After 5 years (4)

Jelle-Jan van der Wagt

We're continuing our series on the wm-artists that contributed to the first release Water Wind and Sails

Some of you might have noticed that the young Jelle-Jan van der Wagt, who made a mini radio-play 5 years ago, now 19 years old has made some nice videoclips for yours truly. But he does a lot of productions. Next week January 27 his latest movie "slapendrijk" will have it's premiere in the local Deltion Theatre in Zwolle. Here's the trailer:

After five years (3)

What has become of Daan Jansen?


He was one of the youngest contributors to the first CD of WM Recordings: 13 years old, playing and singing his own arrangement and lyrics of the penguin song.

This is Daan now:


Last summer he finished his VWO (highest level of Dutch secundary school) cum laude and twice he has conducted the Youth Symphony Orchestra De Vuurvogel (Firebird) in Zwolle, when playing his own symphonic arrangements of computer game music.

He's studying Business Information Technology now at the University of Twente. Apart from De Vuurvogel he also sings in a pop choir and recently has taken up pianolessons. Right now he is working on a popsong together with Sifra Meutgeert and he plans on writing for mixed voices choirs when he will be "less busy studying".

Together with Jelle-Jan van der Wagt from whom we will be learning more next week, he occasionally makes Z News and other videos

After five years (2)

("So, what has become of DJ Harsman?")

Happy birthday, WMRecordings! Congratulations Marco Kalnenek!

Time flies now, doesn't it? I greatly admire what Marco has achieved in these 5 years. The extremely divers and eclectic collection of fine music that he has made available online, presented with a lot of care and much respect for the music and artists, is priceless in every possible sense of the word. Priceless as in 'treasure', as much as priceless as in 'free' ... 100 x downloads x free x albums ...

Respect!

Every reason therefore also for me to be proud: in the guise of DJ Harsman I contributed to the label's very first release, on november 7th 2004. That was Water,Wind, Sails, compiled by Splogman as part of his 52 Weeks project. On it you will find my Oerdvlieg, played with the 'Geluideiland': an interactive soundmap of the Dutch island of Ameland that DJ Harsman composed when he roamed the island in may 2003.

Much has happened since.

And these very days I have a fine 5 year celebration lined up myself! For on october 7th 2004, just a little before Marco kicked off WMRecordings, in front of the Amsterdam RAI building I launched Raudio, which over the years has become a collection of 24/7 soundart and experimental one pure sound thing audio webstreams, built form several hundreds of hours of pure sound.

To celebrate Raudio's lustrum, we made RAUDIO IIIII: a free iPhone and iPod Touch application that will bring all this streaming sound to the inside of your pocket or to the palm of your hand.

RAUDIO IIIII will allow you to tune into each one of Raudio's twenty 24/7 audio web streams. Do it whenever you feel like, and do it wherever you are (povided within the reach of a 3G network or a Wifi connexion.) The collection includes - just to name two - the amazing 9 Beet Stretch (a recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony slowed down - with pitch correction! - to play for 24 hours ...), and Het GesPreK 1982-2005, based upon a cut-up of a series of life musical conservations between 12 musicians, originally recorded in the Amsterdam Paradiso in 1982.

It is at this very same spot, in Paradiso's "Kleine Zaal", that on friday november 13th we will officially present our application, with a little festive speech, and performances by the ookoi and special guest Peter Zegveld. (The party starts at 17h, please do come, grab the app and join the fun!)

Meanwhile, rather than roaming wadden islands, DJ Harsman these days is roaming our cities, picking up audio tape debris from the streets and from bushes for his Found Tapes Exhibition.
He is also writing a book on the noble art of foundtaping, which should be printed and available for your reading pleasure as of very early 2010. It will be partly written in english, but its main language is dutch, like is its title: "Alle Geluid Van De Wereld" ... Other kettles on the cooker for the near future include a curatorial project around Penelope Audela's collection of a boggling 144.567 audio cassette tapes. (Read some first reports on this 'monstrosity' here and here.)

Last but not least: let me finally start making the album for WMRecordings that I always have wanted to make but for some reason never got round to ....

Harold Schellinx - Paris, november 10th 2009

[ harsmedia.com ]

After 5 years (1)

What are the first WM artists doing?
I mean those that contributed to the first WM CD?
The Dutch folk and bluegrass band Blue Dew turned their most recent theatre show "Little Whiskey Child" into a movie, with the band members as actors. The music by the film is been played live each time, just like in the old days. The premiere is next weekend in Zwolle at the filmfestival:



The film was made by Sindala film

WM Recordings: 5 years, 100 releases!

Contributed by Oddio Overplay (aka kazoomzoom.com)

WM Recordings is celebrating its fifth birthday. In reviewing old correspondence from those years, something became crystal clear. Marco is an energetic powerhouse, a great guy, and he and his netlabel deserve every success.

Our friendship began with an online music community years ago. In that situation, I learned that Marco treats people with respect, is generally friendly, and has a seemingly limitless knowledge of even the most obscure genres of music. Actually, he is especially good with the most obscure genres.

Marco and I would get to know one another better in 2003 when Otis Fodder included us in the team who staffed Comfort Stand Recordings. It was there that I first witnessed Marco's dedication. He was always on top of staff discussions and worked well with artists. Marco would prepare releases and spend countless hours of overtime working on Comfort Stand. It sometimes seemed like the guy just didn't sleep.

Late in 2004, Marco's Weirdomusic.com launched its own netlabel and WM Recordings was born as a sister to Comfort Stand. The historical significance of both of these netlabels is that they were offering genres that were not available out there in netlabel-land. Netlabels at that early time were focused mostly on electronica and out-there experimental material. Marco and Otis were among the first to create netlabels offering a wide spectrum of music.

The early introduction to the netlabel explained, "WM Recordings brings you music that is a little 'different.' We do not specialize in one style, but instead bring you exciting sounds that you're not likely to find anywhere else."

In fact, the first release on WM Recordings, a collection titled WATER, WIND AND SAILS, flows across genres from bluegrass to the avant garde. It was released in conjunction with Jan Turkenburg's 52 Weeks. Week 18 of 52 was a radio program with the sea as its theme. Turkenburg invited listeners to contribute their own musical pieces to create a water CD. Fellow Netherlanders Jan Turkenburg and Ton Ruckert have assisted Marco with other releases for WM Recordings, as well.

WM Recordings branched out in 2006 with a sales catalog to help support artists, yet has still maintained an ever-growing catalog of free releases.

Five years ago I wrote, "Super excited and grateful that WM Recordings has sprouted. Here's to it blossoming in the years to come."

Blossom it has. Now we celebrate 100 releases and five years of unusual, wonderful free music, and a fantastic catalog for sale. Countless ears around the world have enjoyed their music. WM Recordings has been a positive place on the web for five years, and we are all so fortunate for it!

Congratulations to Marco and all of the WM Recordings artists on five years of blossoming. Happy Birthday, WM Recordings.


What others say:

"Where most netlabels dare to only feature a small handful of genres, WM Recordings is astronomically diverse in it's musical styles and directions. Having enjoyed more music than I can mention, I wonderfully wish them another 5 years to make 200 releases of solid sounds."

-- Otis Fodder,www.otisfodder.com

In the ever expanding world of netlabels, there's an elite few who I've found to be a consistent source of both intriguing and quality music. In my constant quest for netaudio gems, WM Recordings delivers them again and again. Congrats on your first 5 years and 100 releases! I look forward to the next!

-- Mike Gregoire, Founder/Curator blocSonic.com

"It is incredible that we've reached release number 100 now. Another album made possible by "real people"! To quote a dear friend of mine: for over the top produced albums go the nearest shopping mall, for music by people like you and me, go to WM Recordings! WM Recordings also means: live your own dreams and not those of others."

-- Jan Turkenburg, www.splogman.com

24 hours left

to submit your contribution to the 100th release of wm recordings

WM needs YOU!

Submit your cover version for our 100th free album!

The release of the 100th free album download on our label is rapidly
approaching. We have lots of activities coming up to celebrate this
milestone. One of the projects surrounding our 100th free album will be the release of an album of cover version of tracks from the WM Recordings catalog.

Pick your favorite WM Recordings track from www.wmrecordings.com and...
cover it!

We'll post submission guidelines on our site very soon, but you're already
invited to start submitting your cover versions. Deadline is September 15th.

The rules are simple: the track(s) must have been released by WM Recordings and your version should not be longer than 5 minutes. Also keep in mind that a remix does not count as a cover version. Mail info@wmrecordings.com if you have any questions.

I am not your sexmachine

Happy Elf

New version of a Dutch classic pop song by electropop artist HAPPY ELF. Also available as iTune. More info : www.wmrecordings.com


Happy Elf is the alter ego of multi instrumentalist Jeroen Elfferich from Delft, the Netherlands. He has released more than 10 albums since 1999.

Happy Elf’s main instruments are his 2 analogue synthesizers, the Roland Juno 6 and Yamaha CS10. But we also hear electric guitar, bass guitar and drum computers. A lot of the songs are instrumental but some have vocals. Because Elferich has no beautiful voice he tries out some effects and vocal tricks.

The music of Happy Elf can be labeled as electro, but actually it is much more than that: it’s pop music made with analogue synthesizers.

Elfferich has been making different kinds of music for the last 25 years. He has been performing as a percussionist in orchestras, guitarist and lead singer in a rockband and as a drummer in jazz-, funk-, klezmer-, rock-, fusion- and cajun bands. He currently leads a reformed edition of his progressive rock/funk/jazz band Elfferich Four, whose back catalog is also available on WM Recordings.

This is a song by dutch group EARTH & FIRE, in a new version by HAPPY ELF & NINA.
with pictures by Anton Ulanchenko

Brunk 2

Hi people,

Yes, this is netlabel music and some of you are not supposed to like it because of that, so to annoy those I'm standing here at my rooftop shouting: HEY EVERYBODY!!! HEY!!! OOWAOOWAOOWAOOWA!!!! I LOVE THIS ALBUM!!! YEAH I KNOW IT'S 4 A.M. LOVE YOU TOO HONEY!!!



'none of the above', the follow-up to ' sept 2003 ', is a further exploration of the melancholic and more accessible side of brunk. It has a quiet vibe and mostly slow songs. Once again these songs are made of overdubbed and edited layers of cut-and-pasted guitars, softwaresynths, samples, beats etc; with at the same time lots of improvised elements and spontanuous aspects, uncorrected imperfections and a perhaps slightly naieve 'homerecording lo-fi' touch.

The Reagan years

"Guitar-centric, lo-fi, art damaged squawking ditties recorded mid 1980s, some 4-tracked, some bouncing tracks between two cassette decks, some random guitar tunings, a few vocals, including the 18 minute guitars-on-the-table take on Beefheart's Trust Us. ..."
boomp3.com
boomp3.com
WM Recordings present:
Phil Reavis - The Reagan years

Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka

A romantic Valentine's gift from WM Recordings!



Various Artists - Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka: Porn Music for the Masses vol. 2

In 2004 the release of Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka - Porn Music For The Masses Vol. 1 on Comfortstand.com caused quite a stir. Four years later it is one of the most downloaded netlabel releases ever.

Now WM Recordings brings you a new dose of "Porn Music Magic" to swing to/by, thanks to mr_melvis, the same producer who brought you WCWC vol.1.

Twenty tunes of porn groovieness and one bonus track with a 'Behind The Scenes' look at the industry will be sure to titillate even the most repressed listeners. It's time to turn those lights down low again, and get it on - Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka!

A tribute to Chenard Walcker

"Chenard Walcker, a friend of the online music world, is slowly recovering from a diabetic coma. His brother reports that he is not physically suffering. He fell into the coma in September 2006, and is now working on speech development and object differentiation.
Chenard is the prolific visual and musical collage artist who operates the Free Sample Zone with 58 releases available for download. Chenard also has two releases available on our label and he has contributed to various compilations.
So many of us have benefited from and enjoy Chenard's work. This is our chance to repay our sweet friend and to send him our love with a tribute release on WM Recordings."
Various Artists - A tribute to Chenard Walcker volume 1 at WM Recordings.

Call for submissions

Marco and mr_melvis bring the news for all you porn music lovers out there, and a call for submissions:
"With the release of Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka - Porn Music For The Masses Vol. 1(over 138,000 downloads to date!) on Comfortstand.com in 2004, people all over the world were able to listen to and enjoy the soundtrack to their fantasies. Since that time, Comfortstand.com has sadly stopped releasing new material, but that has not stopped the needs of the people for new and exciting porn music tunes produced by artists from all over over the world. That being the case - WM Recordings (a sister label to Comfortstand.com and long time collector and distributor of 'outsider/exotica/avant garde/experimental' music), has gladly agreed to host a new volume of Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka - Porn Music For The Masses, on it's website. So the call for submissions starts NOW!
You can find all info here.
The first volume of Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka can be downloaded here. "

How tall is Robin Gibb?

daghoti - how tall is robin gibb? , a WM Recordings release. Catchy stuff.

Mystic Moods

"... The wholemark of WM Recordings is 'different', and so it's Mystic Moods with a wink, a lighthearted take on the mystic deriving it's campy cues from the Mystic Moods Orchestra, rituals and therapy, art and science fiction, and from more serious notions too, like the metascientific
questions scientists are being forced to ask regarding origins and existence, and the rise of fanatisism in the world of faith, in short: it's music for your undisputed pleasure...! ..."
Mystic Moods, now available at WM Recordings.