Yes, we did it, we arranged it, and now it’s available: the album HOMME FATALE on VINYL! We’re very proud to have this album also available as a real record, sounding awesome and looking good. So for everyone who has a turntable, find us after our gigs, because we’ll have it with us all the time, or order your own copy here
Woohoo! We worked on it for quite a while, because we wanted it to be really good – the new album of Ratzke with the songs of Homme Fatale. And it’s ready, and I think it’s really good! Man, the hours we put in it to get all the sounds right, and the instruments I played! Not only like four different drumkits, but also vibraphone, some keys, a metal bin with drumsticks in it (beaten with two hammers!) and a top-part of a heater! But it’s been worth it, after Joris Wolff (our engineer and producer) put everything in the right spot. It’ll be available soon (we’re still planning on a release party), but here’s a teaser to make your mouth water..
Oh, and I didn’t update you for a while on the touring, so just to give you an idea: I can still be regularly found at the Bimhuis with the Konrad Koselleck Big Band (our steady gig there); we’ve been really busy touring Homme Fatale (Ratzke) around the world (taking it from Amsterdam to Berlin, Hamburg, New York and many more); also the late-nights in Utrecht have continued, this time as a semi-live tv-show (I know, very very cool) and there’s been other stuff there too. Also important is that 2018 is going to be very exciting, but I’ll tell you more about that later. Stay tuned for more international touring and festival announcements..
While finishing off two years of playing Starman (New Zealand will be the last one to enjoy it next month) we’ve been very busy writing and arranging for the new Sven Ratzke show called Homme Fatale. Actually the last two months have been completely filled with rehearsing, making sheets, writing songs, throwing them away, rearranging a third version of an arrangement, and making more sheets. But now we’re entering a periode of playing try-outs, and it looks like the show will be very fresh and amazing! Of course I can’t tell you too much yet, but check out our tour schedule if you’re curious about the show – we’ll be playing it all over the world again!
The month of December we’re touring the Netherlands with Ratzke’s Christmas Show. Is there anything better than to spend a musical night in the theatre around Christmas with somebody who’s rather with his audience than at home around those days?! In every town there’s a special guest, from Eric Vloeimans and Claron McFadden to Lavinia Meijer and Freek de Jonge. The rest of the show is a musical journey through all of Ratzke-land, together with his band and Fay Lovsky. Come and join us in:
Utrecht – Eindhoven – Den Haag – Nijmegen – Arnhem – Amsterdam
Check out the dates here.
Hello there! Glad you came to visit this site and see what’s going on. Let me give you an update of what’s happening:
First of all I finished off some great events in the last couple of months – the North Sea Jazz Festival was amazing, super audience and still one of the best festivals to be playing at. Also the Young Vips Tour with VinnieVibes is finished and was a great succes in all ten venues we played. From this tour the cd is still available, check Vincent’s website for that.
Not finished, but visited a lot is Starman! The show of Sven Ratzke (in which I’m playing drums) has gone around the world the last couple of months and continues to do so. We did a big tour in Australia with venues in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide (Cabaret Festival) and Perth, and had the most amazing reviews and responds over there. Lots of warmth Down Under! But not everything was that far away, we did a month of Edinburgh Festival (around 50 performances in one month!), got recorded by BBC television, travelled to Berlin and other places in Germany, had a tv-recording in the south (Saarländischer Rundfunk), and many many more. Starman continues for another year, but I’ll tell you more about that later. As I will do for all other things happening in the future, so keep visiting this website to stay up to date (or check the agenda for upcoming gigs)!
As most of you know I’m quite busy with the ‘Starman’ tour of Sven Ratzke, where we use the music of David Bowie and play it in our own way. So you must understand that it came as quite a shock to us (and the rest of the world) that he passed away recently – such a legend, such an authentic person and inspiring figure. This tragic event made playing his music even more special, and we were asked to honour David Bowie in the Dutch tv-broadcast called RTL Late Night. Of course we were happy to do that, so here it is with great respect for mr. Bowie:
It’s been a busy summer! Three whole months we’ve been rehearsing and editing the new Sven Ratzke show STARMAN, with the music of David Bowie. Of course we renewed all the tunes (beautiful arrangements by Charly Zastrau), but to be shure it would be a terrific show we spent a lot of time in making everything perfect.
So now there’s a cd and a tour! The cd is available at www.bol.com and in the web shop of Ratzke. There you’ll find the tourlist too, and you’ll find that it takes us not only top to bottom through Holland, but also to Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, and to the biggest theatre festival of Australia and we’ll play New York for 10 days! So if you want to check us out, have a look at the list and find you’re nearest stage to see us perform. The reviews until now have been blowing us away..
Last time we played Sven Ratzke’s and Claron McFadden’s Groschenblues is a while ago at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Luckily the great music of Kurt Weill and lyrics of Bertolt Brecht are requested on several stages once in a while, and so we could play the piece this week in Berlin, at the Tipi am Kanzlerambt. We had a great time at this beautiful venue – and the audience loved it! Charly Zastrau did a great job arranging all the pieces, Sven is an incredible performer and Claron’s magical voice makes the songs sound even better. Check out the (German) review here if you want to know more..
The great Sven Ratzke is touring worldwide with his theatre show ‘Diva Diva’s’. Until now there was no cd available for this tour, so he decided to record an EP with some of the tunes from the show. That EP is ready now and available on Challenge Records, check it out by clicking on the link!
Additional to that there were two beautiful clips recorded in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and those are on youtube. Both these songs are on the EP too. Enjoy!
Falling in Love Again (Kopf bis Fuss):
Laat Me: