Maarten: “Bingo Players Will Always Be Plural”

It has barely been a month since the dance music world lost Paul Bäumer, one half of the group Bingo Players. Paul died after a six-month battle with an unidentified type of cancer; leaving behind family, friends, and fans in a state of shock and sadness. Since his original announcement on December 18, 2013, Paul’s partner, Maarten Hoogstraten, took a break from music to mourn  the passing of his friend, and to contemplate the future for himself, Bingo Players, and their Hysteria Records label. Maarten thanked fans for their outpouring of support, and also explained what his next steps are going to be. His original words are definitely worth reading, so I will only offer a brief summary of what he wrote. The Bingo Players project will continue under the same name, as that is exactly what Paul wanted Maarten to do. The legacy of the Bingo Players was always centered on their identity as a duo, and that “s” in their name is now more important than ever before.

Read Maarten’s full letter below:

Dear All,

Firstly, i want to thank each and every one of you for the massive amount of support and kindness shown in the past month. I was overwhelmed with the heartfelt messages and the stories shared by people… thank you, it means a huge amount to me and Paul’s family and friends.

Many people have asked if they can donate to a charity in Paul’s name. He had asked for those that wanted to please be directed to KWF (The Dutch Cancer Society) – www.kwf.nl

So, understandably there are lots of questions you all may have about what’s going to happen next. Well, the first thing I want everyone to know is that I’m still continuing Bingo Players. We’ve come too far to stop now and Paul’s spirit will always be a part of anything I do as Bingo Players.

Before he passed, Paul and I spoke and he made it clear he wanted me to continue Bingo Players. He and I have worked so hard to get to where we are, and it feels as though our journey had only really just begun. There’s so much more ahead for Bingo Players.

I want to continue because I love what I do and I want to do it for both of us. There is a lot of music that we worked on together before Paul passed away that will be coming out in the next months and years, more on that soon!

Bingo Players will always be plural.

– Maarten