RIP Dick Raaijmakers

I was quite shocked when I heard the news today about the passing of Dutch electronic music and tape music pioneer Dick Raaijmakers.

He died on September 4 at the age of 83.
Besides for helping popularizing electronic music globally in the sixties, he was also known as a composer, theater maker and music theorist.

He did groundbreaking work at the Dutch NatLab studios, and will also be remembered as the man who declined Stanley Kubrick's request to make the Clockwork Orange soundtrack... (oops)

I decided to pick this next video for my blog, because i haven't seen many people linking to it.

The video shows Dick Raaijmaker as the tape music teacher and theorist the way i remember him the most, in his own somewhat excentic and interesting way.

Although the whole interview is in Dutch, it has very adequate English subtitles (by Wiel Seuskens)

Video: Het kleinste geluid (deel 1)- The smallest sound (part 1)

Video: Het kleinste geluid (deel 2)- The smallest sound (part 2)

" Dick Raaijmakers in VPRO's Atlantis 1988 about his electronic composition Five Canons (1964-1967).In dutch.
The music is available on a 3 cd-box with a 120 page guidebook on Basta Records.
http://www.bastamusic.com/productDeta...
More Dick Raaijmakers on http://wiels.nl/blog/index.php?entry=..."

Videos uploaded by by Wiel Seuskens

Find more about Dick Raaijmakers music (and work) on PatchPierre HERE
and please take the time to watch his 25-minute long live performance of the music-piece 'Intona' on YouTube
Dick Raaijmakers also appeared in the Dutch documentary Room 306

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/10305446IMO

CD-Tip VI : More Electronic Music by Badings - Henk Badings

Henk Badings is still pretty unknown to a lot of us, but he was a classical-schooled Dutch composer/ engineer who was born in 1907 and passed away in 1987.

He had been composing since his youth, but after the 2nd World War he discovered (early) electronic and tape-music.
From 1956 until 1963 he worked with other Dutch electronic music pioneers like Dick Raaijmakers (who declined Stanley Kubrick's request to make the Clockwork Orange soundtrack)  en Tom Dissevelt in the acclaimed Philips NatLab.

He has written symphonies, concerto's, electronic and film music in his life, but this 2CD-set contains 5 of his most important electronic works.
Did they already "partly cover Badings' Electronic Music on the Popular Electronics Boxset (Basta 3091412), here's the best of the rest, to say so" (so not containing tracks that were already on THESE CD's that i reviewed earlier)

Fans that like Wendy Carlos, other NatLab CD's that i posted and such will probably like this collection of weird and sometimes dreamy, well composed soundscapes and even the more progressive electronic poetry-slam track "Dialogues for Man and Machine" with lyrics by Dutch singer/poet Ramses Shaffy

Preview:
  Capriccio (1959) for violin and 2 sound tracks - Henk Badings by Basta Music

More info and tracklisting HERE
Published by Basta Music

http://BastaMusic.com
Cat. Nr.: 3091 722
A more comprehensive list of all his works can be found HERE (in Dutch)
- also see http://www.badings.nl/

SiteTip VI : MIT Open Courseware Music and Technology: Algorithmic and Generative Music

It's kinda weird that, if you search well, there are 2 Music and Technology Courses on the site of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the same course number (21M.380).

I blogged about one earlier (Contemporary History and Aesthetics, find the blogpost with an interesting 80-minute video HERE) and i am still very enthusiastic about it, but the other one is also very informative.

This course, Algorithmic and Generative Music, as taught in spring 2010 by Christopher Ariza examined " ...the history, techniques, and aesthetics of mechanical and computer-aided approaches to algorithmic music composition and generative music systems. Through creative hands-on projects, readings, listening assignments, and lectures, students will explore a variety of historical and contemporary approaches. "

Surfing through the pages of this course you will find a lot of interesting information on (analog) sound, music history and much more, again accompanied by many links to other interesting reads and audio-examples.

Find the course homepage HERE
Download the lecture notes HERE ( 11.8 Mb PDF )
Full course Materials can be downloaded from HERE

Licence info:
Ariza, Christopher. 21M.380 Music and Technology: Algorithmic and Generative Music, Spring 2010. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 16 Oct, 2011). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Booktip X - Onder Stroom by Jacqueline Oskamp (in Dutch Language)

It took me a while to get through this book, but here is finally my long promised book review.
"Onder Stroom" ( the book is in Dutch, "Under Current" might be a fitting English translation ) by Jacqueline Oskamp is a book that tells the history of early Dutch electronic music.
You have probably seen my earlier blogposts on this topic too, if you didn't, HERE's a link.

With 6 portraits of the groundbreaking and/or pioneering Dutch composers like Ton Bruynèl, Dick Raaijmakers, Jan Boerman, Michel Waisvisz and others you get an amazing insight on how the Dutch electronic pioneers worked and struggled with electronics, audio, speakers and tapes in a very conservative post-war musical era.

Each in their own way, they were driven by their curiosity, found new ways of sound-creation and explored the spectrum between noise and sound.
Their influence lead to a pretty diverse electronic music scene in the Netherlands; from the pure electronic and almost mathematical approach to the pure tape-music, along with live electronics with orchestras and electro-acoustic setups you could say these early 1950s and 60s were 'our' golden years ( i'm Dutch too).
And that all started for us only half a century ago (!) If you just look around and see what has changed in recording and sounddesign.
I know we were a bit behind on the rest of the world or Europe; Leon Theremin, Edgar Varèse and Karlheinz Stockhausen, to name just a few great minds, already paved the way and had also inspired some of our pioneers.

This book is very interesting if you're into this kind of stuff, but also very pleasant to read if you have little or no knowledge of electronics and the techniques at all.
Very impressive is the list at the end with read- and listen-tips, and the book has a section of  8 pages with b/w pictures of the composers, sadly not many pictures of the equipment...

- An interview (VPRO Vrije geluiden / in Dutch) about this book with the writer can be found HERE
/ interview starts after 19 minutes - with music by Dutch artist TokTek
- Read more on the worldwide history of electronic music on Wikipedia HERE

Published in 2011 by Ambo/Anthos
Paperback 251 pages.
Info ( in Dutch ) HERE          ISBN: 9789026323249

CD-Tip V : Anthology of Dutch Electronic Tape Music Vol 1 and 2 - Various Artists

These summer weeks i have been too busy to blog regularly, but i did have time to read and listen.
The main topic of this summer's research was Early Dutch Electronic (Tape) Music, you can expect the review of the book "Onder Stroom" (in Dutch) by Jacqueline Oskamp later, but first this quick quadruple CD-Tip.

This 2 x 2CD collection gives another nice overview of the early Dutch Electronic and Tape-pioneers.
It shows the listeners that there were more creative people interested in the spectrum between noise and sound besides the people who worked at the Philips NatLab (more info HERE and Wiki HERE).
A collection of work from throughout the Netherlands from Dutch legends like Dick Raaijmakers, Henk Badings, Ton Bruynèl, Tom Dissevelt and more from the years 1955 to 1966 fills up Volume 1.
Volume 2 has music from the years 1966 to 1977 and contains compositions of lesser known tape-artists that were not included on the first volume.

"Anthology of Dutch Electronic Tape Music Volume 1 Electronic music has been the subject of intense activity in the Netherlands since 1955, and the variety of this activity is reflected in the histories of the large number of electronic studios. The aim of Anthology I is to illustrate both the work of the various studios and that of individual composers; we have tried to represent as many composers from each studio as possible with preferably their earliest and most characteristic works...

... The second and last volume of the Anthology of Electronic Tape Music contains works composed after 1966, during a period when electronic music broadened its horizons and established links with other disciplines, a period when the studios opened their portals to influences and involvement from outside. Although electronic music from 1966 onwards became very fragmented and manifested itself in many different forms in Holland, the present volume of the Anthology aims merely to give an overall picture of pure tape music. "

Overall i find this a perfect compilation series. Most of the compositions sound fresh ( also because of the brilliant remastering by Kees Tazelaar) and at times make you feel excited and amazed on how this could be made half a decade ago without 'modern' effect machines.
If you are new to Dutch Electronic Tape-Music and you need a good starting point, try these 4 CD's.
Together with the 2 thick inlay-booklets (in English), that provide info on each track and a short composer biography this is a very complete and diverse overview...

Published in 2008 by Basta Music
http://bastamusic.com
Volume 1 2CD: Cat. Nr.: 3091 822 / More info HERE
Volume 2 2CD: Cat. Nr.: 3091 832 / More info HERE

CD-Tip II : Popular Electronics by Philips Research Lab

This 4-CD Boxset with the subtitle  " Early Dutch Electronic Music from Philips Research Laboratories 1956 - 1963 " is a collection of great (restored) works from the Dutch pioneers in electronic sound.

These four CD's contain hard-to-find compositions and sound-examples from the groundbreaking Philips NatLab studios in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Pioneers from that time like Dick Raaijmakers,Henk Badings and Tom Disseveld were already working on electronic sounds in the late 1950's, and this collection of Dutch electronic and tapeloop-music is the most complete one ever compiled.

The boxset includes 7 booklets (180 pages) and a few mini-posters, full with background information on the history of Philips NatLab and the composers and technicians of that time. You will also find all the CD details in these books, as well as lots of pictures, scores, schematics and other related documents.

 Popular Electronics: Early Dutch electronic music from Philips Research Laboratories, 1956-1963 by Basta Music

Additional info on this  Popular Electronics  4CD Boxset
BastaMusic: Cat. Nr.: 3091 412