Waiting for next year

The last thing to do each year is to write a little piece, reflecting on the past year. I will do this in a bit, but first, let me talk about next year. I haven’t gained clairvoyance capacities, but 2025 will see two interesting new developments, one of which will be my own doing, and one is fun but without my involvement. That one is that I will become a grandfather next year, which I am pleased about. I love kids, and being a granddad seems like something I can be good at.

The other thing is that, after 30 years, I will end Vital Weekly when we reach issue 1500, so somewhere in week 34 of 2025. It’s something that has been on my mind for quite some time now, and rather than stopping at a random number, why not 1500? I find it increasingly difficult to catch the words when reviewing something, feeling I’ve already said it. Also, since 2019, I have been publishing books, 18 so far, some of them a geat success and some not. I like this more than writing reviews; even when dragging a new print run up the stairs, repacking it into small parcels and running back to the post office is a chore. But writing and organising them is pretty fun, and I think I will do more and better books when I have more time. We’ll see; if it doesn’t work, I will just start Vital again. It’s the world of the internet, so I am sure I won’t be forgotten easily.

2024 was the first year ever in my life, including the Staalplaat years, that I published something that was a success. I am talking of ‘America’s Greatest Noise’, my book about Ron Lessard, RRRecords and everything that sails with it. When I shot some messages online, researching the topic, I sensed interest, but selling out the total print run of 1000 copies is something I didn’t expect. It brought me many new customers, which showed when I published Steve Underwoods’ ‘Even When It Makes No Sense’, his story of Broken Flag Records. That has been in the works for close to four years (and had there been no Vital Weekly, who knows how much quicker it would have been out?).
Alfred Boland and I published the second Annual, our second yearbook, with some great articles. I even managed to get a piece by Michel Faber. I hadn’t heard of the esteemed author before, never having read fiction, but Mark Poysden recommended his book Listen, which was great. I also learned from it that Faber is interested in my music, so one thing leads to another.
The fourth book is a reissue of Kirstian Olsson’s Giftnalen 1, a 480-page bible of the black arts. The first one was difficult to read, so I proposed a larger size. It worked.
I could mention all the plans for new books, but maybe they will take longer, and you’d be waiting and waiting.

All of this book stuff meant I had less time for music. The things released (listed below) were mainly recorded in 2023, except for ‘Ripples’, a complete rework of the Modelbau concert in Hamburg in June this year. That was the only Modelbau concert this year. Kapotte Muziek played two, and the second resulted in a cassette, ‘Use Kapotte Muziek Now’, a four-track mix with the instruction to mix yourself. Every mix will be added to the Bandcamp release and should be regarded as new material. There are already some mixes online.

The two other concerts were collaborations. In May, I was in London and stayed with Steven Wilson. We were recording within two hours of arriving, and we did so the next day. On the third day, we rehearsed for the concert we played at Cafe Oto, which Steven had prepared the basis for and to which I added sounds. Our collaborative recordings may be released in 2025.

In October, I played a concert with Peter Johan Nijland, of Trepaneringsritualen fame, my go-to guy for mastering and with whom I also done other collaborations, and Edward Ka-spel, best known for his work with The Stone Tapes, which also includes Big City Orchestra, Phil Knight and me, and his work with The Legendary Pink Dots (maybe I should have lead with that). Together, we did a CD as Dynasty, which Mark from Extrapool liked so much that he invited us to play. Here, too, we did some intense recording sessions, which we are currently trying to mix, but it’s quite a work due to the amount of time and tracks recorded.

Because Alfred Boland keeps pushing old cassettes through my front door, grandfather’s Creedence tapes and such, I decided to do a short-lived label, Kringloop Kassettes. I used old paper I found for the covers when I cleared out Felix Hess’ house. In November, I did another run, and next year, a third batch, maybe even a fourth, depending on the influx of old cassettes.

Mentioning Felix Hess. Mark Poysden and I are the curators of his legacy. Dead Mind Records released a best-of of his ‘Frogs’ cassettes, and Mark and I are considering a 10 CD with all of his work in one box—hopefully, something we’ll release in 2025.

Bass Communion & Modelbau photo by Rick Sanders
Dynasti photo by Erik Gibbels

releases this year

[Modelbau]
‘Now: Zero’ on Homework Year 9 (download, Taalem)

[Kapotte Muziek]
USE NOW (cassette, no label, edition of 20 copies)

[Modelbau]
‘Mechanical Shadows Of The Fading Light’ on taâlem advent calendar 2024 (24x 3″CDR by Taâlem)

[Kapotte Muziek]
untitled live recording from a concert on 30 December 2023 on ‘Partikel’ (CD, Licht-ung)

[Modelbau]
FADING (cassette, Kringloop Kassettes 011, edition of 32 copies)

[Modelbau]
1X33.3 (CDR, Love Earth Music 364)

[Modelbau]
SCUM (miniCDR, Inner Demons ind0194, edition of 42 copies)

[Frans de Waard & Sindre Bjerga & Fabio Orsi]
COUNTING BACKWARDS FROM ∞ (CDR, Attenuation Circuit ACU 1070, edition of 100 copies)

[Modelbau & Matt Atkins]
THE DECONSTRUCTION SEQUENCE (cassette, Moonside Tapes)

[Modelbau]
MYTHS OF THE NEAR FUTURE (cassette, Econore, edition of 20 copies)

[Modelbau]
GROEF (CDR, Ballast ballastnvp065, edition of 47 copies)

[Modelbau]
BLACKOUT (LP, Love Earth Music, LEM 328)

[Modelbau & Howard Stelzer]
WE AGREE (cassette, Kringloop Kassettes 002, edition of 26 copies)

[Modelbau]
SINGLE STREAM (cassette, Kringloop Kassettes 002, edition of 26 copies)

[Modelbau / Steffan de Turck]
Zweites Treffen (undefiniert) (split CDR, Kirigirisu Recordings kgr043, edition of 30 copies)