About Rene van der Wouden - a short 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, after he got his first organ, the Eminent S20. 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. 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. Offcourse it sounded rubbish, but one has to start somewhere. After this the Korg Poly 61, DW8000, Akai AX73, Ensoniq ESQ-1 entered his studio. After these additions, many songs followed as well the expanse of more electronic instruments and recording-devices. All those tracks will be private.

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 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

This year started the ball rolling. The "Pro Sequentia" album sold quite well (concerning it was a CDR afterall) in the scene. For about 100 pcs alone went to the USA for example. For 2006 the follow up-CD of Pro Sequentia was released on the 21st of September 2006. This CD is more Berliner Schule/retro/sequencer based than Pro Sequentia and "the EM-instrument", 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.

The theme of the CD is "Alchemy". For years René 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.

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.

EL-KA consists of Hajo Liese and Till Kopper. They release their live-registrations at www.syngate.net

Here are some video's:

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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 1994. The first album is called: "Recreation" and is recorded during the Spring and Summer of 2004. For this album the multi-track recording was lost, but there was a CD master afterall and because of the good music on it, Rene van der Wouden decided to release it again on CDR. The title on the album refers to the fact that the album still could be created. And the decision was right. The album sold well over the years. Not in high quantities, but steady in equal numbers over the years (i.e. 2007-2011). 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. Maybe a different style of approach without wanting to do different things at the same time. Although this album is loved and hated at the same time.

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 at the Ambientlive website.

2008

This was the year of setting up REWO Records. This is not a record company like GROOVE Unlimited or DIN or SPHERIC for example but a name for the collection of all the works of Rene van der Wouden. Actually it says: REne van der WOuden RECORDS music! Released by himself. A trend growing among a lot of artists in the EM-community. The only contract he has is the one in his mind staying thruthful to himself.

2 New CD's with complete new music. The first CD will be released in 2008 is called UNIVERSAL QUIET as a professional CDR and as a download directly from MusicZeit. 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.

The second album is called SEQUENTIAL TOURISM and was released in September 2008 on professional CDR and as a legal FLAC download. 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. Please visit the project page to hear some music on the YouTube tracks.

On August 16th, 2009 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 René, Ron Boots with Friends and Remy Stroomer were invited. 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. On Youtube several video's can be found about this event.

2009

On December 10th, 2009 the new CD [factory pressed this time] is 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. The CD mastering has been done by Ron Boots who has a name of sound prefection in the world of Electronic Music.

 

2010

"Numerus Fixus" has been received well by both the reviewers of EM and the public. The album is available as a CD but also as FLAC/MP3 download at the electronic music etailer in digital formats. Click on the link to access directly to Rene van der Wouden's division on www.musiczeit.com

At Musiczeit several albums with unreleased music recorded during 2006 and 2010 released as FLAC/MP3 downloads.

There is no new album or concerts planned for 2010. Rene will have a stall at the E-Live Festival this year at theater 'De Enk' in Oirschot on October 9th, 2010 sellling autographed CDs.

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 for this event. Also the track "Numerus Fixus Part One" was performed. This video gives an impression of the day and one of the tracks that was performed.

 

Exactly 4 weeks later, on Saturday July 2nd, 2011, the second outdoor concert was given by Rene. 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 almost the entire Sequential Mixed Up album 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. Here is a video of that concert where you can hear "Numerus Fixus Part 1".

 

 

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 will perform again in the subhall. He will give 3 concerts of approx. 45 minutes. During those concerts, several tracks from the published albums will be performed. There will also be some new music played as well.

The main act of that day is the German band LOOM consisting of Johannes Schmoeilling, Jerome Froese and Robert Waters. They will perform tracks old and new of their Tangerine Dream period. This is an unique concert and day.  

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.

 

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