Surprise Release 'SynthWelle' on SchallPlatte XI

Yesterday I visited the Grill Fest that the German music club Schallwende organizes every year. Traditionally they also release a yearly sampler CD there. This year it was already the 11th version of that so it is called Schallplatte XI. Last year I was on it as well with a cover of a classical tune. This year they invited all the price winners and nominees from the Electronic Music price they organized last year to send in a track. I was nominated in two categories last year, best newcomer and best CD, but unfortunately I didn't win both. But I'm still very proud to be on this CD with some great other artists. This year there was no theme or assigned so I just made a track out of the blue with no specific theme in my mind either

I listened to the entire CD yesterday evening and I must say it is very pleasant. When you click on the picture on the right you can see the track list. Unfortunately this CD is not for sale. Only the members of Schallwende get this one. So if you want it I guess you can become a member. More information is on their website -> http://www.schallwen.de/. They have a nice magazine and also organize very nice event throughout the year to keep the Electronic Music scene alive. Well I did put my track on my website so that you can listen to it. You can find it here:

http://www.synth.nl/SchallPlatteXI

I hope you like it :) I think it is a nice warm up for my upcoming album. Do enjoy!

OceanoGraphy Cover and Track List

I just uploaded a new version of the cover of my upcoming OceanoGraphy album. Unfortunately the logo of the World Wildlife Fund had to go from the front because they only allow front cover logo's on their own productions. And well this is obviously my production ;) Well at least the cover even looks more peaceful now. There is still a reference to my cooperation on this project with the WWF on the back fortunately. I have clearance now to use the logo in this way. My designer Bart is now working hard on the rest of the artwork like the booklet and the CD itself. I myself still have to create text as well for the booklet etc Kees Aerts from Groove Unlimited will make the final artwork then. It is always a job that comes all the way in the back since it is depending on some information that isn't always clear until the very end of the production.

One of those things is the final track listing and the length of all the tracks. While the track order is final now I still don't know all the exact lengths since I'm still working on some on the tracks. You can see the final track names and the order that they will appear in the picture on the right. This will be on the back of the CD, so on the final version you will see the lengths as well. On my website there is already a very short explanation what the tracks are about. You will better understand the track names when you read that. I will add more text later on, but now I first need to work on the music. On this URL you will find more information as well as the pre-order link from Groove Unlimited:

http://www.synth.nl/OceanoGraphy

Synth.nl at Electronic Circus 2009

I'd like to inform you about a very nice Electronic Music Festival that is taking place soon. It is called 'Electronic Circus' and it is organized in Bielefeld in Germany. It will take place on the 12th of September. There will be several concerts there and I will be present there as well with a stall. On this stall you can buy my current CD's directly from me and I will also bring a special preview version of my upcoming 'OceanoGraphy' album. It will be almost finished by then so you can get a real sneak preview. I have visited this event last year and I must say it is very professionally organized and the concerts where great. The concert hall is in the middle of the town so there is plenty to eat just outside. You can find more information on this event on this URL: http://www.electronic-circus.net/. I hope to see you there! It would be nice to meet in person of course.

OceanoGraphy Album Update

I promised a little update on the progress of my upcoming OceanoGraphy album. Here you can see a screen shot of how the album looks at this moment. This track order will be the final one. I updated the page as well. As you can see I have 12 tracks on the album and there is about 70 minutes of music. I'm still working on some tracks though in terms of arrangement. Especially OceanoGraphy and Artico can vary a bit in time. The other tracks are ready enough, but I'm working on the details on those. I still have about 5 weeks left and until then I'll work every minute I have on it polishing and trying to improve even more. I'm currently working closely again with my friend Hans again who helps me with idea's and points me to things he things can be better. But as you can see it is starting to look like something and I'm quite on schedule actually. Well enough for now. I'll update soon again.

Small Trip to London

I know I have been very quiet on here lately, but actually I have been working almost day and night in my studio on my new album the last weeks. But I needed a little break from it so I went on a small trip to London with my wife. We stayed there 5 days and did some nice things. You don't have to be bored in London. On of my favorite places there is the Science Museum. All kinds of new and old stuff. They even had this EMS VCS3 there that was used heavily by Jean Michel Jarre. They are hard to come by nowadays. Quite rare, but it was standing there as an example on an analog synthesizer. In front of that is some very cheap casio as an example of a digital synthesizer.

In the Science museum there is also a space department and because it was the 40th birthday of the apollo mission they had a very nice 4D like show about the moon landing. And there is also a very big IMAX theater in the same building were we watched a 3D movie about the construction of the International Space Station. I can tell you that watching a 3D movie on a big screen like that is very impressive. Besides the space stuff I also like the department where they have very ancient computers. I'm very into old electronics as you may know by now. But actually the whole museum is very nice and interesting. There is also some medical stuff, maritime etc. And next door is the Museum of Natural History also nice and you can both enter them for free. I can recommend it when you are there.

Above you see me in the picture with a scale model of the Moon Lander that the Apollo 11 put on the moon. Left here you see a picture of an actual Capsule that was used to get back to the Earth on some space mission. Quite small actually. Another interesting trip we took was to Greenwich to the Royal Observatory. There is also the zero hour time meridian and some museums. Again free entrance. There is also a very nice Planetarium there were they also played a very nice show about the Apollo program :) So this trip was a real treat for me :)

Beside all this space stuff we also visited the London Zoo and some nice pubs and restaurants :) I took my samples a long with me as well on this trip, so I also made some nice recordings that I can use in some music later on. But for now I'm back to working day and night under the ground in my studio. I have to be finished with the album by the end of September so the clock is really ticking on me now and I'm starting to feel a bit of stress already. I will give you an update on the status very soon on here. Have a bit of patience with me please :)