GENTLE

GENTLE aka Ralph Echter has been active in the area of progressive and pert music varieties for numerous years. Before he made his start in the 10 year running, producers duo ‘Fortress’ Thramce Records (later known as ‘Paragon’ Evidance Recordings) he was into music only for leisure and pleasure. He knew it was his calling but was told that the music business was insecure territory and that a successful future was unattainable. After some years however, he couldn’t resist to go after his life long dream. He got in touch with Vincent Vermeulen, a respective music freak and good friend, who was into making house music with funky breaks and groovy bass-lines. This was the chance for him to change his whole life. From that moment on he was an active participant in music making. The role he had as producer was more that of the music maker with a ‘DJ feel’. His friend was the musician making those beautiful cords and he was cutting the beats and took care of the arrangements. Their tracks were a success in the German and French underground.
When the house music didn’t fulfil his needs anymore, he found himself drawn to Trip-hop. The year was 1994 and this new sound was so refreshing and with such variety that it seemed the time to invest buying records and begin as a DJ. This music was certainly much slower then the average house record, but it touched him in a way that no fat house track ever could. After a while this sound became the inspiration source for PARAGON and in 1996 they'd released their first 12" on Evidance Recordings wich was one of the first triphop releases from Dutch soil. You can listen to the songs in the player below.
Discography:
Fortress EP releases (1993 'till 1994):
Thramce Records 001 / NL
A1 Birdman B1 Previous D. A2 Tonight B2 You Don’t Stop
Thramce Records 002 / NL
A1 Imperator B1 Orphean A2 Notion B2 The Treasure
Thramce Records 003 / NL
A1 Transit B1 Troy A2 Sacrosanct B2 Get On Up
Paragon release (1996):
Evidance Recordings 008 / NL
A1 Memory Lane B1 Dream Paradox
In 2000 they both became father and they started to focus on their parentship, so there was not much time left for producing and doing the other things in life they loved to do. Vincent had a good job as a programmer and Gentle focussed himself on his DJ career. Together with DJ Gene from the record outlet Shifting Gears he started in 2001 a DJ collective named after the record outlet. The Shifting Gears Collective, which had in the end 9 permanent members, were bound by 2 common factors; the love for quality, progressive dance and listening music and the purchasing of vinyl through the Shifting Gears outlet. What separated the Shifting Gears Collective from mainstream DJ’s, was their speciality in the underground music scene. Progress and developments in the area of lounge events (Somethin' Else) and alternative dance parties (No Concessions), and as resident DJ’s at the Off-Corso had allowed them to make a name for themselves in the Rotterdam night scene. In order to promote their favourite artists and recordlabels through the world wide web, Shifting Gears Collective offered through their site weekly five mp3's for download or playing.
3 years later the collective slowly died a harmless death and Gentle started directly after that Multiarea together with DJ/producer Biological. Multiarea is an organizer of multidisciplinary events, an intermediary for talented artists (live-acts, DJ's, VJ's, Painters, Theater-acts and Multimedia Artists) and a developer of total concepts for third parties in the cultural sector. Their aim is to organize parties that bring more then only a DJ and a VJ and to help and guide the talented artists with the business side of their performing art. Besides these talented artists they have also international acts in their roster that are perforning already for quite some years such as Long Range (from ex-Orbital Phil Hartnoll) (UK), Ian Simmonds a.k.a. Juryman (UK), Paul Murphy from Afroart Records (UK), Ben Mono from Compost Records (GER), Capitol A from Sonar Kollektiv and 2000 Black (US) and Darcosan from Vienna Scientists Recordings (AUS).
Besides running Multiarea, he's also helping to re-launch Me Raabenstein's label, no.nine recordings, with a release planned for the spring 2007 with exclusive tracks from Me Raabenstein (DE), Biological (NL), C.O.N.E (NL), Subsequent (NL), Festa (NL), Kreng (BE) and Sakuran (BE).
As a DJ, Gentle's taste for collecting records is diverse and that is what you can hear in his DJ-sets. Up-tempo, warm, funky and soulful with a dark edge around it. He goes for every beat that is broken and he likes to surprise the audiance so now and then with a downbeat workout.
Since his start as a DJ he played nationwide in venues such as Off-Corso - Now&Wow - Nighttown (Rotterdam), West Pacific - Club NL (Amsterdam), Ekko (Utrecht), Mezz (Breda), at festivals such as International Film Festival Rotterdam, Numoonfest Rotterdam, GDMW Poetry Festival, Interactive Playground 'Action', Waterlife Rotterdam, Artrave Rotterdam, Rotterdam Audio Visual Experience and abroad in cities like London, St. Petersburgh (Russia), Melbourne, Sydney, Barcelona, Rhodes, Bruxells and Spontin.