MUSIC FROM THE MESOZOIC

Akikaze, Japanese for autumn wind, is the electronic exploration of Pepijn Courant. This is his eighth album, a prequel to his debut ‘Music from misty marshes’, which was released in 1989. Music composed, arranged, performed and produced by Pepijn Courant. Lyrics by Pepijn Courant. Mixed and engineered by Pepijn Courant on Tascam SX-1 and DM-3200 digital mixers. Recorded, edited and mastered at home in high places in Utrecht from January 2008 to July 2009.

Pepijn Courant wishes to thank: Arnoul Courant for lending his Motion TEA-625 guitar, Arnoul and Roelant Courant for the Adonis GC-205 guitar, Monique Koudijs and Peter Buijsman for the website and John de Klerk and Peter Buijsman for their constructive criticism, Eric van Baaren for repairs and building the Solina Ensemble chorus.and Ruud Heij for transport to and from Eric’s.  
 
Instrumentation:
Synthesizers: Alesis Andromeda A-6; Anyware Semtex XL; Ensoniq SQ-80, TS-10; Korg EXB-MOSS, Mono/Poly, MS-20, MS-50, T-3 EX, Triton HD; Kawai K-5000W; Moog Minimoog, Little Phatty; Music And More MB-33 II; Roland JD-800, SH-101; Waldorf MicroWave XTk-30; Yamaha CS-40M, EX-5, SY-99,
VL-7
Keyboards: Generalmusic Promega 3; Korg Sigma, VC-10; Solina String-Ensemble 
Samplers:  Akai MPC-4000; E-mu E-4 XT Ultra; Ensoniq TS-10
Sequencers: Akai ASQ-10, MPC-4000; Alesis Andromeda A-6; E-mu E-4 XT Ultra; Ensoniq SQ-80, TS-10; Korg SQ-10, T-3 EX, Triton HD; Kawai K-5000W; Roland MC-80 HD; Tascam SX-1; Yamaha EX-5, SY-99
Guitars: Motion TEA-625; Adonis GC-205
Acoustic percussion: Tar, wind chimes, rainstick, tambourine, dumbek

[73.24 min]

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MORE EXTRACTS:

- Cycles
- Territories  
- Watering hole  
- Where life began    
- Courtship in the rain
- Silent running                      
- Impact 
- Ice age
- Succession       

THE AGE OF DECEPTION

This seventh album is, like all Akikaze albums, a concept album. The music of "The age of deception" tells us how negative experiences like death of your loved ones, misfortune, deception and disappointment can make you stronger and better in the end, to say in short: everything that doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. The music was recorded between 1994 and 2005. As previous albums, "The age of deception" shows a great diversity, but this album as a whole brings back acoustic percussion and as many analog synthesizers as possible. This time Akikaze experiments with analog electronic percussion and arpeggiators. Early Neuronium fans or other romantics will again appreciate the acoustic guitar sound based pieces. A must-have for listeners of diverse melodic and rhythmic instrumental music.  

[73.54 min]

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MORE EXTRACTS:

AQUARIUS
This music was inspired by the events that took place in the twentieth century, in particular in Eastern Europe, where communism had collapsed at the end of the eighties. The visionary poems by William Blake had a significant influence on this cassette, which showed an optimistic view on the world. This cassette was well received on BRT 2 radio show “Maneuvers in het donker”, presented by Flor Berkenbosch.

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LEAP IN THE DARK
In 2001 Pepijn digitally remastered his three cassette albums without altering the original versions too much, being able to do so as he still owned the original instruments at the time. The album “Leap in the Dark” was released on CDR by Quantum Records this year at the Alfa Centauri Festival, again on March the 16th, where he played a specially composed piece as well as parts from “Leap in the dark”, melodic and rhythmic music, influenced by the Berlin School and by classical and oriental music.
More information

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CONFLICTING EMOTIONS
In the studio version the Voder (Voice Operated Demonstrator), an effect algorithm developed for the Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler by the American Bill Mauchly, simulating speech sounds in a simple and flexible way, is commercially used for the first time. The piece was released on the CDR “Conflicting emotions” by Quantum Records in 1999. This CD is again based on a concept, this time spiritual balance, and voice sounds are being used predominantly.

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FANTASMAGORA
The prestigious project “Fantasmagora”, using many of his oldest compositions. The music had a classical, symphonic rather than cosmic touch. Musical inspirers were, among others, Pink Floyd and Mike Oldfield and the music was based on acoustic instrument samples with a leading part for Pepijn’s first instrument, the piano.

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IN HIGH PLACES
The title refers to Hoogoord, the name of the building in south-east Amsterdam were Pepijn Courant then lived. This CD, as all music by Akikaze, was recorded at home and was mainly inspired by mankind’s great achievements such as the conquest of the moon and the climb of the Mount Everest. The guitar parts were performed by guitarist Dirk Zeeman, a blues musician, who appeared on a CD for the first time. 'In high places' sold well, certainly by today’s standards.

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