Dick Raaijmakers

• Dick Raaijmakers, [co]inventor of common things like: Chorus, Delay, Echo, Reverb, Ambiophonics, Surround, the sample, and already working with reversed tapeloops, reversable echo's and playing rhythm-tapes backwards, years before, The Beatles first discovered it in 1966, placing it on their newest album "Revolver". Besides that Dick Raaijmakers composed, arranged and released the first electronic pop tune on vinyl, back in 1956.

• Dick Raaijmakers was born September 1st in 1930 in Maastricht, which lies in the south of The Netherlands. He originally studied piano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

• Dick Raaijmakers [aka Kid Baltan], is one of, if not, THE most important composers of electronic music in the world. He's now in his late seventies, and composed the very first electronic pop tune in 1957 called: "Song Of The Second Moon". It delt with spacetravel, a theme that was popular due to the first man in space Yuri Gagarin. Back then he was asked by a Director who worked at Philips in Eindhoven to compose "popular electronic music" and "Song Of The Second Moon" was the first tune.

• It was never "officially" released because on the b-side it had an electronic version of "Colonel Bogey", from the film "Bridge Over The River Kwai", which the widow of the original composer Alford wouldn't allow being released, but maybe the Philips directors didn't like the song! The 7" was not released but found it's way to business relations around the world, since Philips pressed 2000 copies and gave them away as relationship presents to their customers back then, landing most of them in depots across the globe. Ironically, this was the start of worldwide recognition and fame, since the remarkable record was being played by radiostations across the globe [in that time, groundbreaking music! The electronic Era has started!], it was even used in Ballet!

• "Song Of The Second Moon" actually was created by oscillators, tone-generators, several Studer A-810 Tape Recorders and a scissor! It was an ingenious piece of effects and melodies with dozins of "frames" that had to be edited by hand and scissor, the old fashion "cut and paste".

• Due to copyright reasons relating to his work at the Philips Laboratories also known as NATLAB, he couldn't use his real name for his compositions, which would be released, therefore he came up with the idea to call himself "KID BALTAN", Dick his first name reversed, and NATLAB reversed to BALTAN. A groundbreaking legend was born!

• Dick Raaijmakers was part of a team that consisted of 3 other members †Tom Dissevelt [a Jazz composer], †Henk Badings and †Roelof Vermeulen who all took part in inventing normal things like: Chorus, Delay, Echo, Reverb, Surround, Ambiophony, Dolby, and they were the first people who invented the "sample", before the word "sample" was in the dictionary...! With these experiments at Philips NATLAB [Natuurkundig Laboratorium] in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Philips had a huge technological advantage over others like RCA and †Dr.Robert Moog.

• On February 23rd 1965 Dick Raaijmakers got a letter from Polaris Productions Inc. New York. He was asked by American Film Director/Producer †Stanley Kubrick, if he could compose and produce electronic music for his forth-coming film: 2001 A Space Odyssey. Mr.Raaijmakers declined Mr. Kubrick's request.. [copy of the letter, sent by Polaris Productions Inc. can be found in the CD-Box]

• In 1967 he writes his last electronic composition and expands his horizons towards several other things in music, art, film, motion, sound, light as a designer, author, musician and artist.

→ 1953
• Working for 2 years on essambly line at the Philips Radio & Television department in Eindhoven.

→ 1954 - 1960
• Employed by Philips NV in the field of electro-acoustics.

• Co-inventor, creator and pioneer of today's normal things like: Chorus, Delay, Echo, Reverb, Surround, Ambiophony, Dolby and he is one of the first people, who invented the "sample", before the word "sample" was in the dictionary...!

→ 1956
• Composes, co-produces and arranges the world's FIRST electronic "poptune" on vinyl called: "Song Of The Second Moon", which was released on the Philips Record Label "Phonogram" back in 1957...

→ 1960 - 1962
• Research assistant at the State University in Utrecht.

• Developer/consultant of the "Philicorda", an electronic organ. [1962]

→ 1967
• He writes his last electronic composition.

→ 2004
• Awarded with the Johan Wagenaarprijs 2004 for his entire oeuvre.

→ ACHIEVEMENTS

• Compositions: ↓

From 1957-1967 Raaijmakers composed electronic works for films such as: "5 Canons", "Flux", and "Ballade" [Erlkönig].

In 1956 he produces, composes and arranges world's first electronic "poptune" on vinyl called: "Song Of The Second Moon", which was released in 1957 on the Philips Record Label "Phonogram".

In 1960 he composes, produces and releases "Mechanical Motions".

In 1961 he co-produces and releases "Intersection". [with †Tom Dissevelt]

In 1963 the legendary LP "Fantasy in Orbit" is released.

In 1969 he created so called instruction-works for string ensembles, in wich the relationship between tone and tone-production was explored: "Nachtmuziek", "Schaakmuziek", "Kwartet", "Kwintet", "De lange mars".

From 1967 till 1972 Raaijmakers developed Phono-kinetic objects, a trio of ideophones scaled up to museum requirements and displayed in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam [1971] and in 1973 in the Gemeente Museum in The Hague.

In 1976 De grafische methode tractor was created, followed in 1979 by De grafische methode fiets: works intended for presentation in an auditorium, derived from the work of the French researcher of motion and film pioneer, Etienne-Jules Marey [1830-1904].

In 1977 he developed a series of models of electro-chemical batteries and of primary electric archetype-forms for presentation at museums. In this year as a result of the death of Mao Tse Tung, he created "Mao leve!" [Long live Mao]: "an audio-visual exercise in artificial sentiment".

From 1981 - 1984 he designed and realized a series of "versions" [operations] for tape, film, theatre, percussion ensemble, museum and performance based on a single theme: "Nightowls", one of the first sound movies of Laurel and Hardy from 1930: "Shhh!", "The microman", "The soundman", "Ow!" and "Come on!". This series has been performed in the Holland Festival 1984, in which Raaijmakers was the 'featured composer'.

In 1983 he developed "Ping-pong", a stereo-radio-report of a table-tennis game between the composers Louis Andriessen en Cornelis de Bondt.

In 1984 the performance "Extase" [in memoriam Josine van Droffelaar] was realized.

In 1984/1985 he designed an eight-part artwork of glass, transparent film and mechanical motion devices, for the Rijkskantorengebouw in Arnhem.

In 1985 he designed an artwork using neon and color technique, for the new building of the Stedelijk Conservatorium in Groningen.

• Publications: ↓

In 1978 Raaijmakers wrote the essay "De kunst van het machinelezen" [The art of machine reading], in the literary journal Raster-6, concerning the artistic, that is visual, aspects of appearance of technical constructions in our world.

Since 1979 Raaijmakers prepares a book dealing with the visual representation of motion with the help of technical devices. [in 1985 part I "De methode" [The method] is published by Bert Bakker in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

In 1984 Raaijmakers wrote the essay: "De val van Mussolini" [The fall of Mussolini] in Raster-29.

Since 1989 he works on the publication of "Kleine mechanica van de open vorm" [Small Mechanics of the open form].

• Compact Discs: ↓

In co-operation with NEAR a 3 cd-box appeared with "The complete tape music" [CV-NEAR 09/10/11]

Works together with Basta Music and many others to recover found "artifacts" that †Tom Dissevelt secretly left behind and that where found in 2004, co-creating the 4 cd box: "Popular Electronics", which is released by Basta Music.

• Prizes: ↓

In 1985 Dick Raaijmakers received the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize [by the Amsterdam Art Fund] for the performance Extase.

In 1992 he was awarded the Prize for Visual Arts by the foundation Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam.

In 1994 he receives the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize again, now for his compositions "Der Fall/Dépons" and "Die Glückliche Hand/geöffnet".

In 1995 he was awarded the Ouborg Prize [by the city of The Hague] for the remarkable way he unites different forms of art.

In 2004 awarded the Dutch Johan Wagenaarprijs 2004 for his entire oeuvre.

• Other: ↓

In 1992 Dick Raaijmakers destroyed twelve microphones by cooking, crushing and burning them. The goal of the experiment was to demonstrate that a microphone can never be a musical instrument.

He is also fascinated by soundproducing installations, where the vibrations of speakers, launch metal balls and metal plates, which will bounce off the speaker, creating new reinforced vibrations, creating it's own dynamic, replacing the composer!


Dick Raaijmakers aka "Kid Baltan": a musician, an author, a creator, an inventor, a pioneer, a foreseeing technologist, a [r]evolutionaire and truly an icon and legend in time, since our heritage must never be forgotten...


• MORE ON DICK RAAIJMAKERS CAN BE FOUND ON A UNIQUE CD-BOX

• The 4 cd box of BASTA MUSIC contain: exemplary materials on the Philips laboratory, electronic scoring for film, the three featured artists: Dick Raaijmakers aka Kid Baltan, †Henk Badings and †Tom Dissevelt, and extensive track notes, beautifully designed. The CDs concentrate only on the popular and functional productions of the studio, meaning ballet music, industrial film soundtracks and experimental productions of what was intended to be "popular electronic music", that is non-academic electronics pitched somewhere between science fiction beeps and swoops, tunes, lounge and jazz.

• The box contains: 2 ballet scores by †Henk Badings, "Cain and Abel" [1956] and "Evolutionen" [1958], plus "the world's first attempt at popular electronic music" - a single by Kid Baltan [1957] with an unpublished B-side for 3 ondes martinots and backward piano, †Tom Dissevelt's extraordinary "Intersection" for electronic sound and jazz orchestra [1961], plus a few other pieces from 1959 & 1960.

• Also featuring concert and film soundtrack music [1957-1966] including a pretty wild 16 minute unpublished industrial film track by Dick Raaijmakers [using his own name] and works of the lesser known composer †Henk Badings and composer †Tom Dissevelt, whose "Fantasy In Orbit" was bootlegged many times. Pioneering works from the years 1956 to 1963.

• †Raymond Scott's "Manhattan Research" which it in many ways resembles and which was also produced by Basta. This was a critical and interesting period in the history of early electronics, and the Dutch productions have until now been rather ignored. They were important and here they have been given the best presentation anyone could want.


Part 1 - Dick Raaijmakers interview from 1988. He let's the viewer hear an electronic tone on a tape-recorder, and he shows how he used to make "handcrafted samples", also known as the old fashion way of "cut & past" from back in the days [50 years ago]. He also talkes about the Belgian composer Karel Goeyvaerts and the letter he received from him. [also some nice old fashion "bleebs", can be heard. In the last section of this part, he also speaks of Karl Heinz Stockhausen. In Dutch!



Part 2 - Dick Raaijmakers interview from 1988. He shows some examples of his re-edited taperecorder and let's the viewer hear a piece of his works from "5 Canons", he composed around 1965, which he worked on for 3 years non-stop.. In Dutch!