This is André Stordeur‘s unique solo LP, released 1979 on Brussels’ Igloo Records. Stordeur is a Belgian modular synthesizer specialist with a fondness for Serge and EMS gearing (see my Wikipedia article for biographical details). Innumerable Stordeur patchs and filters for the Serge await the aficionado on the Internet. During the 1970s, Stordeur collaborated with the Studio voor Experimentele Muziek, an experimental music ensemble founded by Joris De Laet in Antwerp, Flanders, of which I include a couple of videos below.
♫ 18 Days is an electronic music album, somewhat comparable in style to American Jack Tamul and Laurie Spiegel‘s own efforts, that is, dense, analog synth textures with a metaphysical atmosphere. The A side was created on EMS Synthi AKS and modified 8 voice patchable Oberheim SEM1 system, while the flip includes computer generated sounds (according to the composer himself in the Comments section). Whichever, Stordeur raises beautiful sounds, textures and sequences from his machines, sparingly arranging them into glacial, meditative soundscapes.
The record is engineered by Daniel Léon and produced by Daniel Sotiaux, the duo behind the Igloo label. Nowadays, the Serge synthesizer EMS Synthi is championed by German Thomas Lehn – see his excellent 2000 CD, Feldstärken on Random Acoustics.
01 To You (2:36)
02 Memories (8:52)
03 My World (7:19)
04 CC 101296 (12:24)
05 Aphrodisiac (7:04)
06 Nang Na Nang (4:59)
Total time 43:13
LP released by Igloo Records, IG003, Belgium, 1979
Download [Link removed. Reissue in 2011, apparently. See comments]
. . . . . . .
Some vintage Studio voor Experimentele Muziek archive footage:
* *
*
Continuo's weblog 
great
thanx a lot !
You’re welcome.
thanks for this, never heard of it!
thomas lehn actually plays an EMS synthi pretty much exclusively right? amazing stuff.
Oops, my mistake. The EMS is also a modular synth, though.
Another great post. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment. A pity Stordeur did not publish more works on disc.
fantastic, thanks!!!
i have been looking for this record for a long time.
I love it as well when my favorite blogs post the music I’m looking for. It’s not quite often, though.
Thanks for dropping by.
Cool, with a bit luck dede will perform on buchla 200e @
cafe central, rue Borgval n°12 1000 Brussels on the
28th of december 2010.
Please allow me to correct you on a few things.
– Andre did not, and does not have a “fondness for Moog”. Quite the opposite, I’d say.
– Andre was never a real member of SEM. He had his own studio in Brussels.
– The A side of “18 Days” is realized on a patchable Oberheim system, and a EMS Synthi AKS. No Serge in sight.
– The B side of that album was realized whilst Andre was staying as a guest composer in the IRCAM (Paris), and was performed on rather primitive early-era computers & software. No Fairlight at all, since it wasn’t even invented then.
And finally, “18 Days” is currently been remastered, and will be re-released in 2011 (by “Srolang”). In contrast to what you are doing here, Andre Stordeur will receive his regular composer’s fee and royalties…
Please take your download link down.
_g
Fine. A pity you did not put all this information on the internet before.
Do you want me to put down the Wikipedia article as well?
Excellent, thanks.
I appreciate your response.
Though I’m not adverse to {free} downloads, especially of rare works made of Unobtanium, we should try to honour and respect the works of an artist, moreso if that artist is still alive and has a tough time making ends meet…
As for the Wikipedia entry, it’s not up to me to decide about that. It contains a few irregularities, particularly the things related to “18 Days” (as mentioned before here), but perhaps it’s best to leave it to Andre himself to correct/amend where necessary ?
cheers,
_g
Guy D2: “In contrast to what you are doing here, Andre Stordeur will receive his regular composer’s fee and royalties”
What he is doing here is promoting artists people may be not aware of, therefore helping their music gets further. In fact he is doing a wonderful job exposing the music to potential listeners/buyers, exactly those you are looking for.
Engrudo,i totaly agree with you.
+1
Its not that dl link that gonna make any difference here.
Sometime I think that people who ask for removing dl link for the reason of coming re-release are totally block-heads. This is not a sneak preview ot the latest Madonna album.
What could be the best promotion (and voluntarilly done here), then allow people to listen the music. It is better then write hundreds of words about it, and certainly, this site visit many potential buers of this title. On the other hand, I don’t think people will like to buy every obscure item what they only could read about, although appearance of any album here on this blog is VERY good recommendation.
Just seeing “running money out of my pocket” with every download should be corrected to “whoa, here we have one more potential buer here, and that costs me nothing at all”.
Engrudo, SubG and Gamilan,
We’ve heard and read that argument about {full} dl’s being the perfect promotion for an artist many times over. It’s a bit of an empty argument, though.
I understand where it’s coming from, but sadly more often than not, it being a promotional item is not the case. Without pointing at anyone, in most cases people whom dl complete albums or tracks will seldomly/rarely/never actually purchase that album afterwards. That could be because they simply don’t like that music ~ fair enough, or because “I can’t be bothered; I’ve got it already”.
In the latter case, you’re taking away potential income for the artist. If you’d be an artist yourself, and particularly one in a niche field, you’d understand how difficult it can be to earn a bit of money with what you [have to] do.
If you’d be really honest about “promoting artists”, why then not presenting potential buyers with slices of the music, enough to give an idea of what it’s about ? Done really properly, providing a link to where the music can be bought, would be the right thing to do as well.
This blog is very rare in its kind and it keeps us all looking forward to reissues like the above mentioned.
Hi everybody,
Thank you for the interest you all have in my works…
<Continuo : Thanks for taking the time to write a Wikimedia article on me.
However, for the sake of true historical facts,I 'd like you to amend the Wikipedia article as follows.
I was born in 1941 in Haine St Paul, not in 1950 in Brussels.
I participated in Joris de Laet 'Studio Experimenteel Muziek" during the early 70's. I also founded my electronic music studio 'Studio Synthèse' in 1973 in Brussels.
All sounds on "18 days" were generated using an EMS AKS and a modified 8 voice patchable Oberheim SEM1 system.In addition, for side B, I used specific algorithms on my home PC. There was no Fairlight involved.
From 1980 on,I used solely two Serge systems: a Serge serie 79 and a Serge prototype 1980, which was especially build for me by Serge Tcherepnin. Since 1983,I have been a Serge consultant for Europe.
Since the 60s, Morton Subotnick has been my main musical influence in emusic.
Hi André, I updated the Wikipedia article with your information.
<continuo
Thanks for your intervention…
For the record: “Guy D2” above = Flemish analog synth specialist Guy Drieghe D.
So, after wading through all these comments and out of curiosity to hear this release I have 1 simple question, is this being re-issued or wa ?
No re-issue yet, as far as I know. It would make sense if Kye would reissue this LP at some point, as they do for the Moniek Darge releases.
Some interesting stuff on your distro/label Penultimate Press. Is the blog the full catalog or just a glimpse of what you distribute/release?
Hey Continuo. Every few months I look into the whole igloo thing again and here I appear again. Kye dealt direct with Moniek for that re-issue. I would be curious to look into this one but I have never actually heard it. All the Kye/PP releases are what are on the blog, a constant stream of gold.
i guess its still not reissued
i kind of know then a little bit, yet complaining a lot of the new generation do know old school electronics etc blog like this and many other have made new generations aware of this stuff and resulted in reissues, new listerenes etc think what a label like creel pone that did’t cdr bootlegs of amazing electronic albums, this has cause a lot of new people got aware, sought out lp’s second hand and yes stuff got reissued because of the more awereness, it a pitty and not realistic, if you want people to be more aware of the music, and hence get also more buyers if it gets reissued (this niche music, and mostly people that are very passionate about music and more keen on supporting when somethings get rereleased)
best
de raaf
Hello, I am in the process of reissuing my LP “18 Days”: it should be soon available again : be patient, we are getting there… Best regards, André Stordeur
________________________________
André ?
Tu es où ?
Daniel Sotiaux