Akelei 20 years – gigs & reissues [2 February ’26]

Hey, it’s 2026. That means that Akelei has been around for 20 years. After all, we started rehearsing as a band in 2006. Coincidentally, I’ve been working on a few projects that will be completed in the next coming months. I think they will help shape this year as one of the more eventful years for Akelei. We will be looking back at our demo days but also forward to new music.

New musicians

Our next couple of live performances will feature some new faces in the line up. So, a big welcome is in order to Thorben and Dirk on guitar and bass respectively. Thorben is a drum pupil of Josha’s who picked up guitar a few years ago and is also writing his own doomy tunes. He’s young and learning fast! Dirk is a good friend who used to play with Josha in Delft’s 90s thrash/punk outfit Dutch Decibel. He hasn’t played metal in many years but is willing to help us out for the time being and we couldn’t be happier. The current live lineup is as follows:

• Misha – vocals, guitar
• Matthijs – guitar
• Thorben – guitar
• Dirk – bass
• Josha – drums, backing vocals
• Aline – vocals (joining us at select gigs)

Reissue of Promo ’08

In my last post, I mentioned a reissue of the Akelei demo, Promo ‘08. It’s taken some time but it’s almost finished! Now I can share more information. The four songs have been mastered by Darius van Helfteren for extra volume and clarity. I’ve composed a small book with 40 pages filled with pictures and throwbacks to Akelei’s demo days and first shows. The book is hard cover with a heavy paper disc pocket in the back. Pim from Officium Triste wrote a foreword and Ward contributed his memories of Akelei’s beginning. The first chance to buy a copy from us is at our Koornbeurs gig in March (see front page). Another opportunity will be at Festerfest 2026, taking place at the new Baroeg!

De zwaarte van het doorstane on vinyl

This wouldn’t have happened anytime soon if a Canadian fan hadn’t stepped in. He was so into the idea of getting ‘De zwaarte’ on vinyl that he reached out and made an offer we couldn’t refuse! So I got Darius to do another mastering for us and we’re currently finalising the order for 100 copies. I’m not spilling all of the details just yet, but I can say it will be a double LP and we should have it ready by summer. More on this later.

Akelei on streaming platforms

Also in the previous post, I mentioned the removal of our first couple of releases from Spotify. Perhaps the reason for this needs some clarification. The original distribution service that we used for getting Akelei music onto streaming platforms went bust. Something like that happening makes it difficult for affected artists or bands to manage their music on platforms like Spotify and Deezer or to collect revenue from streaming. It became clear that the music had to be taken down so it could be uploaded once more, but this time through a trusted and reliable distributor. As it turned out however, it wasn’t easy to convince some platforms why these steps had to be taken. They kept referring back to our original distribution service, which no longer existed. Quite frustrating! The exception was Spotify, who immediately did what I asked and so our music became unavailable there almost right away. Communication with the other help desks proved to be slow and eventually I gave up on trying.

Last week I checked the status of said releases on various platforms and now everything was taken down with only Een van ons and Moed still up. You can imagine my surprise and relief. I’ve already reuploaded Dwaaluur and De zwaarte van het doorstane to every platform (except Amazon, ugh). The remastered Promo ’08 will follow soon.

Merch: t-shirts and patches 

To coincide with the upcoming release of the vinyl album, I’m working with Barbara Termorshuizen on a new t-shirt design based on De zwaarte’s artwork. Barbara also designed Akelei’s floral shirt. Additionally, I’m looking into getting some Akelei patches made. Koornbeurs had a beautiful embroidered patch made for their Metal Cafe (which we regularly attend) and I want something similarly good looking for Akelei. There’s no saying when either will be ready but we’re aiming for the Koornbeurs gig.

Upcoming gigs

14 March – Koornbeurs Metal Cafe, Delft. With: Gavran and Mezza. https://koornbeurs.nl/en/agenda/ 

5 April – Festerfest 2026 @ Baroeg, Rotterdam. With: Hulder, Headless Hunter, Ontaard and more. https://baroeg.nl/productie/festerfest-2026-baroeg-try-out/ 

Misha

Listening to: A’an – Off World (Blade Runner)