Willem de Ridder (1939) is a prolific storyteller, cassette freak and Fluxus artist. George Maciunas made him chairman of Fluxus for Northern Europe and in this role he organised several concerts and Fluxfestivals. He cooperated with Nam June Paik and presented his Piano for all Senses in Amsterdam in his gallery Amstel 47. De Ridder was a co-founder of the Mood Engineering Society (MES) with Dick Raaijmakers, Louis Andriessen, Peter Schat, Ton Bruynèl, Rob Dubois, Jaap Spek and Misja Mengelberg. He also founded the European Mail Order House and Fluxshop and started the Society for Party Organizing (SPO) to introduce audience-generated theatre. Together with Wim T. Schippers he founded the Association for Scientific Research in New Methods of Recreation (Afsrinmor International) and they organised and participated in Fluxus events in different European countries.
Together with William Levy, Jim Haynes, Germain Greer & Heathcote Williams he started working on SUCK (The First European Sex Paper) in the early 1970s. The paper became a cult item from New York to Tokyo, which led to the very first Erotic Film Festival in the world: The Wet Dream Film Festival. After having concluded that the era of the printing press was over, he moved to Hollywood where he started Radio Cadillac and studied Chinese Medicine, Shiatsu, Zen Macrobiotics and Taoism. He introduced the Cassette Safari in which listeners in their car followed instructions and stories from a cassette transforming the surrounding landscapes.
De Ridder also produced the All Chemix Radio series transmitted by various radio stations in America, Canada and Australia. These narrative pieces were produced on the spot and include spoken word, field recordings and electronic sounds. Previously released on cassette in very limited editions, these pieces have now been released on vinyl by Slowscan for the first time. Eight radio plays have been mixed into four long pieces including collaborators such as Cora Emens, Stefan Weisser, Andrew McKenzie, Nick Nicole, Annie Sprinkle, Alvin Curran, Julia Romanov, William Levy & Hessel Veldman.
The double LP was edited at Radio Art Studios, Amsterdam, Willem de Ridder & EXART studios, IJmuiden by Hessel Veldman and designed by Johnny Van de Koolwijk.