Eric van der Heijden - Da Capo

Artist: Zodiac
P: 2025
Zodiac are the Dutch duo Ruud Grothauzen and Frans Ramakers. “IC” was their debut-CD. Before that they made several quite successful cassettes. And now a great new album in a very personal musical style in which rhythms and sequencerparts take an important part.

Artist: Jerome Froese & Claudia Brücken
P: 2018
When two icons of electronic music team up for a collaborative project, the result is destined to become something extraordinary. New album “Beginn” is a deft fusion of the talents of Claudia Brücken – famously the lead vocalist of revered German avant-pop 80s group Propaganda – and Jerome Froese – who, as son of electronic music pioneer and Tangerine Dream founder Edgar Froese, was himself a driving force and member of Tangerine Dream during one of their most successful and creative phases. Tangerine Dream, the German band widely credited as being the founding fathers of the whole ‘ambient’ genre.
Brücken’s unmistakable voice covers an astounding bandwidth from ethereally fragile to experienced diva. Her unique vocals blend into fascinating electronic song structures that mix Froese’s trademark Guitartronica with synth-led gems that range from the loungecore to the experimental. Some tracks resonate as if an electronic re-imagining of the intricacies of the celebrated shoe-gaze sound of the Cocteau Twins. Other tracks pay equal homage to the fascinating electro-cool of the early 80s New Wave; whereas throughout, the underpinning of dextrous breakbeat attacks are, also, often in evidence.
‘Beginn’ is a hybrid maelstrom of electronic sounds and sonic dreamscapes. It demonstrates the influence of both Froese’s and Brücken’s acclaimed output to date: Froese’s solo work and the Tangerine Dream albums he partook in and Brücken’s long and varied career as an icon of electronic pop in Propaganda, Act, OneTwo and as a distinguished solo artist. Suzanne Freytag, Brücken’s co-vocalist in Propaganda, also collaborates on the song ‘Sweet Sense [of] Liberation’, the album’s lead single.
‘Beginn’ – a work of electronic art that evokes a compelling and fascinating aesthetic at the same time as having mesmerisingly catchy pop moments.

Artist: Eric van der Heijden
P: 1991 / 1998
Musician Eric van der Heijden is a close friend of Ron Boots, who met each other at the Klemdag 1989, which actually was the start of a long-time friendship which lasts until today.
Ron invited Eric at his home and encouraged him to make more music after he had heard Eric's first composition "Time is Running", which was made with the D-50 synthesizer.
Several tracks would follow, which all ended up on the 1990-cassette "Lightning Times", which was officially released on the Eindhoven-based Synteam label (a private label for electronic music founded by Ron Boots and Bas Broekhuis).
Later on, the pieces of the cassette formed the basis for the cd "Universal Time Zone".
Eric's accessible music is overall melodic, warm and full of emotion. It keenly combines engaging sound textures, rhythms and nice sequencing, in which occasionally influences of both Tangerine Dream and Vangelis shine through.
Note: The album was re-released in 1998