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Ernst van de Kerkhof {a.k.a. Alan Case} (b. 1964)
(Photo by Paul Vonk)
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Alan Case has been one of the best kept secrets of the
Dutch progressive scene. After the first release of some
tracks on a Japanese compilation CD (Lost Years In
Labyrinth II), everyone kept wondering who this talented
musician might be, nobody had heard of him before.
The first steps into a musical career were taken by Alan
Case (the pseudonym of Ernst van de Kerkhof) when he had
graduated as an experimental physicist in 1988 and he
couldn't resist the desire to make music himself anymore,
something he had felt all of his life. His main influences
came from the symphonic rock of bands like Kansas, Rush,
Genesis, Yes and Gentle Giant but also from pop and
classical music.
In 1989 he started collaborating with a guitar player, Eddy
Bopp. Eddy was a more or less well-known (session/guest)
guitarist, who has played in bands like Vandale, Via Via
and Urban Heroes and in the live band of Herman Brood and
Candy Dulfer. After about a year and a half, during which
they wrote and recorded 15 songs together, they were joined
by vocalist Debby Nagi, which led to the foundation of
Mystix in October 1990. Debby got in contact with Eddy and
Ernst through producer Ronald Sommer with whom she had
recorded before (among other things a single "Dead of
Night").
In August 1992, Mystix released their first self-titled
demo. This got them on national radio in Veronica's
Countdown Café as 'debut of the week'. Also the demo got
good reviews in Music Maker and Sym-Info. Unfortunately, this didn't lead to a record deal yet.
In 1993, Ernst participated in the national finals for the
Dutch contribution for the Eurovision Songcontest. His
song, "Waar blijft de tijd", sung by Ruth Jacott, reached
the third place.
Besides these projects, Ernst also kept working on his own
solo project, which tended to be a bit more on the
progressive/symphonic side of things, than the melodic rock
(with progressive, AOR and sixties-influences) of Mystix.
Under the pseudonym Alan Case he attracted the attention of
Japanese progressive label Belle Antique in 1994 (after
meeting a great deal of indifference in his own country for
many years!).
In March 1995, Belle Antique released the compilation CD
"Lost Years In Labyrinth II", featuring two songs ("Fast
Asleep" and "Dark Nights") of Alan Case along with some
tracks by Japanese bands. Reviews of his tracks were very
positive: "great dynamics and plenty of variation...what
more can you ask for?" said the reviewer in Background
Magazine on the track "Fast Asleep". Most reviewers
wondered why they hadn't heard of Alan Case before...
In May, another song of Alan Case, "Mindless", was chosen
for the finals of Dutch songwriters-contest 'Grote prijs
van Nederland'. In 1996 Alan Case repeated this success by
placing "The borderline" also in the finals. Both songs, as
well as newly recorded versions of "Fast Asleep" and "Dark
Nights" were included on the CD-debut "Wide Awake", which
was - after much delay - released in September 1997 through
Belle Antique's subsidiary Avalon Records.
The album featured - besides Alan Case, who proved to be a
real multi-instrumentalists - four different
lead-vocalists: Raymond Hallatu (formerly vocalist of
Gonzo-Gang, recently he joined Gino Reremassie's
(ex-Zinatra) band which is very successful in Indonesia and
has released two CD's), Jan Tervoort (who had participated
in the soundmix show, where he sung Kansas' "Dust in the
wind" and was 'discovered' by Alan. He also is a member of
band Legend), Stan Peters (from a Roermond-based coverband,
Alan Case knew him since 1992 and had worked with him
before. Stan also is vocalist/writer for Into Seven, a band
that released it's self-titled debut album in 1997) and
Raymond van Rooijen (of a coverband from Sittard - Alan's
hometown) as well as several guest musicians of which Eddy
Bopp was the most important with guitars on most tracks.
Others were backing vocalist Simone Cox, Debby Nagi,
Eveline Cloin, Vivian Peters, harpist Hilde Amian,
guitarist Gino Reremassie and Ad van Beek.
Reactions on the CD were very positive in various
magazines. Britian's Wonderous Stories judged: "Alan is a very good songwriter. Radio friendly and immediately accessible,
this is a very good commercial pop/rock album".
On the first 10 days of sale in Japan, the album sold about
800 copies and received even national airplay on Japanese
radio. Unfortunately all European labels (among which Dutch
label Transmission), that Alan tried, turned out to have no
interest for an European/worldwide deal for his CD...
Right now Mystix is in sort of a hibernation-state. The
members stay in close contact (hence the participation of
Debby and Eddy on "Wide Awake"), but wait for a good
opportunity to become really active again...
CARSTEN
BUSCH
from his book File Under
Symfo
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