René van der Wouden, born in 1972 in a place called Reeuwijk in the Netherlands. He has been active in music since very young age.
Raised by musical parents, he started having piano lessons when he was around 8 years old and later he also had some lessons on the organ when he was 16.
As a child, René quickly got fascinated by any type of keyboards. he saw on TV every week in the Dutch music shows AVRO’s Toppop and Veronica’s Countdown. Also, his piano teacher of that time (in 1983) played in a band on a Roland Jupiter 6 synthesizer. During a lesson this synthesizer stood next to the piano that remained untouched that day because of his interest in the synthesizer. Since 1987 the interest in electronic music started to grow immensely by listening a lot of music of Vangelis, Jan Hammer and Jean Michel Jarre. A few years later he discovered Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Kitaro and Gandalf. During the early 90-ties he had built an enormous CD/LP collection. René listened to a lot of recordings of electronic music and was also inspired by artists from the Innovative Communication label like: Mind over Matter, G.E.N.E., Software, Quiet Force, Megabyte and Double Fantasy.
In 1988 René received an Eniment S20 organ as a birthday gift from his mother. Back then his house was 5 kilometers away from the famous Eminent factory. Late 1993 René bought his first set of synthesizers like the Korg Poly800 and Yamaha DX27 within a couple of weeks. During this period René started to experiment with these synths and an AKAI taperecorder with a tape-delay function. Later in 1994 the Korg Poly61 and DW8000 were part of the growing studio.
In 1998 moved from Reeuwijk to Gouda. The lovely and big studio attic was no more, but a small and effective bedroom instead.
From 1998 to 2003 René recorded a lot of music on the Fostex R8 track analogue taperecorded. Unlike many other electronic musicians, he had no Artari and Cubase. The Ensoniq EPS16+ was the mother midi controller and sequencer for the whole setup.
Studio year 2000: Ensoniq EPS16+, Roland D50, JX8p, Akai AX80, Sequential Prophet 600, Korg DW8000, Yamaha DX7II, OBerheim Matrix 6, Moog Prodigy, General Music S2r, Roland JV880 modules.
At E-Live 2005 René gave his first concert of electronic music on the sub-stage and consisted of 3 sets. The first set was in the style of the Pro Sequentia album, the second set consisted of 2 tracks of ambient music and the last set/concert took place together with one of the most successful Dutch musician of electronic music today, Gert Emmens.
Early 2006 started with the follow album of Pro Sequentia, Alchemia. The recording proces started in May 2005 for the opening track, but was continued in Spring/Summer 2006.
On October 28, 2006 there was a special concert given by EL-KA, René van der Wouden & Syngate artists at the Gasometer, Oberhausen in the afternoon from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. The inspiration for this concert was: “How can we sound like our favorite electronic music band Tangerine Dream during the 1975-1977 era in a unique setting and building?”
The next concert event was at 10th celebration of the Schallwende Garten party at the Gruga Park in Essen. There were 3 Dutch acts, Remy Stroomer, René and Ron Boots with friends. Remy started the event with his music, followed by René. Ron Boots & Friends were the main act. As a afterwards surprise all musicians jammed together for 40 minutes or so. It was quite crowdy at the end.
And in 2011 back again at the Schallwende community with an other solo concert.
The 2nd concert of 2011 at the Electronic Circus Garten Party in Hamm.
And the last concert was at E-Live again for edition 2011.
During the year 2012 René had a musical break. In 2013 he started recording again and did some videos on Youtube. In the summer of 2013 the album Earth Festivities was released. From 2014 to 2020 René was less active in producing music than before due busy activities of his business. in June 2019 René gave a concert at ESE2019 in Groningen.
Since the summer of 2020 during the COVID19 period, René recorded new music again. One of this was a big project about the Stargaze. Also at the beginning of 2021 there are some improvised sessions available on Bandcamp and CDr.
On May 15th, 2021 René gave a live-stream concert at the BYSS (Broadcast Your Stage Show) venues of Bas Broekhuis.
René van der Wouden 