So here we are in August 2024. Just finished a US tour with Dream Skills in July, to promote our new vinyl album AS WE SPEAK, out on Sleeping Giant Glossolalia. Its Dutch release will be in the first week of October.

Recordings started around mid 2022 with Steve Albini in Chicago, USA, and then later on some more tracks were recorded by Bianca Bibiloni in Devon, UK. Afterwards the vocals were recorded in Sweden, on the isle of Ven. So yes, we took our time. But it’s worth it. It looks great and it sounds even better.

Next stop is three days of recording with Bazip Zeehok in September, then adding vocals to Is This A House 2, followed by some shows in October/November with Bazip Z and Titty Twister BB. In February 2025 the first live shows in Belgium with Sopa Boba, built around That Moment, a story by Moldavian author Nicoleta Esinencu. Dream Skills & G.W. Sok plan to tour Spain in april 2025.

The end of the year is near. Of 2023, that is. Meanwhile I am in the South of France, doing a couple of shows with Titty Twister BB and The And. On November the 3rd TITTY TWISTER BB launched their new album Sueur et Tremblements. I did lyrics and vocals on the album-track If I Can’t and live I joined the band for three more songs. First party was THE AND which used to be a duo (Nicolas Lafourest and me), but is now a trio (enter Marie Olaya), that makes two guitars and one voice.

Before Toulouse I was in Amsterdam together with Ignacio Córdoba from Copenhagen, working on ideas for our second album. Meanwhile, our first album Is This A House will be released in January 2024. Its planned release got ” s l i g h t l y ” delayed… There was some covid period stuff, home stuff other things to do first stuff, no time to do any gigs now anyway stuff, so yeah, we decided on putting it out early next year.

Before Toulouse and Amsterdam, there were a bundle of shows with BAZIP ZEEHOK (Lukas Simonis, Gert-Jan Prins, and me), to celebrate the release of our album In De Sloop Der Tijd (which kinda translates as “In the crush of time”). It contains ten improvised tracks and they all got lyrics in Dutch.

Before Toulouse and Amsterdam and Allthat, the people of SKILL DREAMS (“OMA”), i.e. Don McLean, Bianca Biblioni, and me, finished the recordings and mixing of the ten-track album As We Speak, which will be released around the middle of next year, followed by a US tour in July.

On September 22 there will be the release of BAZIP ZEEHOK’s album IN DE SLOOP DER TIJD, consisting of 10 instantly composed improv tracks by Gert-Jan Prins, Lukas Simonis and G.W. Sok. Watch out, all lyrics will be in Dutch! (Tractor Notown, NOT 14)

In the fall there will be the release of IS THIS A HOUSE, a new album by G.W. Sok and Ignacio Córdoba (Spain/Denmark). Experimental live sessions, 8 in total, recorded at Worm Studios in Rotterdam in 2019. Due to serious reasons this release got “slightly” delayed, but here we are.

BAZIP ZEEHOK will be doing a series of shows during the coming months, to celebrate the arrival of the album. G.W. SOK & IGNACIO CÓRDOBA are planning to organise various concerts no sooner than in 2024.

After a slew of concerts with OISEAUX-TEMPÊTE in March April May, next there will be 6 shows with L&S, playing their album WHEN THE VOWELS FALL live in Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

After the Summer, in September, there will be the release of BAZIP ZEEHOK’s album IN DE SLOOP DER TIJD, consisting of 10 instantly composed improv tracks by Gert-Jan Prins, Lukas Simonis and G.W. Sok. Watch out, all lyrics will be in Dutch!

In the fall there will be the release of IS THIS A HOUSE, a new album by G.W. Sok and Ignacio Córdoba (Spain/Denmark). Experimental live sessions, 8 in total, recorded at Worm Studios in Rotterdam in 2019. Due to serious reasons this release got “slightly” delayed, but here we are.

Both BAZIP ZEEHOK and G.W. SOK & IGNACIO CÓRDOBA are planning to organise various concerts to celebrate the arrival of the two albums.

The album is called WHEN THE VOWELS FALL

LP, CD, download, streaming…

Release-date September the 23rd, 2022
on Sérotine Records (F) and Tractor Notown (NL)
SR001 / NOT12

L&S is Anthony Laguerre, G.W. Sok, Jean-Michel Pires, Eric Thomas, together with L’Orchestre du GAM from Nancy, France.

Music by Anthony Laguerre (Myotis, Praag, Filiamotsa, …)
Words by G.W. Sok (Oiseaux-Tempête, ex-The Ex, Filiamotsa, …)

Guitars, drums, strings, horns and vocals.
Powerful and poetic things of beauty.

Distributed by:
Konkurrent – Netherlands
L’Autre Distribution – France
Code 7 – United Kingdom

Available via https://exmailorder.nl/shop/sok
and https://gwsok.bandcamp.com/

So now it is September 2021, and somehow the world is slowly getting back to some kind of normal… Some kind of new normal, though. This virus thing has done some seriously strange things to people’s minds. Then again, happy to be able to play a series of shows again, in front of real people not screens.

The album of G.W. Sok and Ignacio Córdoba… we are waiting with its release till we are sure we can really do a tour, so that won’t be any sooner than 2022.

The album of L&S… Basically it is ready, but like with the album above, we are waiting with releasing it till next year.

The album of King Champion Sounds… What can I say? The sleeve is okay? “Asking for a friend”…

Meanwhile, also working with Arnold (Zea, The Ex) on a small writing challenge called “Duel:Duet”, initiated by Petrichor publishers.

Hard to tell, right? This year, all shows so far have been either cancelled or postponed or redirected to other uncertain dates. Concerts with Oiseaux-Tempête, L&S, King Champion Sounds, OMA, Zoikle, GW Sok & Nacho Córdoba, solo stuff… they’re all waiting in the wings, and quite a lot of wings there are.
Meanwhile, OMA‘s album Under The World was released after all. The album of L&S (together with the GAM orchestra), When The Vowels Fall has been mixed and mastered and we’re looking for a label to release it. The album of G.W. Sok & Nacho Córdoba, Is This A House, is also almost ready, we’re working on the sleeve and stuff. King Champion Sounds, too, are working on their next, 5th album, and I guess right now it’s somewhere around mixing time.
Concertwise I am focusing on September as the earliest month that Something Audible might be Happening Again. Hard to tell, though, everything is bound to change before you know it. In the meantime, maybe I should start to write another book?
Hm… I don’t know.
But then again?
Anyway…
Fingers crossed.

ANYWAY… is the title, of a series of 45 daily reports about 45 record-sleeves that were important to me. Basically all the records I was involved in during my time (and life) with The Ex.

Originally the narratives appeared on Facebook, challenged by Mice Elf, a.k.a. Uno Hoo. The positive feedback that came with it, made me decide to turn it into a book. I thank you all for the encouragement.

The book contains all 45 narratives, no more and no less. Well, okay, true, I took out some typos, and added a little epilogue. 100 pages in total, full-colour, size 18 by 18 cm, comes in a special package. Published by Druxat on October the 5th, 2020…

Available via the webshop of The Ex.
Each copy costs 12 euros plus postage.
Ordering ANYWAY… can be done… here.