05 - workshop at Theremin-center, Moscow
26.05 - concert in GES, St-Petersbourg (KM, Freiband, Roel Meelkop)
27.05 - concert in ARS-forum, Yaroslavl (KM, Freiband, Roel Meelkop)
31.05 - concert in Extrapool, Nijmegen as Pick-up with Martin Luiten
06.06 - concert in Leeuwarden as Freiband (I think), with Machinefabriek
15.06 - concert and film presentation in Lux, Nijmegen as Frans de Waard
21.06 - concert in Worm, Rotterdam with Beequeen

busy times indeed! Stop by if you are in the area!

i'm in love with a dutch film star

o.k. so that last message may have been a bit cryptic, but in essence it's a radio show mix where i play some of my own music. It's not a remix, but a mix. This is the tracklist:
Past, present & future by and from Frans de Waard

0000 Beequeen - The Illogical Song (from CD 'Sandancing', Important Records imprec 177, 2008)
0016 Freiband - Fade In/Fade Out, remix of Mist (from CD 'Dangerous Words', Astro A081CDEP, 2003)
0259 Kapotte Muziek - Tweede Russelsheim (from CD 'Sonderangebot', Staalplaat, 1996)
0702 IFCO - Sunspots (from 7" 'Postcard', Entr'acte E51, 2008)
1141 Giuseppe Ielasi & Howard Stelzer & Roel Meelkop & Frans de Waard - Untitled (from CD 'Zondag', Port 003, 2007)
1458 Pick up - as yet untitled from forthcoming release
1907 Machinefabriek & Freiband - Oahu 2.1 (from CD 'Oahu', Low Point LP019, 2008)
2343 Beequeen - Beam Ends (from CD 'Ownliness', Infraction Records INFX 003, 2002)
2714 Goem - Untitled (from CD 'Atak 006', Atak 006, 2004)
2912 Frans de Waard - Vijf Profielen (from CD 'Vijf Profielen', Alluvial Recordings A26, 2007)
3128 Beequeen - The Illogical Song (from CD 'Sandancing', Important Records imprec 177, 2008)

mixed Monday April 14th, 2008 by Frans de Waard

The reason the previous post was a cut 'n paste job is that I posted it while working with Harrie Timmermans. We are commisioned to do a film together, or rather Harrie is. He was asked by Dziga in Nijmegen to do a short film on a musician and he proposed me. This week we shooted some material of me gathering sounds. Next week I'll be shot (!) composing with the material, and then on June 15th there will be the presentation and a concert with that material. All here in Nijmegen at Lux. At the CBKN there will be a presentation beforehand with some films by Harrie and one or two installation pieces by me.

There is more happening! Martin Luiten, who played guitar on the album with Machinefabriek, and I form a new duo called Pick-up and we completed our first CD and our first gig will be on May 31st at the opening of the re-build Extrapool.

Before that Roel and I will be a week in Russia (22-29 May). Two gigs are fixed:
23th May - Moscow (DOM cultural center, http://www.dom.com.ru)
26th May - St.-Petersbourg (GEZ-21 gallery)
which will be Freiband, Roel Meelkop, Kapotte Muziek and perhaps Zebra
maybe in Moscow in Stopor Club for 25th May, as Goem/Slo-Fi and maybe a gig in Yaroslav

Beequeen may perform at Worm in June, and Machinefabriek/Jan Kleefstra and me on the 6th in Leeuwarden.

John Wiese and I recorded some material at my studio, but mixing must wait some time..

Busy times

Tune In

Frans de Waard mixes Frans de Waard

THE WIRE PRESENTS ADVENTURES IN MODERN MUSIC

The Wire's weekly show on London's arts radio station broadcasts
across central London on 104.4 FM, with simultaneous streaming at
www.resonancefm.com, every Thursday between 9-10:30pm. The show
features special guest mixes from a host of Wire-friendly musicians,
writers, DJs and so on.

website for live listening is http://www.resonancefm.com

All editions of Adventures In Modern Music are archived for online
listening.

*go to http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/the_wire_on_air/

interviews

No less than two interviews have been published. First of all in the latest issue of The Wire, which is already out. I don't think I am allowed to make a scan and distribute it freely, but e-mail me if you wish to see it. But here is the cover. Funny of course that Goem's most danceable piece of music is a remix by Wolfgang Voigt. Everything somehow comes together.
Also there is an interview here and that's free of course, with an old, very old picture of me when I was more (or less) handsome

Postcard 7inch

Finally the new and first ever Idea Fire Company 7" Postcard arrived today. It's released by Entr'acte in the UK, and it was recorded at my studio in 2005. Karla, Scott and me rehearsed for the IFCO tour there and everything was recorded. From the various takes of the various songs I melted together these two tracks, which I'm particularly proud of. Two hundred copies have been, so it will not chart on mTV, I guess, but who cares.
On My Own Little Label I released a 3" by Freiband, called Capture, which is a remix of the Audioscoop 2LP. It turned out quite nice also.

Take me for a ride

What a day, oh dear diary. First I received the printwork for The Hafler Trio's 'Dislocation' which looks great. Than Idea Fire Company's Island Of Taste LP arrives, which also looks and sound great. Then the phone rings:

(US female voice): "do you have the e-mail address info@kormplastics.nl"
(me): "yes, m'am" (always polite on the phone, never in real life)
(US female voice): "you won a free trip to florida and bahamas. you'll be staying in the radison, go on a cruise, go disney ('one day i'll take you to disney land, boyd'), universal studios, free food. Just buy your plane ticket and the rest is free'
(me, innocent): "really?"
(me, flabbergast): "gosh"
(US female voice): "isn't that great"
(small talk continues for 10 minutes on how exciting this all is)
(US female voice): "I'll put through to my co-worker to run some details"

(US male voice, much more down to earth): "yes, Frans, I'm taking you through your coordinates"
(me, sky high): "ok"
(US male voice): "you have buy an insurance today for only 998 us dollars, which is, well, hum, exactly 600 euros, but its for up to 4 persons"
(me, going down): "and just for myself?"
(US male voice): "that would still be 998"
(me, hitting ground): "well, i can't spend that money today"
(US male voice): "goodb" - phone disconnects

God Damn America - I love it. Hey, Scott, God bless Captain Black.

Maastricht Rules!

It's hearth warming (like a campfire) to see all the positive feedback on my 'I hate Galleries' post and Eindhoven: are you there and still not listening? I was in Maastricht last friday to present the Audioscoop 2LP set via small talk and some live music, and if it wasn't something that I didn't know, I could call this 'to hear a pin drop'. Eindhoven, are you listening? People like music and want to shut up. Nice evening there in Maastricht with some excellent performances of Titmachine, Rene SG (with whom the party continued well beyond closing time), Staplerfahrer and Feedback Society. The Audioscoop 2LP has a track by Kapotte Muziek as well as Asmus Tietchens, Andrea Neumann, MSBR, Sudden Infant and such like and is a very nice one. The remix I created will be released as a 3"CDR on My Own Little Label.

OAHU

An Oahu is an acoustic lapsteel guitar, named after one of the Islands of Hawaii. My friend Martin Luiten has one and he provided a bit of playing the instrument to me and Rutger Zuydervelt, a.k.a Machinefabriek. We have been reworking the material into bits of thirty seconds which we bounced back and forth until we had enough rough material. It's hard to believe, but I completed my mix on Janaury 6th (Rutger some days before that), and today the finished CD land on my doorstep. Released by Low Point, with a nice Rutger cover. The original Martin track opens up, then it's me, then Rutger. I am amazed by this speed and it's actually a great CD too. I have some copies to sell!
With Martin I am working on some new music to, real time guitar playing and real time laptop. We are now mixing it and most likely we'll use the name Pick Up for our project.
This friday I'll be playing in Maastricht at the presentation of the 2LP compilation 'Audioscoop'. I am part of the official side of it, will speak a few words and do a sort of remix of the album - if i can get things finished before that. Kapotte Muziek is also on the LP.

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.