 [Groove] E-News 1299 27th November 2022Blackfriday extra Hi Em Fans Many new releases are in most awaited is the new Emmens &Heij on Higher Ground. All will ship tomorrow so if you want is in and have a listen soon just order away!  Emmens, Gert & Heij, Ruud – ON HIGHER GROUND (6-cd) 87881 2022. Yep a 6!! CD box by these 2 Dutch masters. $ 48.75 / UKP 34.25 / EURO 39 Details/soundclip/ordering: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=87881 ———————————————————————————– And out Black Friday sales are on until the 1st of December!!  Groove’s Black Friday CD!! sales !! Very special price on a lot of Groove Unlimited titles. Only € 7.90 for a single CD!! And to make it even more attractive! If you order 10 copies they are only € 60.00 So 10 CD’s for only € 60.00 !! Mind you this is only available from Groove itself and only for all Groove release from 1992 to 2017!! And all Dyson and Wavestar titles are not available for this offer!! This means from the GR-001 until the GR-243 !! http://www.groove.nl/index2.html Click at the top of the page on Groove Products and check which cd’s you missed. ————————————————————— Black Friday Sale on all Downloads at Groove Unlimited. We have a 25% off on all downloads until the 5th of December on the Groove Download site!! Just use the coupon code – black – and it will be deducted from your order! Go to https://shop.groove.nl/ And click at the top of the page on the Download store!! Over 350 titles for you to check out!! ————————————————————— Black Friday Sale at Groove Unlimited’s Bandcamp page. On the Groove Bandcamp.page we have a 15% discount on all Titles. https://grooveunlimited.bandcamp.com/ Just use the code – bkfriday – and it will be applied!! ———————————————————————— BLACKFRIDAY Offers SALES. 40% OFF on the listed price!! Check the picture above heree, just click on offer and dive in. https://www.groove.nl/index2.html We have a huge list for you to go through that has all overstock/out of print releases. And these have all a 40% discount. So CD’s that are normally € 15.00 are now only € 7.50. YES 40% OFF on all CDs down here, with some great releases from great names!! So look at the price and then slice off 40%!!!! Have fun and keep in mind limited amounts and gone is gone!! |
| E-Live 2022 A great review of the day in German and Dutch by Alfred Arnold !! Check it out. http://www.hippiesland.de/festivalbericht_e_live_2022 And many cool pictures by Phil Booth!! https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAfjJ7 ———————————— And here are my thoughts!! Sorry it took a bid of time to get my reaction on this years E-Live but here it is in one word “Awesome”. I am still light in the head of all the great comments and lovely reactions. Fantastic photo’s and video’s. I have had so many positive reactions, on the own catering (I dreaded the reaction on that), on the concerts!! On the organisation and especially on the new Venue. And I can tell you the people of the CKE feel the same. They have told me that they loved having us there. Many people found the new venue Great and I must admit the CKE is nearly perfect, the location, the concert Hall, the extra podium in the Foyer, the great Foyer in total and many loved the Balcony in the concert hall!! I want to thank my helpers and I know I call them at times my Minions but that is with the most love I can give them. Bert, Alex (he made the great Tomato Soup), Johan, Rob, Jaqueline, Harold, Carla, Sonja, Sanne Boots, Sam Boots, Dylan Boots and Janis my deepest thanks. And they had great help from Marion Papen thanks for that!! Bas Broekhuis for taking care of all the light sets during this E-Live. As the CKE has no light rigging we brought our own which ment that we had to put our truss at the back and middle of the stage. Not the best for the visuals but there was no other place to put it. And a special thanks go out to Marcia ter Wee the housemaster of the CKE!! She helped us through these first steps in the CKE venue with such a great spirit and vigor that it made it so easy to make this day a succes!! These are the people that make a day like this possible!! And with them the great musicians that where on stage. Manor Logic – As always I missed these perfomrances but what i heard was that they where on fire, and did great sets on the Foyer Stage!! Thanks Dirk and Norman. Elektronische Maschine – started the day with and energetic concert, could have been the closer of the day and partied on till the late hours! A great concert. Skoulaman & Stephan Whitlan – The oposite of the opener, soft spacy music that brought us in a trance, a slow dream that made time stood still. Tranquil is the word here. Spyra – Man this guy is superb, called him 6 weeks before the date of the concert, an instand yes to replace the last act and then make the audience so into his music is unique! A mesmerising concert! Rob Papen with Harold and me! – I loved playing with these 2, Rob is among the greatest musicians I ever worked with (and I did work with a lot of others). He is gracious, a gentleman and such a fine musicians that it was effortless for me. And Harold solid as always made it great fun. This concert was over before it even begun. Finaly you! Audience, well what can I say, Sold out!, a great atmosphere in the whole venue and the standing ovations! Man you are the best!! I love doing these festivals but you the visitors make it very, very special. I promise I won’t play on next years E-Day or even E-Live. And I will have time for more chats and talks! A BIG BIG thanks to all!! And yes planning E-day 2023 has started Sunday Nov 13th And a new Dreamscape is available for you!! https://dreamscape.groove.nl/ Thanks for your time Ron Boots The new Groove releases Ellis, Paul – FIVE BLISS MACHINES ON THE INFINITE STAGE (cd) gr-336  Magnificent new release from one of the best American Berlin School musicians.. This new Paul Ellis is a step back into the world of Berlin School after the Panorama series. A space journey through sounds and sequences that will trickle your ears. The sound is as always superb, Paul knows his stuff! A joy for the ears! Details/soundclip/ordering: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=gr-336 Groove Download. https://shop.groove.nl/gr-336-mp3 https://shop.groove.nl/gr-336-flac Bandcamp. https://paulellis.bandcamp.com/…/five-bliss-machines-on… ——————————————————————————————- Skoulaman & Ron Boots – HOT AUGUST AFTERNOON (cd) gr-337  The live set of the surprise concert at Electronic Circus Summer party. Well this is a funny one, getting a phone call at 9.00 in the morning, still a sleep monique told the caller to get back later. The caller was Frank Gerber od Electronic Circus. Detlef Keller became sick ad if I could step in on a festival! The catch was I only had 2 days to prepair! What to do? I first said know but within a minute a phoned back and said yep!! As it was Hans Kroonenber (aka Skoulaman) had just performed the Saturday before at the Garden Party of Schallwell  I phoned him to ask if the studio was already put toghther again! Well it was but when I asked if he would like to join me on stage there was a quick yes:-)And so this concert happend without any real preparation, but it turned out really well. And with a little bit of Tangenizing here is the CD of this concert. Those who where there will miss a few parts as it did not fit on the CD release. Kinda proud of this one. Making music with Hans was pure fun!! Details/soundclips/ordering: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=gr-337 Groove Download. MP3 – https://shop.groove.nl/gr-337-mp3 Flac – https://shop.groove.nl/gr-337-flac Bandcamp. https://skoulamanronboots.bandcamp.com/…/hot-august… ———————————————– FD.Project – DISTANCE (cd) gr-338  Frank at it’s best!!. A great new release by Frank with a wide range of great songs, some soft, others fast and wild!! A great new release. CD shop – Details/soundclips/ordering: http://www.groove.nl/jump2.php?artnum=gr-338 Groove Downloads MP3 – https://shop.groove.nl/gr-338-mp3 Flac – https://shop.groove.nl/gr-338-flac REVIEWS 27881 Neuronium & Vangelis – In London (2022 Mix)  IN LONDON, also called A Separate Affair, has always been one of those mythical albums of electronic music (EM). Mythical because it featured the great Vangelis and a band that was gradually beginning to expand its vision of psychotronic EM, Neuronium. Two of its members, Michel Huygen and guitarist Carlos Guirao, visited Vangelis’ Nemo Studios in London back in 1982 where they played an improvisation session with the Greek musician. By a fascinating coincidence, a Spanish television crew was visiting Nemo Studios at the same time for a special report. This improvisation session was recorded on film and was broadcast on Spanish television as part of a program called Musical Express. From then on, pirate recordings of very dubious quality of the TV show and the music invaded the market of the EM fans’ circuit. What we didn’t know is that Michel Huygen left with these recordings! We had to wait up until 1992 to have a better quality source wit h the single and the maxi single that followed afterwards. But still and always, the whole of these sessions remained the business of the bootleggers. A Separate Affair, released in 1996 on the Swiss label Tuxedo, was the first recording to reproduce the entire session. This CD included the tracks In London, with a first version of In London (After Hours) as well as the track edited for radio. I have this version that Michel sent me many moons ago and I have taken it out of my collection to make comparisons with this IN LONDON PLATINUM EDITION that was remastered with the latest technology in the field of mastering music by Michel at the very famous Abbey Road Studios. Obviously, the audio quality is enhanced with a better definition of the sounds and their provenance, especially in In London (After Hours). It’s the MIG label, famous for its reissues of Ashra and Klaus Schulze’s works in the field of Electro-Music, that will officially launch this old improvisation session that plun g es the listener back into the torments of a floating atmospheric music where the sharp shapes of the synths, the harmonies of Vangelis keyboard, and the guitar converge towards good moments of emotivity. I remind you that we are in 1982. In the period preceding the album The Visitor of which one hears the soul quite often in this session. The opening of In London is under the sign of meditation with the ascending push of a celestial synth layer where the shadow of a seraphic voice sets a mood conducive to meditation, or to our dreams with our mind focused on the past. We are in the territory of this psychotronic atmospheric music of Neuronium here. The synth layers spread their sibylline wings, sometimes high-pitched and sometimes morose, that Vangelis sprinkles with his keyboard chords sounding like a surreal harp or with his rather discreet orchestrations in these dense sonic flights of Michel Huygen’s synth and Carlos Guirao’s guitar. And so it will be for the whole of IN LON DON PLATINUM EDITION, as for its previous editions. There is no rhythm in this recording, no sequencer momentums, perhaps muffled implosions that redefine the sedative impulses of the synths. Impulses paired with areas of whirring turbulence. What we call today drone music. On the other hand, it is rather melodious with these brief series of luminous arpeggios, released by Vangelis, and these harmonies of a synth/guitar fusion that provide its dose of shivers to come and that give the moiré reflections to this music whose essence flirts with the dark ambient genre. The epic moments are quite numerous with peaks of tonalities where the 3 musicians tune their thoughts, their visions in dramatic segments where certain tones of trumpets project an apocalyptic aura. The reverb effects and the sharper guitar wails also accentuate this vision rather precursory for the time. In fact, I hear a lot of sound waves and arrangements that probably influenced Bernd Kistenmacher’s symphonic turn o n his 2001 album Un Viaggio Attraverso L’Italia. In London (After Hours) is a cosmic remix of In London. This is the first time that this new version, mixed and mastered by Johannes Scheibenreif who worked closely with Klaus Schulze, is released in its entirety. For Michel Huygen, the idea behind this mix is that people disconnect from the world and its hazards. I would say that it is very successful because you can hear better those distant sounds in the opening track that gave it its melodic appearance. The piercing sounds, the iridescent wails and those philharmonic arpeggios of Vangelis have a much better definition here than in In London. As far as I’m concerned, this is the most beautiful segment of this IN LONDON PLATINUM EDITION which concludes with a small segment, for radio purposes, which indeed makes you want to discover a classic EM of the meditation kind, or to fill the spaces when our eyes devour a good book. Although Vangelis is an integral part of this improvisat ion session, IN LONDON PLATINUM EDITION is more aiming to Neuronium fans, I would say even more; for the fans of Michel Huygen’s meditative music, than for the Greek musician. The latter is more a guest musician in this session than the one who builds the framework of a music conceived as a poet throws his prose into the wind in order to reach the largest number of ears. A good release of MIG which will also release two albums of Neuronium, Quasar 2C361 and Vuelo Químico, remixed and remastered, I heard the artworks will be very beautiful, in January 2023. Available on vinyl and CD from November 11, 2022. Sylvain Lupari (November 10th, 2022) gr-337 Skoulaman & Ron Boots – Hot August Afternoon Ron Boots and Hans van Kroonenburg, aka Skoulaman, had to fill in at short notice for Detlev Keller’s absence at the recent Electronic Circus festival in Borgholzhausen, a small town in the county of Detmold, Germany. It was in August, and it was very hot, hence the title, during this performance held in a barn. On short notice equals improvisation! Although Ron had a base to start the show from, the improvisation model is the basis of this recording. The principle creates slow introductions, as well as long finales that build those bridges, those atmospheric passages between two tracks. And both extremes frame structures of ambient and/or driving rhythms that are evolving. This is exactly the content of this HOT AUGUST AFTERNOON. Without taking anything away from Skoulaman, whose music I love, the presence of Ron Boots is more than reassuring in this kind of event where he has a vast experience. The Dutch musician knows tobacco and how to b u ild a rhythm structure from scratch. And this is how this recording unfolds, where the rhythm slowly imposes its presence with structures of ambient beat that converge on solid and very catchy Berlin School. The fans of Tangerine Dream, of the Baumann years, will be delighted by the ambiences of this album. So, Unexpected Two starts slowly. Various sound effects: shimmering arpeggios in suspension, breezes of chthonian voices, bursts of wind and atmospheric rumblings, and other elements belonging to the Dark psybient model adorn its opening. A flute wave settles, adding an enchanting element to this introduction modulated by two ideas waiting for complicity. The roars of the artificial squalls maintain their gothic grasp, while the sequencer quietly carves out a rhythmic line with arpeggios whose hesitant march remains in symbiosis with the slow opening of Unexpected Two. If it’s not catchy for the feet, it’s enticing for the ears! Especially when the synths start to roar with their most beautiful electronic tones. The ambient rhythm adopts a processional march under these synth blasts, where a flute air still drags, up until the door of the 8 minutes. Where a pulsating movement was fomenting a few seconds before. This movement accentuates the pace under celestial trumpet harmonies so dear to the Dream’s tonalities in its 77 North American tour. Misty riffs add even more depth to these memories of another era, while the rhythm remains statically pulsating and struggling under a huge membrane of electronic tones with these synths imposing their effects and solos in the form of harmonies under a sky that has become almost cacophonic. This richness of the synths is the anchor of this album and surrounds the rhythm lines that intersect and/or juxtapose in the stationary rhythm, an element of pleasure more for the neurons than the feet, in Exit A33. The flavors of Dream are always present on this rhythmic structure where a pulsing bass-line undulates with a g o od pace, building the main rhythmic link, while oscillations as well as some organic, and percussive elements, mostly rattles, twirl in all directions, describing a rhythm that bubbles with the idea of always getting out of control. The duo saves this option for later in HOT AUGUST AFTERNOON. In fact, the further we go in this concert recording, the more dynamic the rhythm structures evolve. This is the case in the bouncy rhythm, as if you were putting your feet on a cold floor, of Hot detuned. Skoulaman’s modular synth went out of tune on this track and Hans was unable to tune it up. Hence the title. But no matter, the rhythm, as sly as the footsteps of a wolf watching its prey, tinkles its sequenced arpeggios and follows its minimalist path in this seraphic setting that is filled with, among other things, slender and twisted synth solos, gothic haze, sibylline voices and ethereal fluty blasts. If the first 3 tracks follow each other, the last 2 do the same. A bit like an encor e. Dry Fields is an excellent Berlin School that starts with a buzzing expression. Glistening synth layers and arpeggios envelop its opening, which is also layered with layers that glide over a misty ice. These layers undulate with their veils and textures of sibylline voices and droning reflections over a 5-minute span. The first beats sound as if they are struck on an elastic skin. From a passive, electronic tribal kind of rhythm, the movement picks up the pace under a shower of twisted synth effects. These effects become good solos as percussive elements, mostly rattles, are grafted onto this rhythm that quavers and has become catchy without warning. The synths were dominant throughout HOT AUGUST AFTERNOON, and they reach a form of apotheosis on the last 2 tracks with a mass of gothic mist where a rain of solos and pads of harmonies twirl, on Dry Fields, which recall rather the period of Johannes Schmoelling with the Dream. Quietly, under synth laments and celestial sparkles, th e title slides towards In the Barn. The passage between the 2 titles is done under the sign of psybient music with sharp lamentations and other effects which get this sibylline, even gothic touch, to the Berlin School style of the 70’s. The rhythmic backbone emerges before the 3rd minute with a heavy resonant sequencer movement that traces long slaloms where the bass-sequences give the impression of staggering. Another movement lets go of a more limpid and circular rhythm line. Synth solos still abound, as the rhythm structure quietly swirls around encroaching on the bass-sequence line, giving the illusion of barely stumbling and then rising again. Magnetizing! I wrote somewhere in the review; If it’s not catchy for the feet, it’s enticing for the ears! This is exactly the case with In the Barn, which controls a very good Berlin School that zigzags with a rhythmic prose in perfect symbiosis with the majesty of the synths that launch beautiful solos in a chthonian setting. The intens i ty of the finale of this track, and of the concert, will give you some shivers of pleasure…guaranteed! Ron Boots and Skoulaman! Two artists from whom we have the right to expect the best of contemporary Berlin School style electronic music (EM). And on that level, HOT AUGUST AFTERNOON is a little gem for those who love the Tangerine Dream style of the 70s. I know that Ron has Tangentized the real verdict from this recording from the last Electronic Circus festival, giving it that surreal impact for an album woven from two imaginations under an improvisational sign. It is the magic of complicity and of an invisible connection between 2 artists who have already worked together. Magic, pure and simple! Sylvain Lupari (November 20th, 2022) |
