Wouter Bessels

Dutch journalist, author and sound engineer, born in Hoorn (NL), 9th October 1977. Also writes for music magazine iO Pages and the progressive website Progwereld. He also occassionally does (re)mastering jobs on archival releases. Since 2001 he is the biographer and archivist for guitarist Jan Akkerman. In early 2018, he compiled and mastered the 26 cd box set [r12312755], released on 20th July 2018. In 2019, he wrote the accompanying book, researched material and provided additional editing, pre-mastering and compilation assistance for In Search Of Hades (The Virgin Recordings 1973-1979), followed in 2020 by Pilots Of Purple Twilight (The Virgin Recordings 1980-1983). Bessels curated and produced the 9 cd-2dvd box set [r16227594] in 2020, which resulted in the definitive Focus box set of the band's classic years, including previously unreleased audio and video recordings. Since then, he has been curating several remastered & expanded albums of Golden Earring, Shocking Blue, Nova and Stars On 45 and has written several books on Pink Floyd and Steven Wilson / Porcupine Tree. Being the official archivist of Tangerine Dream, he has curated several archival releases with live recordings for various labels, such as Esoteric Recordings, KScope and French label Culture Factory. Since 2016, Bessels is also part of the production and artistic team behind Pink Floyd Project, one of The Netherlands' leading tributebands on the music of Pink Floyd.