SchallPlatte 23 Released with Synth.NL Track 'Gemini'

Yesterday the German Music Club Schallwende released their 23rd sampler CD called 'SchallPlatte'. They released this CD only to the member of the club to give them a nice holiday present because all the concerts were canceled due to the Corona crisis. My track is called 'Gemini'. This track was inspired by the Gemini Space program that superseded the Apollo missions to the Moon. The Gemini project ran from 1964 en 1966 and was basically a dress rehearsal for Apollo. I didn't compose much new music since my Apollo album in 2011, so this track felt a bit like a dress rehearsal again for me too. Since the beginning of 2020 I finally have a small studio again in Rotterdam (NL) after having to sell everything because of my divorce. I'm currently working on several new solo projects, but this was the first track produced in my new and very small 'Jurassic' studio. I hope you like it. You can listen to the track on my website on this url: https://www.synth.nl/music/samplers/schallplattexxiii. The CD is not for sale officially, but Groove Unlimited might have a few in their web shop later on. I will let you know if they are available and put the link on the website.

Another Synth.NL track will be released in 2020

 I was asked by the German Electronic Music Club Schallwende to submit a track for their upcoming SchallPlatte 23 sampler album. They normally release these albums once a year and most of the times there is a theme. This is a special release for their members because all concerts have been canceled due to Corona. I though this was a good idea and I spend some time creating a track called 'Gemini' inspired by the Gemini space program. They liked the track so it was selected and will be on that album. It will be released by the end of 2020. It is not for sale. It is only for members of the club. You can read more information about Schallwende here: http://www.schallwen.de/. I will give more information on this project when the album is released.

Schallwelle Jubileum CD with Synth.NL track

Recently the German Electronic Music club Schallwende released another sampler CD. It was a special double album for the celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the Schallwelle Awards. On this CD are 22 track by all the Schallwelle Award winners of the last ten years. As you might remember I won two of these awards. The public price with my OceanoGraphy album and the jury price with my Apollo album. So I'm proud to be on this CD off course.

This track is special for me. I hope you like it. I made it during the sick bed of my father in law. He died in the mean time, we just buried him. I would like to dedicate this track to him. The name of the track is 'Taurus'. This was his 'zodiac' (Sternzeichen/Sterrenbeeld) and mine too, so we shared that. He also fought like a bull against death during his 9 months sick bed. The track is mastered by my friend Hans Landman.

You can listen to the track on my website on this URL: http://www.synth.nl/music/samplers/schallwelle10y.

I think Groove Unlimited still has some copies left. So be quick to buy it if you like it on: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=10974

SchallPlatte 18 with Synth.NL track

Recently the German Electronic Music club Schallwende released another sampler CD. It is already the 18th edition of the SchallPlatte series. This CD is only distributed to the members of the club and is not for sale. A jury always selects the tracks from a large amount of submissions. This year I decided to send in a track and I'm proud to see that it was selected again. The Theme for this CD was sport this time and I chose table tennis. I have been playing table tennis since I was 18 so for me that was an easy choice. I had a great time creating especially the rhythm track with actual table tennis sounds. The music was influenced this time a bit by Reggae / Ska which was quite popular in The Netherlands when I started playing table tennis back then. I hope you enjoy it.

You can listen to the track on my website on this URL http://www.synth.nl/schallplatte18. I hope you like it. Enjoy! :)

SchallPlatte 15 Released with Synth.nl track Underground

Recently the German Electronic Music club Schallwende released another sampler CD. It is already the 15th edition of the SchallPlatte series. This CD is only distributed to the members of the club and is not for sale. A jury always selects the tracks from a large amount of submissions. This year I decided to send in a track and I'm proud to see that it was selected again. The theme for the CD this year was 'World Cities'. I made a track about my favorite city London in the UK and used some samples that I recorded myself from the London Underground. The track is called 'Underground' as well for this reason. You can listen to the track on my website on this URL http://www.synth.nl/SchallPlatte15. I hope you like it. It will be my only solo release this year I'm afraid. Hopefully I'll have some more time in the future for my solo work again. Well. Enough for now. Enjoy! :)

Analogy 3 on CDBaby, Itunes and Amazon

One of the first releases I did was a track called 'Synthology' that I made for the compilation album 'Analogy 3' that was released in 2007 by my record label Groove Unlimited. The nice thing about this sampler concept is that the artists involved were only allowed to use analog synthesizers. It is a very nice and very varied album that was mixed together as one long mix by Ron Boots. I just found out that the album is now also for sale as CD both also as MP3 download on the popular sites like CDBaby, Itunes and Amazon. More information about the album and also the direct links to the album on these sites can be found on this URL: http://www.synth.nl/Analogy3

New track coming on EM Portal CD II

I recently finished a new track for the upcoming EM Portal sampler CD. (vol 2). I was inspired for this track by some samples that I took in the London Underground in 2008 when I visited the Oxygene tour by Jean Michel Jarre in the Royal Albert Hall in London. The track will be called simply 'Underground'. Highly appropriate since I made it underground in my basement as well :) I did have some trouble finding inspiration after the long work on the Apollo project, but I got it done in time to make the deadline. The CD will be released in the first quarter of 2012 to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the EM Portal forum, so you'll need to have a bit of patience, but that will for sure be my first release coming up now. Do have a look at the forum as well by the way. Lots of info on electronic music and also concert information etc. to find there. OK when I have more information on the CD I'll let you know for sure.

NachtWacht and DonQuixote on Klangarten #20

On the latest KlangArten podcast #20 Brammi played two of my tracks. He played the new 'DonQuixote' track I made for the SchallPlatte 13 sampler and also he played 'NachtWacht' from the Dutch Masters sampler CD.

Since the show is a podcast you can still download it and listen to it when you have time. You can find it on this URL:

http://www.klangarten.de

SchallPlatte XIII Released Today

Today the new SchallPlatte XIII sampler CD was released by the German Electronic Music Club Schallwende. It was released at the yearly Grill Fest they organize in the Gruga Park in Essen Germany. They made a CD this year where all member musicians could send in a track. A jury then selected 12 tracks from a lot of entries. So I am very happy that my track was selected. The theme for this album was literature. The Theme for this CD was literature this time and I chose the book fully titled: 'The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha' but I think everybody knows the main person as Don Quixote, the guy that fought wind mills on his donkey, because he thought they were giants. The book was written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes and was published in two volumes a decade apart (in 1605 and 1615). This CD is not for sale by the way. It is only distributed among the members. If you want this CD you will have to become a member I guess. You can listen to my track on this url: http://www.synth.nl/SchallPlatteXIII

Don Quixote track selected by the Schallwende Jury!

I have some good news. The track I made about Don Quixote a while ago was selected by the Jury. It will be released on the Schallplatte CD that is released by the German Electronic Music Club Schallwende every year. It is distributed to the members only and is not for sale. It is the 13th sampler CD released by them already and I'm very proud to be on there again. The theme of this sampler CD was literature this time. I don't know yet who else will be on it. The CD will be released on the 4th of June during the Grill Fest in Essen. If you'd like a copy of the CD I guess you will have to become a member. You can find more information on their website http://www.schallwen.de. I will be present during the Grill Fest to pick up my copy for sure :) When the CD is released I will put a copy of the track on my website so that you can listen to it. The mastering of this track was done by my good friend Hans Landman again. Last week we did the final version in his studio together. My other friend Ron Boots will be responsible for the mastering of the whole CD. So I'm sure it will sound just fine :)

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 :)