Biography - REWO|Rene van der Wouden - A Recording History

1972-2004

René van der Wouden (February 10th 1972) has been active in music since he was eight years old. He started having classical and jazz pianolessons and later he also had some lessons on the organ. As a child René quickly got fascinated by the organs and synthesizers as he saw them on tv every week in the Dutch musicshows Toppop and Countdown. Highly fascinated by these strange and dodgy instruments, his musical development as a musician was growing. 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 develop 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. In 1990 he heard for the first time Klaus Schulze's music. It was the radio play of the just released DRESDEN PERFORMANCE.

Since 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 these new instruments the Korg Poly 61, DW8000, Akai AX73, Ensoniq ESQ-1 entered his studio.

Next to music René has always had interest in photography and art. Since 2000 he has been taking lots of pictures with his CANON cameras. For art especially the works of Salvador Dali, René Magritte and Joan Miro inspires him to compose electronic music and design grafical computer arts for his albums. 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 to see and capture some of the origins of what would be Berlin School.

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 Rene departed in May 2005 already. René decided to release Pro Sequentia as an independent label. This is the first REWO Music CDr release. The cdr has been well received all over the EM-world. The music can be described as retro electronic music/Berliner Schule style 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 2005was 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. Rene 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

The "Pro Sequentia" album sold quite well (concerning it was a CDR afterall) in the EM-scene. For about 100 pcs alone went to the USA for example. For the important second album, after Pro Sequentia, Alchemia was released on the 21st of September 2006. This CD is more Berliner Schule/retro/sequencer based than Pro Sequentia and the Mellotron is present on most of the tracks. The overall style of the music can be referred to what is called the "Golden Era" of electronic music. Rene van der Wouden tried to capture the emotion and feeling of those important albums made during the 1976-1985 era without wanting to be another copycat.

The theme of the CD is "Alchemy". For years Rene has been interested in this kind of philosophy in experiencing the world around us. Based on this theme, he wrote the music. The tracks represent parts of the Alchemist his work, life and vision. This album is released on CDR and later on as a download.

After a couple of week was the album was release, Rene was contacted by the 2 members of the German tribute band EL-KA, consisting of Hajo Liese and Till Kopper. THey asked me to play as an Ad-Hoc group for a concert in the Gasometer of Oberhausen. This Gasometer is an old gastower of 100+ of height. On October 28th, 2006 this special concert given was by EL-KA and Rene van der Wouden at the GASOMETER, Oberhausen.

2007

 

This year was primairly focused on previously unreleased music. The first album is called: "Recreation" and is recorded during the Spring and Summer of 2004. The music on this CDR is a mix of styles varying from sequencer-based to ambient, with bits of dance-music and some progressive rock. Since April that year Rene worked 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 synthesizers like the Akai AX80, Oberheim Matrix 6, Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, Moog Prodigy and the Korg DW8000.

At the last quarter the British music download site specialized for electronic music saw its daylight. On this platform listeners can buy (legally) the album of choice. REWO Records released all the albums up that end 2007 on this site together with 2 new EPs, called Musique Concrete and Soledad.

2008

 

2 New CD's with complete new music. The first CD was released on January 2nd, 2008 and is called UNIVERSAL QUIET.. This is a retro/Berlin School/space music project with the use of analog synthesizers and sequencers. The music is inspired on the 1970-ties era. On most of the tracks you will also hear the always beautiful Mellotron. The theme of the album is quietness. The silence of the universe. Keep watching the stars.

 

The second album for that year is called SEQUENTIAL TOURISM and was released in September 2008. The theme of this album is travelling and cruising. The style of the music is similar to UNIVERSAL QUIET but also more electro and electronica elements on some parts of the album. The instrumentation is more analog than ever before. Instruments like the Yamaha CS50, Moog The Rogue, Sequential Circuits Pro One, Studio Electronics Moog SE-1 and the MacBeth M3X synthesizer have been used on the album, but also digital synthesizers like the Korg Wavestation EX and the Yamaha SY99 are present.

On August 16th, 2008 the German Electronic Music organisation Schallwende organised the annual EM-Grillfest. This is an open-air concert combined with food and drinks. Because this was the 10th anniversary the organisation decided to invite Dutch musicians only. Next to Rene van der Wouden, Ron Boots with Friends and Remy Stroomer were also on the bill. The organisation had a record show up of about 250-300 people. All the food and drinks were sold out within a few hours. Also musically the event was a succes. All artists were in their best shape to give the concerts.

2009

 

On December 10th, 2009 the new album was released. The project is called NUMERUS FIXUS and is about overcrowdedness of the world leading to serious environmental problems but also the declining amount of places where man hasn't touched the beautifulness of nature. As we see the world as it is now today with more than 6 billion people I ask myself at times: can we keep on living our lives with less land, less water, less healthy air and fewer new resources with an ever growing worldly population? One of the predictions is that complex, interlinked ecosystems - (rain)forests, reefs, lakes, rivers, oceans and their food webs could collapse within a couple of decades from now if we continue like this. This album is dedicated to those interlinked ecosystems on which we are using every day and becoming more limited in period of time. This is the first album where the Moog rulez! Several Moogs provided their rich and analog sound, the sound that is essential to produce electronic music as we know it today. Also other analogue synthesizers were used on this album like the Sequential Circuits Pro One, the Teisco 110F and the Studio Electronics SE-1. Other important synths were the Korg Wavestation EX and the Yamaha SY99.

2010

 

"Numerus Fixus" has been received well by both the reviewers of EM and the public. During this year Rene has recorded a lot of new music. Also the first full ambient album called "Panorama" was released as digital download on Musiczeit and Bandcamp just like the Soledad album which grew from EP to full album of 78 minutes.

 

2011

On Saturday June 4th, 2011 Rene van der Wouden gave a concert for the German Electronic Music club "Schallwende" at the Gruga Park, grillplatz Vier Essen. During this concert special prepared music was performed. Also the track "Numerus Fixus Part One" was performed for the first time live.

Exactly 4 weeks later, on Saturday July 2nd, 2011, the second outdoor concert was given by Rene that year. This time for Electronic Circus at Winnie's Garten during the Schwingungen Garten Party 2011. Rene van der Wouden was the openings act for that day and performed one set of about 85 minutes of his music. During this concert he performed several tracks from the released albums plus one composition of the new 2011 album: Zeppelins! There they go. This piece called: "The Liquid Haze" had here its debut. Other tracks were: "Numerus Fixus Part One", "Far Across the Heavens", "Go Quiet", "Golden Dreams of Silver Elements" and "Get Quieter". The "Zugabe" was a live performance of "The Zeppelin" a piece made for the Dutch Masters album for Groove Unlimited.

 

In September 2011 two new albums were released. One Best of... called "Sequential Mixed Up" with tracks from the Alchemia, Universal Quiet, Sequential Tourism and Numerus Fixus albums, newly recorded, mixed and mastered". This is Berlin School orientated sequencer driven electronic music. The other album is called: "Zeppelins! There they go". If you are into electronic, sequencer based, Berlin School type of music like that of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Node or Redshift, this is something for you. Availabe as download and CD here on the website. All sequences come from the Moog. Other sounds from the Waldorf XTk, Waldorf Q, Nordlead and the Korg Wavestation EX. Here is a promo video to give you a short impression.

 

In October, there is the annual E-Live festival organised by Groove Unlimited. This year on October 15th, 2011, Rene van der Wouden performed in the subhall. He gave 3 concerts of approx. 45 minutes. During those concerts, several tracks from the published albums were performed.

2012

Rene contacted in September 2012, Syngate Records for the re-release of albums. The first album which will be released on November 17th, 2012, is ALCHEMIA. Please visit the website of Syngate Records for more information.

2013

 

At the beginning of 2013 the "Earth Festivities" album was finished for its release. Syngate Records released this album in the Spring of 2013. The music of this album is inspired on a BBC television series about Earth. These series were at the time of writing in 2012 very populair on television. Several instruments both hardware and software were used to shape this album. 2013 was also a year full of YouTube videos of performances, instruction videos and relaxation music video's. These videos seem to be very populair on YouTube. At the end of the year the new EP "Pictures of an Indian Summer" was released on REWO Music. Originally this music was recorded during the fall of 2012, but due to the re-release of Alchemia, scheduled to late 2013.

2014

 

In November 2014 Rene his very first EP recorded back in 1999, saw its release on both Bandcamp and MusicZeit legal download music sites.This album called "Frozen Spectacles" was recorded and produced during the last week of December 1999, just before the Millenium change. This album which was fully remastered, has a distinctive sound you may not have heard before of the artist. Surprise yourself by listening to it.

 

In December 2014 the latest album "Sounds of Movement and Motion" is released as digital download on Bandcamp and MusicZeit. Music inspired on movie soundtracks and famous sounds of the 1980ties like those of a famous German electronic band and the score composer of Miami Vice.

2015

New album to be released early 2015 called "Analogico Grande". This is complete new music composed and produced in October-November 2014. This album contains classic-style analogue sequencer based music in the line of earlier albums like Alchemia and Universal Quiet. Stay tuned.

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