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In January Willem Kurstjens , Marion Vervoort and Egbert Derix released their album ‘Lachend over de Styx’. Writer and poet Willem Kurstjens asked Egbert to put some of his lyrics and poems to music. The result is a collection of new songs in which words and music go hand in hand. Willem’s words are beautifully sung by Marion Vervoort accompanied by Egbert on piano and saxophonist Leo Janssen (Metrople Orchestra).

Filmmaker Rob Hodselmans made a commercial for the Rabobank featuring Dutch Olympic gold medalist Jens van ’t Wout. Egbert composed and played the music for this high energy commercial

In February Eric Vloeimans and Egbert played a benefit concert at the Beauforthuis in Austerlitz (Netherlands) to raise funds for the restauration of the Beauforthuis café. The concert, an hour of improvising in the moment, was recorded and will probably be part of their third ‘Gardens of Abundance’ album. 

Egbert composed and played the music for a new soundscape experience for the Kasteeltuinen Arcen (Netherlands). The soundscape can be heard at the ‘Beeldentuin’ where sculptures by visual artist Fons Schobbers can be seen. The poem ‘Licht’ (‘Light’) by Dutch poet Willem Kurstjens. that was inspired by Fons Schobbers his art. can be heard as spoken word in Dutch, German and Limburgian dialect throughout the soundscape. It combines several voices with acoustic instruments, synthesizers and ambient sounds and was produced by Marion Vervoort & Egbert. The soundscape ‘Licht’ can be heard from March 28 ^th until October 2026.

In June this year Iain Matthews will celebrate his 80 ^th birthday. A good reason for Iain and Egbert to renew their creative partnership. The duo will be playing duo concerts again starting this May. The concerts will feature songs they wrote together from their albums Joy Mining, Afterwords and In the Now.

Kika Sprangers, Loek van den Berg, Eric Vloeimans and Egbert Derix received a composition assignment from LUX Nijmegen to celebrate their 25 ^th anniversary. At the jubilee concert on October 25 ^th they played their new compositions together with bassist Jort Terwijn and drummer Jimmi Hueting. LUX is an important venue in The Netherlands and some of the music on the ‘Gardens of Abundance’ albums by Eric Vloeimans & Egbert was recorded there. 

November first marked the close of the annual, three-week light festival ‘Enchanted Gardens’ at the Castle Gardens of Arcen. Once again the music for the enchanting light installations and landscapes was created by Egbert together with composer Kerani. The event welcomed more than 32,000 visitors during the Festival! Would you like to hear our music (or relive the atmosphere of the event) ? The music has been brought together on the album Luminous Paths, available on all streaming platforms. 

Together with composer Kerani and sound engineer Arno op den Camp I’m working on new compositions and soundscapes for the multi media event ‘Enchanted Gardens’ which will be held from October 10 ^th until November 1 ^st at the Kasteeltuinen Arcen (Netherlands). 

A live recording of my songcycle ‘Wandern’ is released on the streaming platforms. The album features singer , saxophonist and trumpetplayer Huub Claessens from Vienna. The songcycle is based on my father Jan Derix’ poems which I translated into German and put to music. I also wrote some German poems myself to add to ‘Wandern’. Huub Claessens and I will play a couple of concerts in the period September- November to promote our release. We will be playing in Amsterdam, Heerlen, Haarlem and Horst.

In September I was interviewed by Rob Mennen for the L1 radioshow ‘Blaaskracht’. We talked among other things about ‘Wandern’ , improvisation, composing and analogue synths. 

I was a guest at this Marillion & Fish podcast. Talking about my music activities and my work with Marillion and Fish. 

In July I will play three concerts at the Kasteeltuinen in Arcen. On July 5 ^th and 6 ^th I will play my German songcycle ‘Wandern at the ‘Klassiek in de Tuinen’ festival. On the 5 ^th with bariton Sef Thissen and on the 6 ^th with bass Huub Claessens, who’ll also be playing saxophone and flügelhorn. On July 10 ^th singer Marion Vervoort and I will play there to celebrate the week of the Limburg popmusic. Songs from her albums ‘Nachtvogel’ & ‘Het echte spel’ and some new music. 

This duo album I made with Eric Vloeimans in 2024 is the follow up to our first album ‘Gardens of Abundance’ and can now also be listened to on the streaming platforms. 

Last month we celebrated the release of our album ´Dedicated to You, Live @ Open Air Theatre Valkenburg’. An album with vocalist Huub Claessens , saxophonist Leo Janssen and myself at the piano. ‘Dedicated to you’ is inspired bij the 1963 Coltrane/Hartman album. Including our versions of all the songs Coltrane & Hartman played on that album and some extra music, like our take on Purcell’s ‘When I am laid in earth’. A big thank you to Jo Smeets and L1 for making this recording possible. 

Supertramp saxplayer John Helliwell and I released our live album ‘If We’d known’ on May first. The album features some jazz standards, original compositions and a new version of the Supertramp classic ‘The Logical Song’ in an arrangement of my own. 

Finally the follow up to the 2021 Pensionado album Passive Harvest is here! It is called Laudatio and was released on April 16th. Again I did the synthesizer programming and playing. Laudatio is a tribute to three great synth pioneers: Klaus Schulze, Jean Michel Jarre and Herbie Hancock. Hence the title ‘laudatio’. 

Together with Marion Vervoort & Geert van den Munckhof , I made a podcast series about Hanna van de Voort. Hanna was an important person in the Dutch resistance during World War II and saved together with Nico Dohmen over 100 hundred children from deportation by the nazi occupiers. Marion, Geert and I spoke a.o. with family members of Hanna and Nico and with survivors. The podcast is in Dutch and you can listen to it on Spotify.

I just finished the soundtrack for ´Ant Keeper´ a documentary by Dutch filmmaker Daan Kmiecik. It is the first soundtrack on which I played my new (and first) Oberheim synthesizer, the OBX8. The documentary raises important questions about environmental issues and the way we are dealing with our planet. It shows us we can learn a lot from the way ants work together without losing sight of individual autonomy. You can read an interview with me talking about making the analogue synth soundtrack for Daan Kmiecik’s documentary on the musicophelia website.

My synth improvisation ‘Boddicker Laudatio’ from my album ‘Being Time’ can be heard walking through the Kasteeltuinen in Arcen (Netherlands). The title refers to Michael Boddicker , one of my all time favourite keyboardplayers and synthesists. 

My synth track ‘Passive Harvest’ that I made with Pensionado is finally getting some airplay and reaching a broader audience. Some people call it ‘deep house’. I had a lot of fun working with Pensionado and there will be a follow up album this year.

Eric Vloeimans and I released our album ‘Gardens of Abundance’ part two. In March we played at the Transition Kids Festivals at Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht and did a couple of other concerts. On May 29 ^th we will play in Valkenburg (Netherlands) in the Openluchttheater.