Experience with De Stroomversneller: Julian Theelen (Five Suns) - Helios

''Five Suns has always been an audiovisual project, where I'm always looking for new ways to visually enrich my music. When I got into conversation with director Edwin van der Sande (also an Arnhem native!) about making a clip/short film to accompany one of my tracks, it quickly became clear that we had to make this work.''

Helios

''I have always been fascinated with the universe and space travel. Edwin shares this fascination. When we got together to discuss the first ideas for the clip, it quickly became clear that we wanted to do something with this. The song 'Helios' from my last EP takes hefty inspiration from the history of space travel, using samples from the control room of the Apollo missions. So this was the perfect candidate.

The basis of our ideas comes from a philosophical sci-fi book by Liu Cixin. In this book, Liu argues that the moment man permanently leaves Earth, he initiates the next step in evolution. Our concept for the clip was to follow an astronaut on a no-return mission, and delve into his mental state during this mission.''

''And then you start thinking. How on earth are we going to make a movie set in space? With an astronaut, in a spaceship? It quickly became clear that this was not going to be an easy mission. And that we would need a nice budget (and a lot of time & love) to bring this concept to fruition. Film crew, studio rental, gear rental, props, building materials, catering, visual effects.... The budget ran up very quickly.

Without the contribution of the Stroomversneller , we would never have been able to carry out this project. The contribution allowed me to cover a significant portion of the costs, and we did not have to compromise on the artistic vision and quality we envisioned at the outset. So a thousand thanks! I would also like to once again thank the team for their immense efforts. In particular Edwin van der Sande for his vision and stubborn perseverance, Ray Kraaijenhagen for building a realistic spaceship (out of wood, a washing machine window & a car seat we pulled out of a scrap car...), Steijn Leijzer for the bizarre shots, Cosette Legebeke for helping in the production and Luca LAL Tessarini for his abandon in the performance as an astronaut. And then I miss so many wonderful people who helped me. It was also a true Arnhem production; with help from parties like Supermassive and Het Nieuwe Kader.

The result turned out so much more beautiful than I could have ever expected. The icing on the cake was the release on YouTube channel "Trap Nation. One of the largest channels for electronic music on YouTube. As a result, the clip now has over 65,000 views. I am currently preparing a new release. My next EP 'Skyward' will be released in January via The Wave Stage!''

The Stroomversneller

The Stroomversneller is a subsidy scheme that supports new initiatives in their artistic development by giving them room for experimentation. The aim is to allow initiatives to gain momentum in an accessible way, without too many restrictions and obligations. Click here for more information about The Stroomversneller.