| The album 'Mad Stream' has been a long time coming for me. I wrote the title track in 1995 living in a loft in Amsterdam above a Moroccan 'coffee' shop. I had released two albums of my music before leaving Australia ('Side of Clues' with the band Nude and ' Temple ' a duets album with Mike Nock) and I was keen to dive deeper into composing for improvising musicians. I've recorded several times in the last ten years but 'the album' kept eluding me. It wasn't until 2002 when I was firmly back on Australian soil that I found the right elements to completing the first 20th Century Dog LP - band chemistry, the right recording studio with the right engineer and the right compositions in order to make a statement that I felt was worthwhile.
The music I had written was not in the mainstream so the right band was imperative. Carl Dewhurst (guitar) and I have been playing for over 19 years and he understood my vision but it wasn't until I played the music with Simon Barker (drums) that everything started to fall into place. Most of the material is written in odd time meters and I wanted those rhythms to appear simple and seamless, so the listener was not challenged but uplifted. Carl and Simon have this unique ability. Next was the wonderful discovery of Matt Keegan (tenor sax) and Gerard Masters (keys). I had recorded albums for both these young writers and built a solid working and creative relationship with them. Once they were put in the picture the puzzle was almost complete and the music was reaching fruition. The final piece was finding Richard Belkner, a gifted young engineer and producer from Tasmania now residing in Sydney . With Richie I knew it was time to head into the studio. And the studio? Paradise , Billy Fields famous all analog studio where Aussie greats Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel and INXS recorded some of there hit albums back in the day.
I spent several months honing my vision for 'Mad Stream', sitting for hours in solitude every day until I felt I had the right 'picture' of how it would sound. In the process I realised that there were two albums worth of music that warranted recording (ten years is a lot of writing). So in the same step as making 'Mad Stream' I decided to record a companion album with Carl and Simon who represent the trio Numerology. This album 'Telepathy' was recorded during the same session and is to be released simultaneously with 20th Century Dog.
'Mad Stream' is an album focused on a journey through acoustic and electric sounds in jazz, funk, rock, afro-beat, bossa-nova and ambient moods. 'Telepathy' is a more open, acoustic, improvisor's album allowing the listener into a world of synergetic interplay. I realised after the recording that it would have been almost impossible for me to have made one without the other. They each represent the realisation of an aspect me as an artist, the composer and improvisor. |
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