La Vida es un Carnaval!

Yet another HOT weekend, this time at the Summer Carnaval in Rotterdam.

In the evening there was an afterparty at the Prachtig club, with the fantastic salsa, merengue and bachata orquesta Poder Latino!
Don DeVallado got so hooked on that salsa feeling, that this morning physiotherapist Geke secretly gave him salsa lessons instead of the regular leg exercises. Who needs to walk if you can DANCE ;-)

One of the Poder Latino trumpet players, Mike Giezen, also plays in the Joe Cover band. Joe Cover will play a festival in Nijmegen on August the 19th; Don DeVallado will fill in for their guitarplayer. Details later here...

Hippocampus! Photograph taken for an enthusiastic Marine Biologist with a soft spot for seahorses...






Yesterday we were supposed to do some recording for Het Witte Dames Lied, but we went out for dinner instead. Mañana mañana!

Ouverture - Don Corleone style...

Yesterday we presented our contributions to the songs Finale and Ouverture to Ad Maas. He was very enthusiastic about the Finale, but when we started the Ouverture you could see him turning slightly pale and moving around restless on the couch.
After listening to it several times he started to get adjusted and eventually he ended up really liking it.

Apparently the new guitar parts totally change the atmosphere of the song. Because Don DeVallado is in his soundtrack period (and can highly recommend for example The Directors Cut by Fantomas), he blended The Godfather feel into the Ouverture; Don Corleone goes medieval! We expect people involved in the production to be sort of shocked when they will first hear it. But then again, a lot of people are easily provoked ha ha ha!

We wonder how this endeavor will end...


Dinner at the Maas Mansion

Ouverture: Done!

Last week was mostly spent abroad, but we managed to complete the Ouverture! To celebrate this we allowed ourselves a weekend of shameless partying ;-)

On Friday we gathered the posse to see an outdoor movie at the Plaza Futura: Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride. Even Don DeVallado's physiotherapist swung by (who is teaching him how to recover from his broken leg after that unfortunate helicopter accident involving a Chinese midget in a yellow spandex outfit and a Kenny G greatest hits compilation CD).











The Don's watching Johnny Depp getting married to some dead chick







On Saturday Don Rápido went to a party in Utrecht and eventually ended up in a freezer used as bathtub on a balcony.

Don DeVallado chose to go to Belgium, The Gentse Feesten, and spent the entire Sunday recovering at the Rijnders Mansion in Antwerp, the home of El Peppino, Elise & "The Kid".


A lazy Sunday in Antwerp...

Now it's back to work, to get the last song finished. Let's get Het Witte Dames Lied started!

Finale Finished

Although last weekend was spent mostly floating on rubber tubes and hanging out with Marine Biologists from Wageningen we managed to squeeze out the last couple of bars of the Finale. Also, Don DeVallado's sister came by again to add trumpet parts to Kyrie.

B13Visuals, Jan-Martijn Luppens & Don DeVallado of Scenario II displaying their idea of band rehearsal

With two songs left, Ouverture en Lied van de Witte Dames, it is now a race against time to get everything done before the CD goes to press.

Finale - Special Guest

Yesterday we had a pleasant surprise at Casa Jesus Quintana, the picturesque domain where the studio is located; Don DeVallado's sister, a famous international (jazz) trumpet player, swung by for a visit.
Away from her domicile in New York she is currently on tour. She already played Marocco, this week she is in the Netherlands to play in Amsterdam before leaving for Canada again.

Of course we asked her to participate in our project, and her reply "Does the pope shit in the woods?" sounded like music to our ears ;-)

So now we have REAL trumpets in the end of the Finale!

Don DeVallado's sister doing her concentration routine before playing...









Recording...

Finale - Too hot!

After 2/3 of the Finale finished, we went in the studio the record the last bit. The temperature rose to at least a 100 degrees, which caused not only guitars to go out of tune but also led to mesmerizing hallucinations.

As dehydration set in rather fast the basic guitarparts were lain down. Only the solo's remain and then it's back to the beginning: Ouverture.

Moment slightly before Don DeVallado is getting his ass kicked for playing out of tune...

Di Sini Kini

Last Thursday Di Sini Kini played their first gig at the Temporary Art Center in Eindhoven.

B13Visuals was at this historic event to take pictures:








DJ Strange Attractor












Von Dopschutz













Don DeVallado











DJ Bluestorm












INDO POWER!

Metatron Fairytale Forest

The heat combined with a week of exhaustive touring were reasons enough to take the weekend off. Studio duties were rescheduled to Tuesday and Thursday this week, and we spent Saturday evening at the Fairytale Forest until the cops showed up at 04:30 to shut the party down.
On Sunday we did nothing but lie in the sun all day...


Don Rápido is unable to control his emotions after receiving the Best Producers Duo Award backstage at the Fairytale Forest.