It’s been awhile since my last message. Somewhere in 2015 I stopped making music. It just wasn’t out ‘there’ anymore (I know it will be back at some point, though). I finished some older work but didn’t feel the passion to master it. That year had been all about my other passion: painting. But always with some good ambient music accompanying me from the likes of Robert Rich, Oöphoi, Bach and some Steve Roach and Alio Die. It’s been a good year to deepen my artistic skills and present myself and my work to a larger audience. One of my life’s themes is to learn to express myself and, even as important, to believe these expressions are welcomed and have their rightful place on this living, resonating earth. I still have some trepidation regarding this process but I have already learned by now my expressions are welcomed by those who are open to it. We all have the possibility to learn in this life that our existence is meant to be meaningful and that we have the compassion and intelligence of the whole Universe at our disposal. The more we break loose from the shackles that keep us imprisoned in this matrix the more we hear our own voice instead of society’s endless noise. And thus, as a consequence, we more and more feel the urge to express our core being. And so it became clear to me by means of my inner voice to start mastering my next solo album. The title is ‘The Observer’. This represents a state of being where one doesn’t identify with the machinations of everyday life or even with one’s own inner voice in regard to what’s happening in this physical reality. Being the observer means watching life unfold from the perspective of pure consciousness instead of separateness. The Observer will be self-released somewhere this year. My collab with Dronny Darko is still on cue at several labels.

After the release of ‘Live in the Ancient Past’ I focussed my attention on mastering my collab (The Sea of Potentials) with drone wizard Dronny Darko (Oleg Puzan). I was little apprehensive about it because I had never mastered an album before but on the other hand had learned a lot by looking over 33 Tetragammong’s shoulder. Now that’s it’s finished I feel more confident about it and even like the prospect of mastering more albums. So the album is finished after it’s been in the making for more than one and a half years. We’re still pondering through which channel to release it. My compliments go out to Oleg who, over the last year, has become an amazing sound designer. For a great example check out his release of a few months ago ‘Outer Tehom’ on the Cryo Chamber label. Here’s the first track of ‘The Sea of Potentials’:

After having settled down in our new homes we had both set up our new studio’s. Firstly I needed to make some new sounds again. My soul was craving to be immersed in musical creativity again after a draught of about three months. And yes that felt good! I can honestly say that not being creative will stagnate everything in my life. Than it became time to revisit some older projects: I started to finish the mixes of ‚The Sea of Potentials’ (collab album with Dronny Darko) and I am now in the mastering phase. I’m taking on the mastering duties from Wasili since he’s not into it anymore. For now he’s lost any interest in making ambient music anymore although he told me he still had a new album on the shelf. I can’t tell if he’s willing to release it because we have gone our separate ways after a friendship and collaboration of more than 13 years. We’ve grown apart and we knew this was coming already a couple of years ago. It’s for the best and we both know that. As a farewell to our collaboration we have a new release of an old album. It’s a live gig we did in 2009 at the E-day festival in Oirschot (near Eindhoven), The Netherlands. it’s called: Live in the Ancient Past: Live at E-day 2009. And it’s free! I guess it’s a bit of a thank you to all the people who supported us in many different ways throughout the years (download it here on Bandcamp). The gig took place a couple of months after the release of our first album ‚Resonating Earth’ and also functioned as promotion for that album. But because of the sheer size of the project in combination with the desire to create new albums, it got side-tracked time and time again. It has been a monumental task to sift through the recordings, make a selection, clean up the clutter and mix the whole thing. So to say there were a few hiccups would be a gross understatement. But over the years we felt this album had to see the light of day. Firstly because it has managed to capture a beautiful, sparse and spontaneous moment of us actually performing live side-by-side. Secondly, because the album has a sound and feel to it reminiscent of our early days as artists. It would have been a real pity if that unique sound wouldn’t have been able to reach a greater audience.
What’s next? This years will see the release of ‚The Sea of Potentials’ and hopefully (but I have good hope!) my solo album. I have recorded quite some music so there’s work to be done to forge it into something worthwhile.

Both Wasili and I will be moving each to a new apartment in october. Both apartments are situated in the same building. We’’ll practically be neighbors so that’s exciting and handy when it comes to collaborating. So where are we at right now? The E-Day project (live gig we did in 2009) has finally been mastered. The project I’m doing (Sea of Potentials) with Dronny Darko is almost finished mixing. Hopefully both releases will see the light of day before the end of the year. I’m planning on releasing E-Day first. As a reminder: this album will be a name your price one from Bandcamp. There’s still a lot of work to be done in our new homes, so musically I recon we won’t be too productive the coming weeks. For me personally this new home symbolizes a totally new beginning of my life. I’ve been processing a lot of emotions the last two or so years so now, as a result, I feel there’s space to infuse more of my soul into my body. In my understanding that’s basically what life is all about: learning to express your authentic self more and more into this physical reality. Making music is a means (just one) of doing that for me and Wasili. Besides music we need all kinds of experiences to learn how to do that. Living in seclusion to just making music would not suffice......by far. We need countless interactions in day-to-day life to truly know who we are and to dare giving expression to that.
Here are some pics of our new homes:

Both Wasili and I have been working on several projects. The mixing part of the sea-and-landscape album I’m doing with Dronny Darko is almost finished. I’m really taking my time for this because I want it to exactly sound like I envisioned. It’s such an exciting project with so many elements in it that it’s sometimes a challenge to make them combine eloquently. Meanwhile I’m working on a solo album as well. Or maybe two. The whole process of being creative and at the same time capturing those ideas and making them tangible, is different every time. Right now I’m in a super creative phase and finishing stuff just needs to wait then. The importance for me to give expression to my creativity is absolutely vital to me. I feel like it might be my number one priority in life right now. It’s this important because it causes my energy to flow through my body preventing it from getting stuck, helping me connect with my authentic self and helping me to feel sheer passion while I’m fully submerged in the experience. I try to catch what I can while being in this phase and mold it into something that can one day be experienced by many. Every now and then I jot down the ideas that might end up on an album and erase the other ones so as not to get lost in the jungle of sounds.

So what’s in store the coming months? Firstly my guess is that Wasili will finish his album soon. He’s in the mastering process right now. Working title of the album: ‚Destruction/Consciousness’. This one is not for the faint hearted: it might pulverize your ego, if that’s what it’s supposed to do. Below you see a picture of Wasili in his renovated studio.



My own solo project is also steadily progressing with 3/4 of the music being finished. The E-Day album is waiting on the shelf to be mastered (a live gig we did in 2009 at E Day). I’’ll have to wait when Wasili feels ready to take seat behind the controls to finish this one up. And of course Dronny and my album will see the light of day somewhere this year. We’re contemplating if it will be self- released or done by one of the many ambient labels out there. Time will tell.

The music part for the sea-and landscape album by Dronny Darko and me is finished. This project went incredibly smooth! The amazing thing was that all the music Oleg (Dronnie D.) submitted
blended perfectly with the already available tracks/stems. This ‚coincidence’ gave me the clear feeling that this collab was meant to be. When things go smoothly, isn’t that a clear sign we’re aligned with the Universal flow? That’s exactly the reason why making music is so important to me; it has the ability to ‚hook’ us up to the Universal clock and restore our lost connection with its intelligence. What to expect from this album? Well, as usually it’s around 70 minutes. (I can’t contain myself when I’m out there!). Dronny provided the drones: some deep like the deepest ocean and others soft and meditative. I added my organic flavor: whale/orca sounds, footsteps (?), strange, undiscovered birds. On the ‚musical’ side: wide bamboo and Aztec flutes, some string-like melodies and a good portion of physical modeling singing timbres. There’s still a lot of mixing to be done so I expect it’ll take a couple of months until release.