BorkHavn CD Pre-Order possible at Groove.NL now!

 Ron finished the mastering of the BorkHavn CD and I finished the artwork. I did make a mistake so we had to reprint the inlay, which caused a bit of delay. Sorry Ron :) But the CD is done and currently being produced. It will be available very soon. You can already pre-order the CD from the Groove Webshop at this URL: 

 http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=GR-299

I expect the CD's to be coming from the factory later this week and I guess shipping will be starting next week. Let me know if you need any help. There will be a digital download version both as MP3 and WAV later on as well.

E-day 2011 Dutch Masters Promo Video

A new version of the Dutch Masters Promo Video. This one was made for the official presentation at the E-live Festival 2001 in Oirschot The Netherlands.

E-day 2011 Report

Last Saturday I was present at the E-day festival in Oirschot (NL). I really had a great time talking to a  lot of people and I even sold quite some CD's at my stall. I didn't really count on that so much because I didn't really have that much newly released material. I did bring the Apollo sneak preview too as I promised. It played it in a CD player with some headphones attached. About 10 visitors listened to it. Luckily they were all very positive even though it isn't really finished yet, so that gives me good motivation to finish it and release it as soon as possible :) Thanks to my friend Chris by the way for taking these nice pictures!

I also had the Apollo 3D work with me. I showed it on a separate screen on my stall. It did it's work alright it caught the attention of a lot of people and that gets you talking easy. It seems that they liked that too, some didn't even thought I made them myself. I told some people as well about my plans to do more with the combination of music, 3D animations and video and they liked that idea. I also brought another video that I made especially for the presentation of the Dutch Masters sampler CD that was going to be presented on the festival in the main hall. I was quite nervous for that actually. It took me quite some time to make.

Ron Boots though of something though that made me even more nervous he called all the musicians that contributed to the Dutch Masters album to the stage starting by me. I really don't like to be in the center of attention like that. We all had to tell why they chose our painting and how we transferred that in to music. I think it was a nice idea to get the attention, but I had been very busy synchronizing the audio to the video so I'd rather have not everyone talk through the video, but all right ;) It's Ron's party after all. During the talk even more of the artists walked in so eventually 8 of the 10 were on stage. Quite unique I think.

And here you can see a picture with the whole line up. I'll give you the names from left to right: Gert Emmens, Bas Broekhuis, Rene van der Wouden, Remy Stroomer, Michel van Osenbruggen, Eric van der Heijden, Rene Splinter and Ron Boots. Unfortunately Meesha and Void had to work that day so they couldn't come. I guess the whole presentation thing did it's work because quite some Dutch Masters CD's were sold. And as you can see it is a limited edition so if you are interested you should be quick. I have published the video we showed on my YouTube page by the way so you can listen to an excerpt of all the tracks too judge if you like it.

Another highlight for my that day was the release of the I-dentity album by Remy. He launched that by performing parts from it live on stage. In the title track there are four contributing artists, Gert Emmens, Erik Wollo, Francis Rimbert and Myself. Gert and Erik joined Remy on stage when he played the I-dentity title track. You can find more information about the album and this track on my website http://www.synth.nl/Remy and more information on the Dutch Masters sampler CD can be found here http://www.synth.nl/DutchMasters. I will post the YouTube video on my blog as well so you can easily find it. I hope you enjoy it :)

Synth.nl with Apollo Sneak Preview at E-day

Coming Saturday I will be present at the E-live festival in Oirschot (NL). I will have some nice stuff for you in stock. First of all I will bring a sneak preview of my upcoming Apollo album. You can listen to it on my stall. Please note it is not finished yet I'm still working on it, but you will get a very good impression of what it will sound like. I will also show some of my Apollo 3D animations at my stall. Also a sneak preview. And then there will be a nice surprise produced be me in the main hall, but I'm not going to tell you yet what it is :) So do come and pay this very nice festival a visit. It will be worth you visit. Nice concerts, nice people and new stuff too see and listen. More information on http://e-day.groove.nl

Nachtwacht on Elektroland #125

My Nachtwacht track from the compilation CD 'Dutch Masters' that was recenly released was played on the Danish radio show Elektroland. There is also a podcast available that you can download on this URL: http://www.nattefrost.dk/elektroland/playlist.htm

More information on the Dutch Masters CD can be found here: http://www.synth.nl/DutchMasters. You can also listen to my entire track there. Please not the the album is a limited edition. So you can buy it as long as stock exists. Only 400 copies are sold and I know a lot have been sold already.

And don't miss the promo video I made for this album on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntYls-DAMGI&hd=1

Soleil Levant Fan Video

Rob Hamertink aka 'bellerob' made another great video from the track 'Soleil Levant' that Ron Boots and me did together on our 'Refuge en Verre' album. Thanks Rob!

Apollo Preview on E-day no Release yet!

The last months I have been working almost day and night on my new album. My target was to release it at the E-day festival on the 16th of April in Oirschot (NL). I had a lot of personal and technical problems the last periods though and that has slowed my progress down a lot. By now I'm sure that I won't be able to make the deadline unfortunately. I'm 95% done and the album really stands on its own now, but I'm just not satisfied yet and I don't want to release a product that doesn't feel right under pressure like this. I haven't been working with fun any more on  it the last weeks either. So I think it is best for me to take a short break from the project now. And then start finishing it of with a more relaxed state of mind. I will set a new release date when I know when I can have it done. I hope it will be somewhere in June as it looks now. I hope you all understand. I guess you will get a better album in the end by waiting a little bit longer. I will have a preview version with me though on the E-day festival where I will have a stall. So you can listen to the album as it is there if you like for a 95% impression. You can read more about the E-day festival on this URL: http://e-day.groove.nl. Hope to see you there!

Refuge en Verre now also on Itunes!

And now the Refuge en Verre album that I did together with Ron Boots is also available on Itunes. It will probably appear also on Amazon.com and maybe some more places. So do a search in your favorite online shop for 'Refuge en Verre' or 'Ron Boots & Synth.nl'. You should be able to find the album on Itunes by going to this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/refuge-en-verre/id422901578. If it doesn't work let me know and I'll help you find it. Thank you very much for your support!

Refuge en Verre on CDBaby.com

I have good news. Refuge en Verre, the collaboration album I did together with Ron Boots, is now also available on CDBaby.com. That means that you can buy it as High Quality MP3 download, Artwork included. They also have CD's in stock. So if you are in the USA now you can order it from US company, pay in dollars and it saves you shipping costs. I'm happy to see Groove Unlimited has put it on there. You can find it on this URL:
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RonBootsSynthnl I'll put the sales link also on my own website where you can also find more information on the album http://www.synth.nl/Refuge

Apollo Status Update

I though it would be nice to give you a little update on my Apollo project. I know some of you are really waiting for this album. In the picture on the left you can see roughly what it is going to look like at least. I can't give you previews on the sound yet, but that will come very soon. There will be 12 tracks in total and the total length of the CD will be around 68 minutes. I also determined the final order for the tracks now. I still have a month left to make the deadline for a release on E-day and I still need to play a melody on one track and then lots of work is to be done on details like adding sound effects, editing drum variations, playing little ad-don melodies.  It is going to be a tight call whether I'll make the 16th of April release. I'm still not sure because when I'm done also the remixing and mastering has to be done in the very last moment. It won't be much later if I don't make it but it would be nice to have it on my stall on E-day. I'll do my very best and I'll keep you updated on it.

Dutch Masters Sampler CD Released!

As follow-up to the highly successful Analogy series (part 1, 2, and 3), Groove Unlimited released a new sampler CD called 'Dutch Masters'. This time the approach is very different. The idea is to do an album with Dutch EM artists and let them compose music to a painting they like. You will hear music the artists composed to paintings of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Mondriaan, Escher, Bosch and many more. Of course there is also a track by me on this CD. Other artists that participated are: Ron Boots, Gert Emmens, Eric van der Heijden, Bas Broekhuis, Remy, Void, Rene Splinter, Meesha, and René van der Wouden. If you want to hear how these artists translate the image of their favorite painting into music get a hold of this album! I have the music from the album already for a while and I must say it is one of the best sampler CD's I have heard in a long time.

I did my song about a famous Dutch painting called 'Nachtwacht'. Back in school I learned about our famous Dutch Masters from the 'Golden Age' and I must admit that I never really cared much for paintings, until I saw a group of actors perform a live statue version of the Nachtwacht (Night Watch) painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. After that the painting started to fascinate me more and more and I wondered what it should sound like and that is what I expressed in this track. I hope you like it. It is a bit different from my usual track I think.

You can listen to my song on my website on this URL: http://www.synth.nl/DutchMasters.

You can listen to sound clips of the other tracks on the Groove Unlimited website on this URL: http://www.groove.nl/cd/g/gr-177.html

Groove Unlimited decided to release this CD as a limited edition. Only 400 copies are sold. So be quick! I have a feeling this one could be sold out very quickly. You can order it from this URL: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=gr-177.

More Apollo Artwork

I promised last week to show you more of the Apollo artwork when it was done. Well now it is. Bart just send me the last files. I'm sure there will be some little tweaks before it is finally pressed but this is globally what the back will look like. You can also already see the track list. The song titles are final and so is the order they will be in. The track lengths can be different on the CD, since I'm still working hard on some of the tracks. Another thing you might notice is that the mastering will be done this time by my good friend Hans Landman. We will also work again on one track together like we did on my AtmoSphere album.

And this will be the CD itself. You can actually put the moon in your CD player eventually. There will be more text on there later on as well. I do have some other pictures for the inside of the booklet, but there I still need to write all the text for those. Pfffff so much to do :) In the mean time I'm also working on a new theme for my website. That will be in Apollo style too when I'm done with the CD and when I'm sure when the release will be. And the last thing then will be a nice promo video for the album. So you can imagine I guess that I'm a bit busy here and that I won't be able to write as much on this blog as I normally do. But I'll try to keep you updated from time to time.

Apollo Cover is Ready

I know I have been quiet on here for a while, but I'm working very hard on my Apollo album at the moment so I don't have much time for other projects. In the mean time I'm also working with my designer Bart on the artwork for the CD. We found a great picture of a Saturnus V rocket standing on the Launchpad that we used and I really like the font that Bart used. It really fits the space theme and the time that these events happen in were space travel was still considered futuristic. We are working now also on the other artwork that I hope to show to you very soon as well. The use of the picture is courtesy of NASA of course. I still aim for release on the 16th of April by the way, but I still have a lot of work to do so I'm not entirely sure at the moment that I will make it. But I'm going to try hard :)

Dutch Masters Artwork done and New Release Date

It took a bit longer than anticipated but the artwork for the upcoming Dutch Masters CD is finally done.You can see it in the picture on the left. Because the artwork took a bit longer the release date was a bit postponed and is set now for the 18th of February. So very soon! As stated before it will be a limited edition of 400 copies and pre-sales has started already. I have heard the whole CD a couple of times now myself and I can highly recommend it. There are some great tracks on this CD and the rest good. No average work here. So be sure to get a copy of it. You can find more information about this CD, my contribution and a link to where you can buy it on my website: http://www.synth.nl/DutchMasters

AeroDynamics Fan Video

Here is another video I got sent by a fan. The track is the title track from my first 'AeroDynamics' album that was released in 2007. More information about the album here: http://www.synth.nl/AeroDynamics

Planetarium Show is Playing at Beisbroek Now!

The Planetarium show that I made music for recently had it's premiere on the 21st of December. From now on it is showing in the space theater of Planetarium 'Beisbroek' in Brugge Belgium. The name of the show translates something like 'Sun of Heaven and Hell'. As stated before the show is only avaible in the Dutch language. If you are in the neighborhood of Brugge and want to check the show out you can find more information on this URL: http://www.beisbroek.be/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=186 and more information about the Beisbroek Planetatium is of course at http://www.beisbroek.be and in case you missed it here you can find my part of the show http://www.synth.nl/BeisbroekSun

P.S. On the 2nd of January both the shows I made music for are runnig on the same day. It is very likely that I'll be there that day together with the family to watch the shows myself. Maybe I'll see you there :)

Dutch Masters up for Pre-Sale already

Last week Groove Unlimited officially announced the upcoming sampler CD 'Dutch Masters' in their newsletter. Here is the text from the newsletter:

As follow-up to the very successful Analogy series (part 1, 2,and 3), Groove Unlimited is releasing a new special various artists cd soon. This time the approach is very different. We came up with the idea to do an album with Dutch EM artists and let them compose music to a painting they like preferably from a famous Dutch Painter. The album will be called 'Dutch Masters' and you will hear music the artists composed to paintings of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Mondriaan, Escher, Bosch and many more. Artists that will contribute to this unique album are: Rene Splinter, Ron Boots, Gert Emmens, Eric van der Heijden, Bas Broekhuis, Remy, Synth.nl, Meesha and Rene van der Wouden. There might be even more that will contribute to this endeavor. If you want to hear how these artists translate the image of their favorite painting into music get a hold of this album! It will be released in the beginning of 2011 and it will be a unique project limited to 400 copies. Be sure to reserve yours before they are all gone!!

As you can read there will be a track from me on that album too. My track is called 'NachtWacht' and it is about the famous 'Night Watch' painting by Rembrandt. As you can see it is a limited edition. Reserve your copy now in the pre-sales on this URL: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=gr-177