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

Random Video: Automated Tape Delay/Reverse by Wouter van Veldhoven

Wouter van Veldhoven, a tape-addict and musician from the Netherlands, makes music using collected second hand materials including, cans, old tape recorders, cigarboxes, broken radios and toypianos.
He reworks them in experimental musical instruments and uses them as recording devices.
His music balances somewhere between dusty, lo-fi experimental ambient and jangly instrumentals, but recently he has also been delving into the realm of minimal techno.

His latest upload is made with a nice mix of Doepfer Eurorack and various tape-machines and sounds like it is influenced by the classic Dutch NatLab-engineers from  the early 60s.

Video: Automated tape delay/reverse

" I adjusted a tape recorder in such a way its playing direction can be controlled from my Doepfer system, this combined with an extra tape recorder that both records and plays back enables delayed tape reversing in a live setting. Quite nice for doing some minimal techno thingies"

Find more about this project on his Tumblr page at http://woutervanveldhoven.tumblr.com/

Uploaded by Wouter van Veldhoven

Follow Wouter on Twitter at https://twitter.com/WvVeldhoven

Doepfer and Vostok Live Modular Music Part 1 and 2

A pair of fresh random videos from YouTube again.
I picked these 2 today, sadly without live-video, but with great soundtracks.
Composed with Doepfer and Vostok modular systems... and much more*.
Watch the slideshows.

Video 1: Doepfer and Vostok Live Modular Music Part 1

Video 2: Doepfer and Vostok Live Modular Music Part 2

* After posting these videos, the creator of these tracks (Marvin Wilson) mailed we with some extra info:

" I made the two tracks using just the modular stuff, recorded live as i always do.

On part one the dark energy's produce the drum sounds... sounds a little like the old roland TR77 or 55... while the a100 did the bass and top line, the vostok also producing the mid sounds plus the ems style fx...

Part two the vostok does some processing of voices from tape while the dark energy's do the high resonating sounds and finally the a100 the squelchy bass, both make heavy use of the analog sequencers run in tandem. 

Thought i would put two contrasting tracks up,anyway glad you like the music, all the best, Marvin"

Uploaded by TAPEHEADS2600
http://www.alextronicrecords.co.uk/artist-pages/marvin-wilson.htm

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/

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