"Wave World is a remarkably awesome, totally imaginative, and immensely creative group in the ambient genre. And, my God, the visuals...! Weird, wild, wonderful stuff." (Part of a review from one of our gigs in Philadelphia.)
Wave World is a Dutch multimedia project, conceived by Harry Kessels, Gert van Santen and Rolf van Slooten, who share a common passion for electronic music, computer graphics, and science fiction.
Gert and Harry met in 1995 at a local concert in The Netherlands, where they decided "to produce a commercial album". This resulted in the album "Aware", which was released under the name of "Solipsist Paradise". The track "Biosphere", which is also on this album, was remixed by Klaus Schulze, when Gert won a contest for German magazine Keyboards.
"Aware" received great reviews and got quite some airplay on Dutch regional and national radio. A popular dj mentioned that the songs were of "un-Dutch quality." Solipsist Paradise was even asked to perform a live-song on a national television show. At the moment, Gert and Harry are working on a follow-up, including a CD-single. They are working together now with longtime friend and producer Diff.
In 1997, Harry and Gert decided they needed a new challenge. One year later they finished their first Wave World album "Species" with modern Ambient music and slowly evolving soundscapes. Dutch label Quantum Records was very much impressed by the music, and released it on CD during the spring of 1999. "Species" got raving international reviews, resulting in the duo being asked to perform live. This was when they met Rolf van Slooten, one of Holland's leading computer graphics artists and managing director of Virtual Factory, who, amongst others, produced all special effects for the popular motion picture "Abeltje". Rolf was very much inspired by Wave World's music, and after some hours of extremely productive brainstorming, the triumvirate boldly decided they would create a complete universe around Wave World by producing a motion picture and lots of music.
Since Gert is also a longtime translator for Meulenhoff - the largest publisher of science fiction novels in The Netherlands - and because he had already written other stories, he decided to start writing the tale of Wave World also in the form of a science fiction novel - of course with the help of his two partners in crime.
While Gert and Harry started rehearsing for the concert, Rolf developed a completely strange and wondrous world with his computers. During the concert, Rolf's movie was projected on a huge 7x3 screen with a powerful 3,000 ANSI-lumen video-beamer. It was was a huge success. Many visitors mentioned they had "never seen anything like it."
Immediately after this first gig, Wave World was asked to perform at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam. Rumours about the show were spreading fast, and Wave World was soon invited - always as a main act - at international festivals and concerts, e.g. the 7th Alfa Centauri Festival in The Netherlands (March 2000), the 'Music for the Third Millennium' Festival in London (October 2000), the KOMP festival in Poland (June 2001) and a concert at 'The Gathering' in Philadelphia, U.S.A. (autumn 2001)- and again in Poland, KOMP 2002!
At present, Wave World has produced three albums with modern Ambient Electronic Music: "Species", "Structures" and "Dimensions", also available in a luxurious box-set containing all three CD's.
Wave World has also released a dance EP called "SPHERE". The track is supported by new, mindblowing computer graphics and will be released on MTV and VIVA somewhere this year.
A video with the live concert movie is also released, and Wave World is planning a double ambient album as well as a DVD with dance remixes of a selection of Wave World songs and a special club edition of the concert movie.
The biggest challenge for Wave World is finding sponsors for producing a science fiction movie where computer graphics and live action are invisibly blended together. The movie, with the working title "Wave World - The Last Fundamental" will be based on the novel Gert is writing.
The latest, 75 minutes (!) album "Another strange Day on Gonxa" (released March 16 at the Alfa Centauri Festival in the Netherlands), contains 8 original Wave World tracks from 1996 and 1997. None of the tracks have been released on CD before, except for the title track, which has been on the cover CD of the British Magazine "Sequences".
The songs on "Another strange Day on Gonxa" can be described as melodic electronic music with a lot of sequences and a lot of rhythm. People who already know the music of Wave World might probably recognise the style of our other albums in some places. A nice puzzle if you like to get deeper into the music.
There will be some interesting surprises too, one of which we will disclose here, because many people have been asking us about this. One of the tracks is the "Klaus Schulze remix" of the track "Biosphere", that has been released on the Solipsist Paradise album "Aware" in 1996. You can hear Klaus play his typical percussion, and the bassline is done by Jorg Schaaf...
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT WAVE WORLD:
"This is the best concert that I've ever been to in my life...hands down!!! Wave World is a remarkably awesome and a totally imaginative and is the most immensely creative group.....in the ambient genre or for that matter and as far as I am concerned any area of music....that I have ever had the honor of listening to!"
"Wave World performed a non-stop sonic assault soundtrack to their computer animated video. I was totally blown away! These guys were great! I think Chuck Van Zyl summed it up best afterwards when he said that he thought he had seen everything before, but that now he thought he hadn't."
"I saw Wave World perform over here before 500 people and I was totally overwhelmed by their visuals. They attached themselve like magnets on the EM. The whole experience was magnificient, wildly imaginative, provoking and brainwashing. I think all of the people in the room made the headtrip too. I raved about them afterwards with my friend, enthousiastically even bought
both cd's, asked for autographs (my friend persuased me, cause normally I'm no regular signature hunter!) and couldn't wait to play it at home..."
"Wave World... weird, wild, wonderful stuff...!"
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