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I was born (1960) in the city of Arnhem, the Netherlands and started with piano lessons at the age of 6. After
graduating from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague in 1986 I started playing in many different kind of bands.
Within a few years I found my way into the studio-scene, spending lots of time underground. . .Most of it at
'Wisseloord Studio's' in Hilversum.
Not in the middle of the..Sahara / Tunesia - 2004
The Scorpions
One of the most memorable sessions was playing keyboards on 'Wind of Change', written by Klaus Meine of the
Scorpions. Produced by Keith Olsen and recorded by Erwin Musper. This song sold more then 25 milion copies
worldwide. At that moment I didn't really care to much about the song. It was just another rock ballad. When the
album was released, a couple of weeks later , the Berlin wall came down.A lot of artists wrote songs & lyrics on
that historical event, after the fact. As far as I know , Klaus was the only one, who wrote a lyric on the detention
between east & west,before east & west Germany became one country again. Apparently he was well locked in
the qi-field , the field of information, since I think that the song's huge success, was mainly based on the fact that
the lyric was some kind of prophecy. And a beautiful one . . .
Scorpions' interpretation of 'Feng Shui'
Other gigs. . .
Some other highlights also derived from the collaboration with producer / tonmeister Erwin Musper. A very nice
studio gig in Ft.Lauderdale with american rockband 'Danger Danger'. Not to go into detail...but looked like the life
the Buddha lived before the age of 30...
Listed above the 'illustrious' Ginger Linn
Supertententour' with Dutch swamp-countryrockband Normaal proved to be an interesting experience.Highlight
of the show being the 10 minute instrumental intro of 'Oerend hard' with Allan Gascoigne on slide guitar with a
very solid 'in between shuffle & straight' - beat , layed down by drummer Fokke de Jong. Nearly got hit by a wet
T-shirt, but miraculously no beer on my keyboards..
T.C. somewhere 'under' the rainbow stage left. . .
An intensive more then 10 year collaboration with 'king of melody' -Tony Carey, who I knew from Deep Purple's
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, where T.C. played keyboards, proved also an interesting experience. First album
we worked on (produced by Erwin Musper) was called " The Long Road " . . .
Shifting field of work & life
Massive Music Logo - A'dam office
After having already a couple of years of experience in writing & producing AV-music I started working as a
freelance composer for Massive Music A'dam in 1999. At the time a 2-men show..
Today 'the sun never goes down on Massive Music' with offices in New York , L.A. & Shanghai.
Way of the horse
I was lucky to witness a demonstration held by 'natural horseman' Pieter Baalbergen right at the beginning of my
horseriding 'career'.There's a lot of different things you can do when you're looking for an alternative way to be
with horses. However, there is nothing 'natural' about riding a horse. The horse's back wasn't designed for this
primate to sit on. A horse has a capacity to learn, so this learning process, how the horse needs to use his body,
in order to carry the weight of the rider, can still be as 'natural' as possible.
Nature vs culture
Middle of the . . . Pyrynees / France - 2004
When you like something, to find out more about it, seems a natural thing to do. It has always amazed me how
little people know about the behavior of their animals or pets they say they love. F.i. how is it possible for a herd
to move at once in one direction, just like a flock of birds? Horses live in herds. What's the function of that herd?
What's the meaning of this herd for an individual horse? What are the fundamental or basic needs of a horse for
it to be reasonably happy? You need to have a notion of this in order to distinguish what is 'conditional behavior'
from what is 'natural behavior'.
For a pray animal, food is not a reward. Within their natural habitat, pray animals or grazers just need to lower their
head and the food is right there. For a predator food is a reward. A predator has to go through a considerable
amount of trouble to get it's food. From a natural point of view, to reward a horse with food is completely
nonsense, it only stimulates conditional behavior. Ofcourse any living creature likes attention (or 'qi'), as in the
'recieving of food - action' the horse is give positive attention.
Also a lot of energy is spent (or more accurately 'wasted') in trying to teach animals our own human body
language and even our spoken language. Who belongs to the more intelligent species? Human being or animal?
Isn't it much more simple & effective for a human being to learn 'animal language' then the other way around?
Body language
Most of the horse's activities are expressed in body language, which can be very obvious or indeed very subtle.
Since a horse is a grazer and a prey animal, it doesn't show pain or discomfort until the stage that it's almost
lethal. In nature for a grazing animal, showing any kind of weakness, is a certain way to death, since a predator is
able to spot a weaker animal in a herd easily. Within the safe limits of a stable, this behavior of not showing
weakness easily, doesn't change. Stories about riders who think their horse 'was a little stiff the last 3 weeks' and
got the advice to intensify the training, when in fact the horse had dislocated his shoulder, are unfortunately not
very rare. So like many other animals, most horses also become a 'victim' of our identifications & projections.
Fortunately, there are a couple of orginazations who take our fellow earthlings seriously. As an entirety.
You can take a look @ this page : My Friends
There are basically two ways we look at our animals : 'ahhh...look how cute' or 'ahhh...look how sad'
Education
Over the last 10 years or so, I've had the privilege to attend sweatlodges, organised by the Eibergen-group.
Highlights being at a seminar with Archie Fire Lame Deer, Lakota chief and medicine man who lived his vision to
spread the 'Lakota way' throughout the European continent. His son, John Fire Lame Deer is carrying on the
tradition.
Before a sweat . . .
Maharaji Prem Rawat
A very good friend introduced me to Maharaji Prem Rawat .He teaches a simple but very effective way to 'go
inside'. A sitting meditation consisting of 4 simple techniques which 'reverse' the senses. These techniques make
you, as it were, 'look' & 'hear' & 'feel' inside. Maybe skipping a couple of days, I practiced almost 7 years with it
and it taught me how to make a distinction between 'emotion' & 'feeling'. And to make a clear separation between
the world of the rational mind & the world of the heart.
Chi Neng® Qigong (zhineng qigong)
Then I ran into the Chi Neng® Qigong Institute. (Chi Neng® Qigong = zhineng qigong) founded by Patricia van
Walstijn, who introduced zhineng qigong (as 'Chi Neng® Qigong) in Europe more then 12 years ago. The very
first time I started with a qigong exercise, I felt something within seconds and wanted to find out more about it.
Since I knew allready a little bit about chinese medicine,meditation & shamanism, the 'transition' to qigong was
not a difficult one. Zhineng qigong seemed a natural step in my personal education. Lots of beautiful workshops
& travels with the institute, and training in China with different teachers proved to be a great experience gave a
lot of insights in how to mix qigong into daily life.
Shifting field of work & life Part II
Morning practice on the roof of Hexianju, Hainan - China
After playing native american flute in Samaya's chapel (Chi Neng® Qigong seminar - september 2008) for a handfull
of qigong friends, during morning practice, something changed. As the day went on , I realized this was actually
my first 'concert' with a meaningfull content. Having performed numerous times to offer people some kind of
diversity, to make money -there's no shame in taking a decent job seriously, or to just enjoy myself, this was just
a little different. If you will, you could call it Gospel music in the true sense of the word.
We'll take it from there...
This set off the whole idea for the album ' Entirety'. Actually it began a little bit earlier. When I bought my first
practice cd's I noticed that there was some room for improvement, so I set an intention to get a nice musical
collaboration going with the Chi Neng® Institute.
It was 'only' an intention. Look what happened just one year later..
Make your mind a pleasant place. . .
