SOUNDWAVE : 14 : GERT DE MEESTER

Hello again. Welcome back to SOUNDWAVE!

I just got back from a 4th of July party with my wife’s unit so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

If you’re new to the show, I launched SOUNDWAVE to help cope with the stress of the first month of the lockdown due to COVID-19. Ambient, classical, experimental and instrumental music was the only music I could listen at that time. If it was helping me, I imagined it would help others.

Today was the first time in over four months of the lockdown I’ve been around this many people at once. It was great! It felt completely normal. And it gave me a charge. But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I was a little uneasy. Four months will do that to you.

If you’re in the U.S., I hope you had a fine holiday. For everyone in the world, I hope you’re having a lovely weekend.

We just got home and we’re winding down and this is the perfect opportunity to jot down today’s show notes. Our guest for today’s show is Gert De Meester of Distant Fires Burning.

I met Gert when I reached out to David Newman, founder of Audiobulb Records to participate on the show with a mix. David took pass but suggested I contact Gert and Kirk Markarian. I owe David because Kirk’s mix was fantastic and I’ve been waiting impatiently to take Gert’s mix live. I know you’re going to love it!

Gert’s going to rap with you about his mix below. Before I go, please join us again next week when our guest deejay is Carmen Rizzo. You’re in for a treat.

See you then!

Gert De Meester

Our first track is Autistici’s “Wire Cage For Tiny Birds.” Something that allways has attracted me to Autistici’s music, is the sense for new sounds and intricate sounddesign. This has allways been reflected in my music. I am quite happy with the fact that David has released my last album on his Audiobulb label. It fits there perfectly.

“K & J” is the opener of my last album. You hear a Jazzbass processed through ableton and a stockload of effects, basically my livesetup. “K & J” are the two most important people in my life.

Our third track is Taylor Deupree’s “Northern”. Taylor has allways been of great influence on me, besides Tim Hecker and Biosphere. But in Taylor’s music, I really find beauty, reminiscence, maybe a bit of wanderlust. It’s that freedom that speaks to me, that encounter with the new, but allways the hint at nature and down to earth noises.

“Scrape To Touch” is by Neuro… No Neuro and is one of my best labelmates and I saw him grow immensely in music making. His music really cought me by surprise as I host a Spotify playlist and i listen to all Audiobulb albums to give them a fair chance of getting included (me and David get along quite well, musically). But Kirk’s music really caught me on a permanent level.

“Geomagnetic Disturbance” is one of the first tracks where the Jazzbass got incorporated in my music. It was an outtake of 2010’s album Build on Me on U-Cover CDR Limited, but it got picked up by these great people of Consouling Sounds for this compilation. Quite a lot Hecker inspired, but hey, everybody’s got to learn sometimes…

Our last track is Svær’s “Broken Waltz Of Fukushima”. (Such a great 2019 discovery. He played as support of Tim Hecker in Brussels in 2019. What a great show that was, connected with him on Facebook, discovered he was a fellow Belgian too. And all of a sudden I got a message he released his debut album, the rest is history…

Cheers, I hope you enjoy this mix.

Autistici “Wire Cage For Tiny Birds”

Distant Fires Burning “K & J”

Taylor Deupree “Northern”

Neuro… No Neuro “Scrape To Touch”

Distant Fires Burning “Geomagnetic Disturbance”

Svær “Broken Waltz Of Fukushima”

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