KLEM

KLEM was found in 1979 in the Netherlands by Frits Couwenberg as Klub Liefhebbers Elektronische Muziek (Electronic Music Lovers Club) and later the meaning was changed to Kontakt Liefhebbers Elektronische Muziek (Electronic Music Lovers Contact). Toward the end of the 80's Ron Boots got in touch with a couple of other devotees of electronic music from Eindhoven and its surroundings: Ron Doesborg and Bas Broekhuis. Doesborg and Broekhuis also started to play interesting electronic music and soon this concentration of EM artists in Eindhoven lead to the title Eindhovense School (similar to the Berliner Schule). During this period the Dutch fan clubs of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream merged into a new club KLEM, led by editor Frits Couwenberg (better known under his first name). The general goal of KLEM was to promote electronic music and everything connected to it, directly and indirectly. KLEM releases a magazine, the influential KLEMblad, every two months and from 1988 on the yearly festival KLEMdag was organized. The KLEMdag was the biggest festival of electronic music in the world. In some years, more than 1200 people attended and big names like Ashra, Steve Roach, Gandalf, Jonn Serrie and Suzanne Ciani appeared live in concert. For many years the KLEMdag was organized by KLONE which was the Eindhoven subdivision of KLEM. Ron was a member of this group and in 1988, was asked to give a concert at the KLEMdag which was held in the village of Best near Eindhoven. Ron's next concert was at an evening gathering of Phlox, a subdivision of KLEM. In 1989 Ron played at the KLEMdag for the second time on a duo-concert with Bas Broekhuis. Other concert acts included the Dutch analog-duo Par Example, Patrick Kosmos and Gandalf. The event was supported by the compilation CD 675333 celebrating the 10th anniversary of KLEM featuring besides young musicians unreleased material by top electronic acts like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Christopher Franke and Gandalf. Sadly, after the KLEMdag of 1997, KLEM decided to quit the organization of the festival because of a shortage of time. A sigh of disappointment went through the world of electronic music. Most people couldn't believe that this great festival would disappear. Ron, who always was a participant in the organization, and Kees Aerts shared this disappointment and decided that they would take over the organization. For this they formed a new company - Stichting Crew, because KLEM didn't allow them to use the old name and, the new festival became E-Live Festival. And some time later the KLEM community itself has gone into oblivion.