More people have contributed to the pioneering of electroacoustic music than one might realize, but it helps to buoy a certain appreciation when one of those individuals just happens to have participated mightily to the scene in your national birthplace.
Thomas Ankersmit was born in the Netherlands, and before the late-thirty-year-old aurally invigorated by way of his international installations and performances, a man by the name of Dick Raaijmakers spent several decades developing his own instrumental experiments and formally educating the Dutch public on electronic music. Raaijmakers initially took on a research role at Eindhoven’s NatLab during the latter part of the 1950s, and after he exhausted his formal position messing around with novel equipment, he…took on more formal positions while simultaneously indulging his purely musical side. His Kid Baltan moniker (a mirror of his “Dik Natlab” nickname) got its first musical credits in the 50s, and he also partnered with fellow pioneer Tom Dissevelt under the name Electrosoniks. Then he lectured on electronic music at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague for nearly 30 years, until 1995.
Point being: this guy is long overdue for an homage! So, thanks be to Ankersmit for stepping in and composing Homage to Dick Raiijmaker, which is scheduled to come out this September on Shelter Press. Essentially, Ankersmit used the opportunity to “re-contextualize Raaijmakers’ ideas about electric sound, composition, and spatial experience,” and the result definitely sounds similar to, say, this experimental piece from back in the day. It’s dissonant courtesy of the trademark Serge use this time around.
Listen to some excerpts from Homage down below, and keep a lookout for ordering info here.
More about: Dick Raaijmakers, Thomas Ankersmit
