THEATER DE ENCK, Oirschot

Traditionally, the electronic musicians Ron Boots and Kees Aerts - both owners of Groove Records - organized an EM-event once a year, the follow-up to the original KLEM-dag. This event is called E-Live. With the introduction of the magazine E-dition some years ago, Ron and Kees decided there should be two events each year, probably also because the Alpha Centauri festival ceased to exist. Although both musicians pulled the plug from the magazine - many people still regret they had to do that - the second festival called E-Day turned out to be equally successful. This time, the festival was not at the University of Eindhoven but in Theater de Enck in Oirschot, a village nearby. This village is within reach of both Belgian and German fans. The venue proved to be a huge improvement, the atmosphere was superb and sound and light were quite okay. Many attendees could park their cars for free and many were utterly satisfied there was beer available!
 

Upstairs, during the afternoon, there were several performances by Dutch EM-artists like 33 Tetragammon and Human Metronome, relaxing music in the ambient genre. Downstairs in the main hall the festival was kicked off by German EM-artist and guitarist Frank Dorittke also known as F.D. Project. As guitarist of the Dinslaken based band Imagine, the guitar had always been his main instrument. Then in the early nineties, he discovered Tangerine Dream, Mike Olfield, Jean Michel Jarre and so on and he developed a firm interest in this kind of music. Due to modern day technology Dorittke is able to play teh guitar, accompany himself on the keyboards and have rhythm patterns played by a drum computer. Polarstern was the first tune Frank played. Influences of the aforementioned names are clearly there, but the music of Dream Theater could have been a source of inspiration as well. Basically Frank played very nice melodies on the keyboards and let his guitar do all the soloing. Next song was  Last Days followed by Heavensgate. On the big screen behind the artist, there were images, mostly very colourful. Frank Dorittke subsequently played an updated version of Mandarinentraum and an especially for this concert a re-arranged version of The Return Of O. Within the electronic music (EM), the F.D. Project can be compared with Maxxess or some pieces by Teubner. The first encore was Throw Down The Sword, a classic track by Wishbone Ash. Because of the enthusiastic response from the audience, Frank Dorittke decided to do another encore. It turned out to be a short improvisation round Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a classic by Pink Floyd. Still the people wanted more, so they got another classic, namely Portsmouth, a traditional made popular by Mike Oldfiled. The performance was very well received and greatly appreciated. Personally I would have loved a little more variation in the sound of his guitar.

The second performance was by the well-known Dutch EM-artist Gert Emmens. Often he plays with his colleague Ruud Heij, but he performs and records as a solo artist as well. His music can be described as mainly Berlin School. Relaxing music, floating sequences, great melodies and several nice solos. More than Ron Boots, Emmens creates soundscapes without much percussion elements. Basically he performed all of his new album The Nearest Faraway Place Volume 2 (parts 8 – 14), accompanied by a computer-animated science fiction movie on the large screen. As an encore he performed a new track, to appear on the forthcoming album Schallplatte 11 called It Was Sad To See You Go. Although totally different from the F.D. Project, many enthusiastic reactions for this artist too!
 

The main act was Dyson & Friends. On stage, John Dyson, once one half of the duo Wavestar, was accompanied by percussionist Mark Dale (bass), Damian Rider (keyboards), Shaun D’Lear (keyboards, effects and occasional guitar) and Stephan Whitlan, a keyboard wizard from Ireland. The latter opened with two tracks. The first was Illegal Data from the K2 project album, the second was a totally new track not available on any CD. Whitlan played his own interpretation from combined famous tunes from television, such as Dr Who, including Popcorn and snippets of Star Trek, Thunderbirds and Star Wars. His fast soloing was a real treat and evidently this musician has had some profound classical training.
 

Then the main event: at first a genuine Dyson vacuum cleaner was exposed, acting as replacement for John, but that was obviously a joke. As if the man just will not age, he came on stage, wrapped in a cloth and after this was removed his bold head was cleared from dust by a feather brush. It all seemed so familiar, bringing back memories of Dyson’s last performance in the Netherlands no less than ten years ago. The show consisted of a mixture of Wavestar tracks and tracks from his solo-albums. The special surprises were Posevalue, a track only available on the Groove E-Day CD and several tracks of his brand new album Darklight. The man played his synths with great skill and finesse and obviously he enjoyed to play. Whitlan too seemed to have a good time on stage. John’s announcements were always with a humorous touch and a short story and both his synth-melodies and his guitar solos were characterized by subtlety and feeling. It was close to midnight when Dyson & Friends were given a standing ovation so they had no choice then to play on! The first encore was a Wavestar-track, the second was a piece once again from his newly released album. Let us all hope that John Dyson will play in some venue in the Netherlands at least once more before he decides to retire, because this was an awesome performance. Altogether E-Day has been a highly successful festival, a good venue, excellent choice of artists and well organized. Anyone with a feel for melodic EM should be attending the next E-Live festival in October!

Setlists:

F.D. Project:

Polarstern, Last Days, Heavensgate, Mandarinentraum 2009 edition, The Return of O. (special E-Day version), Throw Down The Sword, Shine on, Improvisation, Portsmouth.

Gert Emmens:

The Nearest Faraway Place, Volume 2 (parts 8-14), It Was Sad To See You Go.

Stephan Whitlan:

Illegal Data (‘K2 Project’), A version of Dr Who, including Popcorn and snippets of Star trek, Thunderbirds & Star Wars.

John Dyson & Friends:

Evolution (from JD album of same name), Wavestar (from Wavestar album Mind Journey), Osaka Hai (short version from Wavestar album Zenith), IFO (from Evolution), Analog (short version from JD album Aquarelle, Moonwind (from Wavestar album of the same name), Time Enough (from JD album Silverbird, Silverbird (from JD album Silverbird), Posevalue (special track by JD for Groove E-day CD, Retro 82 (from JD album Darklight, Heights (from JD album Darklight), Darklight (from JD album Darklight), Time Node (short version of original on Wavestar album Zenith), Skye Boat Song (part of Kintyre To Skye from JD album Darklight.