aabout - 2004/2005/2006/2007/

About

1972-2004

René van der Wouden (February 10th 1972) is active in music since he was eight years old. He started having pianolessons in a classical sense and later he also had some lessons on the organ. As a child René quickly got fascinated by the organs and synthesizers he saw on tv every week in the Dutch musicshows Toppop and Countdown. Also, his pianoteacher of that time (in 1983) played a Roland Jupiter 6 synthesizer in a band. During a lesson this synthesizer stood next to the piano that remained untouched that day. Since 1987 the interest in electronic music started to grow immensely. The music of Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Jeff Wayne's “War Of The Worlds” got his interest. Also the Dutch radioshow “CD-show” provided the needed addition on the field of EM. The music of Patrick O'Hearn, Mark Isham and Steve Roach also became a part of René's EM-collection. Only in the autumn of 1993 it became financially possible for René to obtain synthesizers and within eight weeks after the first Korg Poly800 and Yamaha DX7-synths the first electronic composition was born. After this, many songs followed as well the expanse of more electronic instruments and recording-devices. A few of those songs will be re-recorded the coming years for releases, while others will be private.

Next to music René has always had interest in art. Especially the works of Salvador Dali, René Magritte and Joan Miro inspires him to compose electronic music and design grafical computer arts. Also the works of Antoni Gaudi gained his interest in art and design. In 1996 and 2000 René visited the city of Barcelona. Other favourite cities are Paris, Verona and Rome. In 2001 René paid Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig a visit.

2005

Pro Sequentia, the debut CD, was released firstly on the German Syng@te label on April 16th 2005. Because of different visions Syng@te and René departed in May 2005 already. René decided to release Pro Sequentia as an independent. This is the first Private RvdW CD release. The cd has been well received all over the EM-world. The music can be described as retro/Berliner Schule with contemporary elements. On this album analogue and digital synthesizers were used together will all the power and comfort of the Cubase DAW-program.

The concert at E-Live 2005 was the first fully electronic concert. E-Live 2005 sub-stage concert consisted of 3 sets. The first set was in the style of the Pro Sequentia album, the second set consisted of 2 tracks of AMBIENT music and the last set/concert took place together with the most successfull Dutch musician of electronic music today, Gert Emmens. The music was recorded for personal documentation and will not be released.

Prior to this, he has done some other things for theater and schools though. René has quite a number of musical plans for the future. He wants to develop himself by exploring musical bounderies of different genres next to electronic music, both as composer and producer. Also, he finds soundtrackmusic a very interesting goal. Next to this he hopes to give some small concerts in the evening in theatres, for instance in co-operation with another artist/group. He loves the theatre/stage performing very much.

2006

For 2006 the follow up-CD of Pro Sequentia is scheduled to release on the 21st of September 2006. This CD is much more Berliner Schule/retro/sequencer based than Pro Sequentia and also contains the use of of samples of "the EM-instrument", the Mellotron. The overall style of the music can be referred to what is called the "Golden Era" of electronic music. The theme of the CD is "Alchemy". For years René has been interested in this kind of philosophy in experiencing the world around us.

On October 28th, 2006 there was a special concert given by EL-KA, René van der Wouden & Syngate artists at the GASOMETER, Oberhausen in the afternoon from 13 hours to 17 hours.

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2007

This year is primairly focused on previously unreleased music. René has a recording history of electronic music that goes back to 1999. The first album is called: "Recreation" and is recorded during the Spring and Summer of 2004.

Since April this year René is working together with the British em-label: "Ambientlive Records". The first CD released as ALR3017 is called "Kaleidoscopic Surrealism". The album contains previously unreleased music from the year 2000 and 2003. The content of the album has similarities with Pro Sequentia and Recreation, but there's also more ambient and space music on it. Most of the instruments of this album were of analogue character.

For the fall 2 more albums are planned to be released at Ambientlive Records with previously unreleased electronic music. These albums are compilations of tracks recorded from 1999 to 2002 and will be the last of the previous release period. All music has been remastered and prepared for CD. CD1 = called “Altostratus” (means: low altitude clouds) and CD2 = called “Cirrusstratos” (means: high altitude clouds). More information soon at the Ambientlive website.

Also René is preparing for a concert again with his German friends: Hajo Liese and Till Kopper. Not certain yet for a time and date.

2008

2 New CD with complete new music, one typical Berliner Schule and one Ambient/space orientated. These will be again Private RvdW releases in proper CD format. You will be informed.