The album 'All in the Golden Afternoon...' is nearly ready for release, but I need some help getting it promoted and distributed! I'm also in the process of sorting out the artwork. The CD is available (see below) but minus sleeve artwork.
Meanwhile, work has now started on the next album.
After spending time in a couple of Sheffield bands playing keyboards through the mid 1990s I sat down to exploring classical music for two or three years. Then the technological breakthrough with Digital music production and VST instruments, meant that I could realise large scale projects which had been previously milling around as ideas recorded onto tape. It also meant having access to the sounds of Mellotron, Hammond Organ, Moog synthesizers and everything orchestral, that up to this point would have required spending thousands.
My early influences are never far away and I guess there'll always be a sentiment of 'progressive rock' lurking in the background. It has been great to hear the sound of the Mellotron back in fashion, but I love to look back to the way it was used by bands like King Crimson, Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd and Barclay James Harvest. I learnt to play keyboards on a Hammond Organ, and I think that it informed my style in a way that differs from learning firstly on piano. Guitar is my second instrument - and I predominantly stick to acoustic although there is electric on some of the work. Vocals feature also, and are there pretty much in disguise. The spoken vocal sample for instance, on 'Shining, Really Brightly' is me sounding like an 10 year old, and elsewhere I have relied on other technical tricks to layer my vocals to create something a bit more dramatic. A key starting point for several of the tracks on the album "All in the Golden Afternoon..." came from samples of spoken poetry. The title "All in the Golden Afternoon..." is the first line of the poem that you'll find as the preface to the book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, and sampled fragments of the poem inspired the title track. Elsewhere on the album I used a fair bit of sampled birdsong and church bells, as they added to my impression of an English Summer, as seen through the eyes of Lewis Carroll. If you like ambient, electronica, prog rock and classical music there may be something here for you. All the best, Ian. |
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