Starting next week I’m working in The Incident Room, an art project initiated and curated by Patrick Mangnus. This first edition takes place in R10, Zwolle. I’m teamed up with video/sound artist Sandrijn van der Horst. Together we have two weeks (January 11-28) to work on a new piece of art in the R10 residency. After that it will be open for exhibition on January 29-31 and February 5-7, 13.00-17.00 hrs. Other participants in this edition are Jeroen Diepenmaat and Sjoukje Gootjes.

Some time ago I went to R10 to check out the place, since I had never been there. It has plenty of facilities and workspace. I aim to use this workperiod mainly for research, since R10 oozes ‘laboratory’ out of every pore. Kind of reminds me of my art academy time. Sandrijn seems to be an interesting and challenging partner in this project. I don’t know him well, but am very familiar with his work, which I selected last year when curating the Ontbos exhibition in CBK Apeldoorn.

At this point I still have no idea what we are going to do next week, but I’m very anxious to find out where this collaboration leads me!

Update 1: I’m documenting our progress on Flickr.
Update 2: There’s going to be a festive finissage on February the 7th with an introduction by Patrick Mangnus and a live performance by Bedhelm and The Stewardess.

The Ticket to the Tropics party in Havenkwartier was a great start of the new year. The party looked and felt amazingly tropical. It even had a beach! And although I experienced some nasty technical difficulties (my midi-controller failed me completely), my dj-set was what it set out to be: a slightly weird tropical fiesta!

For all of you who couldn’t be there, you can download my dj-set here. Or maybe you were there, but want to hear it over and over again. Don’t worry, that’s only natural…

Update: Tropical photo’s here (scroll down).

Some time ago I had decided not to go to this smashing New Year’s party in Havenkwartier. Instead I was really looking forward to be with my wife and two kids this year. But then it hit me. Since I live literally around the corner, I can do both. After celebrating the new year at home, there’s still plenty of party left to go to.

So I’m going to take a peek anyway. I’ll just be there a bit later.

Yesterday, when the partyhosts of Ticket to the Tropics got wind of this, they put in a last-minute request for one of my tropical dj-sets. I couldn’t resist this tempting offer and am whipping one up right now. Think Copacabana, Calypso, Speed Merengue, Tropicalectronica, Cumbia and Good Vibrations…

It has become some sort of tradition. Every year Ron van der Ende collects Studio Playlists from his friends and puts them on his blog. What music did we all listen to in the studio this year and what were the favorites? The best playlists on the web! Not all playlists are published yet (usually there’s much more to come!), so check back regularly for more interesting music tips. Or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Check my 2009 list overhere. And here are my 2008 and 2007 lists if you’re interested.

Last Friday, my friend Arthur van Beek handed me the virgin edition (download pdf) of DE TANKER, his very own newspaper. That actually makes him the editor in chief and art director of DE TANKER. And I think it looks great! Feels and smells like a real newspaper too. It is supposed to be some sort of lubricant for the city of Amsterdam and it’s somewhat focussed on the Amsterdam North harbour area (NDSM docks). I don’t know about all that, but it does make for some excellent inspiring reading (I’m only halfway so far). He aims to release four editions the first year and six the second year. I hope he manages to do just that, given these critical newspaper times…

Yesterday Arthur caught me by surprise (again) when he asked me if I would be willing to become one of the writers for DE TANKER. I instantly happily accepted. He specifically asked for pieces about music. And to be bold and not affraid to stir things up… In my mind that kind of warped into writing inspirational pieces about my expertises and passions (not just about music). Not sure yet, what I can get away with here, but we’ll see. Anyway, the first edition should appear somewhere in 2010. Can’t wait.