N.B.
If you wonder why this is wierdly formatted, it's because this page has
to work as an email too....
Previous Newsletter
*** MY CD PRAISED
BY EVERYBODY ***
Check http://zap.base.org/cd/ or
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~zap/cd/
for details!
This mail is available online in HTML form with live links and everything at http://zap.base.org/newsletter/1-98.html
This is Master Zap Newsletter #1/98. This newsletter is sent approx. quarterly, so dont worry about it flooding your mailbox. If you wonder WHY you get it or how to stop getting it, see the END of the newsletter.
Those of you who are new to this list, might or might not know I have released a fully independently released CD, called "The Curvature of Space". The CD is a combined Audio CD and a CD-ROM with information, software, and bonus tracks (all in all containing over two hours of music)! The CD sales has been going on since August, and have been going pretty well indeed. The CD was made in a limited edition, and I only have 200+ left.... so if you want one, maybe you better grab one now or they might run out!! HURRY!
You can read all about the CD, and read what people have said about it at http://zap.base.org/cd/. There are also a couple of intersting REVIEWS online, and the positive feedback I've been getting is tremendeous
For those who havn't heard the CD can check out the 8 minute mix of tracks I have prepared:
"The Curvature of Space" is not available in any store (except a selected few in my hometown Eskilstuna in Sweden), at this time it can only be ordered directly from me. [The next newsletter will probably be sent when I've gotten worldwide distribution running <grin>]
As usual I have received oceans of wonderful comments from different kinds of people. Most notable is praise from people like:
The price of "Curvature Of Space" is $15 + $5 WORLDWIDE shipping and handling, i.e. $20 in total.
You can order from the above mentioned page, directly at the following URL's:
If you are worried about using your credit card across the net, remember this: Any credit card transaction that you have not SIGNED for, physically, you can always, no-questions-asked, chargeback via the credit card company. When you do that, it is up to ME to PROVE that I have shipped something to you that you wanted! So you have NO risk and I have ALL the risk. More details at http://zap.base.org/worried.html
You can also order cash (NO CHECKS!) directly to me [but see note at the end!], by simply mailing one of the following amounts:
...in an envelope to:
Håkan 'Zap' Andersson
Stora Almby, Hagby
S-635 05 Eskilstuna
SWEDEN
Include a piece of paper with:
If you can't change your money to either US$ or D-Mark, again, talk to me. Remember, though, that it's just as hard to me to change this small amount from e.g. Japanese Yen's that it is for you to change Yen's into US$. Best solution: Credit card. You dont have one, give a friend that has the money and let him pay for it with his card!
(Now swapping to Swedish for a moment....) I Sverige kan du beställa min CD genom att betala in 120 kronor på mitt postgirokonto 154 88 47 - 1. Betalningsmottagara "Håkan Andersson", och skriv i meddelande till betalningsmottagare att du beställer en CD, samt ditt email (och leveransadressen om annan än kontohavarens hemadress), så kommer den på posten!
My hometown, Eskilstuna (100 kilometers straight west of Stockholm, Sweden) has been selected the Swedish "Poptown 98" ("Popstad 98") by the national Swedish broadcasting corporation. This 'award' is given to Eskilstuna due to the huge amount of musical activities, music groups, and whatnot that flourish in this town.
This means that some serious musical thingies will happen on the dates 29:th through 31:st of January 1998, with live broadcasts of bands playing and whatnot. Although I'm not one of the performing bands, I will still be there now and then, mingling, shaking hands and trying to promote my music in the media buzz.
Those of you who are going there, that would want to meet me, drop me an email at zap@lysator.liu.se end tell me when you'll be there. If you want to spot me, and need to know what to look for, check out http://zap.base.org/presskit/ for a wealth of pictures of me, which would be anough for you to catch me in the crowd....
For more info about PopStad-98 go to http://www.sr.se/p3/popstad/ (In Swedish, sorry)
Every year I make a neat mix of Christmas music. I guess it's just me, but I like christmas. Although this newsletter is sent after Xmas, if you still have some christmas spirit left, why not go and listen to THIS YEARS mix, available in RealAudio and MP3 at:
This mix has been played on national Swedish Radio (P3) and on several other smaller radio stations.
If you want to lay your hands on a hardcopy (a real CD) of the xmas tune, you can order my XMAS Special CD!!
Note, that this CD is even more garage produced than "Curvature of Space", being burned on CD-R by me, and the cover printed on my color printer. But with the steadily dropping prices of CD-R's, it's not worth it to make a real "pressed" CD for small quantities.
The XMAS Special is sort of a "halfway" CD, containing past stuff, the XMAS stuff itself, and future stuff from upcoming CD's. The XMAS Special contains:
This is a LIMITED TIME OFFER until end of January, and ONLY for you receiving this mailing! A SPECIAL OFFER!
! ! Therefore, the ordering web-page will NOT SHOW THIS AS AN OPTION. ! !
So how do you buy it?
The price is like for Curvature of Space, $20. Go to the ordering page, and do everything you would do to order "The Curvature of Space". But in the COMMENT FIELD type "I am ordering your Christmas Special".
This is a BARGAIN price of JUST $30! You get tons of music, unprecedented amounts of data, and enjoyment lasting a lifetime or two. To achieve this on the web-ordering form, Select as if you are ordering "The Curvature of Space ($20)" AND "The InSaNiTy Tape ($10)". Then write in the COMMENT FIELD: "I want the christmas bundle", and I know what to do. Besides, I'll do that anyway since the tape is being discontinued...
I dont have a huge advertising apparatus behind me. I just have you guys and girls, my loyal following of internet fans. And I love you all, I really do.
Now, I wonder, if you would consider helping me out a tiny bit? One thing you could do, would be to vote for my website as a "Starting Point Hot Site". A Second thing you could do, would be to vote for my tracks on the BoxMan demo chart.
The easest way to do it is to go to my page http://zap.base.org/mus_info.html. At the very top (above the tabs) is a link to click to vote for my site as a Starting Point hot site.
To vote for me at the Boxman Demo Chart, go to http://www.boxman.se/mag/demobox/top50.asp and click "Rösta" (Swedish for 'Vote') next to my tracks. YOU GET ONE VOTE PER TRACK PER DAY! So you can come back and vote again another day...
Also, you are all welcome to spread the word about my music and my website any way you can. Feel free to link to it from yours! Tell me what you did! Show me! I'll be forever greatful!
I have on the feedback form on my website allowed people to state if they interested in buying my CD or not, and if not, the reason why. Apart from the flood of "this is great I will buy it immediately", there is also a sizeable amount of people that pick "I am interested but I won't because...." and as a reason states one of:
As for the distance, I have shipped to USA, England, Germany, Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia (very popular in Oz for some reason!), Russia, Argentina, Singapore, South Africa, and a few more places on the globe. Basically, you can't get much further from Sweden than New Zealand, and I've shipped there without blinking, and YES the shipping IS included in the $20 price no matter WHERE on the planet you are.
To make myself clear: I ship to anywhere on this planet postal mail can come. If you are in the rainforest, you'll have to go to the nearest postoffice. If you are offworld on another planet, email me, and we'll negotiate a shipping fee.... :-)
As for being poor, well, I can sympathize. I know what it's like to be a poor student. It's my own fault, really. The music I make is very popular among the "poor student" range of people, and many don't have a credit card. Serves me right. I should have made a Country&Western album instead. :-)!
The solution: Talk to me! zap@lysator.liu.se! We can arrange something. Maybe you can do something for me? Get it played on a college, local or national radio station? DJ it on a huge rave? Talk to a friend who owns a record company? Anything!
Depending on what you can do for me, price can drop way down, perhaps as far as $0. The best you can do is get me on the air, the bigger radio station the better. Or a record deal or two wouldn't hurt. :-)
In my last newsletter I wrote about a CD shipment that hadn't reached it's destination yet. Naturally, 30 minutes after dispatching the newsletter I got an email from the person telling me the CD had arrived. So there are no CD's astray in postal workers pockets at this time. HOWEVER, sometimes postal workers tend to play the CD's at their post-office parties, because I can't for the love of my life figure out the delivery times....sometimes 4 days, sometimes 4 weeks, to adresses on the same street. Go figure....
When using the cash payment, please note that it IS possible for money to get lost in the mail. So far it has happened on one known occasion. Therefore, it is very good if you always EMAIL ME at zap@lysator.liu.se when you send a cash order! That way I know to expect something and can raise warning flags if nothing happens. I trust the disgruntled postal workers as much as the next guy, but if you are worried about your money, try using the credit card payment facility. It does have it's disadvantages (one being 15% of the money eaten by the processing folks :-) but is very safe, and doesn't get lost! Do NOT I repeat do NOT send me a check, they cost me $15 or more to cash!!! (you would have to send me a $35 check!!)
As you know I also write the drum synth program Stomper. Well, it's available in a brand new version, Stomper Ultra++ 3.0, which can load WAV files as oscillators, and whatnot. Get it at
Also, I'm working on a drum-loop creator, called "Little Drummer Boy" (or LDB for short), which you will find, Real Soon Now, at
As always, why dont you drop by some of my musical friends on the net. Here they are:
Björn "Xakk" Fogelberg - http://www.engelholm.se/~fogelberg/
A personal virtual friend of mine (No, I've never met him in real life) which has made the CD which inspired me to do mine, "64", and which continue working on interesting music, and plans to release another CD in a not to distant future
Björn "Dr. Awesome" Lynne - http://www.lynnemusic.com
This guy is not only a CD-spewing machine (I've lost count of how many he did), he is also one of the better known "net.artists" around. On top of that, he suffers a severe case of split personalities, doing atmospheric progressive space rock as "Lynne" and some kind of techno-ish stuff as "Dr.Awesome". Beyond that, he's a nice chap too. Or so they tell me. No, I never met him in real life either... :-)
(By the way - both of the above artists also use Kagi for their payment processing....)
Each and every email address receiving this has been carefully hand picked by me, from my feedback form, friendly emails I've gotten, people who have purchased my CD, and so on. For instance, you wrote something in my feedback form, and "x"-ed the little square "Put me on your mailinglist". I humbly apologize if you receive this in error, or simply don't want it. Just send me an email telling me this (put "unsubscribe newsletter" in the subject), and you will (with some sorrow) be removed from my list.
NOTE: I had to return to an older version of the list due to a crash. It is possible that some of you that requested to be removed from the list are back again, and I am ever so sorry if that is the case!!
Every time after dispatching this newsletter, I invariably, 5 minutes after sending it, either spot a horrendeous error in it, or discover something vital I forgot. To fix this, I've added this section. So if you want to make sure you get everything, check the ONLINE version of the newsletter at http://zap.base.org/newsletter/1-98.html and go to this section. There I will add any errata/updates that invariably spring to mind just after I hit "Send".
Thank you for your time - that's all for this issue.
[End of Newsletter #1/98]