30/07/08

In two days time I'll be taking my sitar on an aeroplane. Hopefuly it will survive the experience and I'll go on to have spectacular shows in Stavenger on 2nd Aug, Hannover on 4th and at Incite's house in Hamburg on 5th Aug. I feel priviledged and lucky.

More of my music will soon appear via this net label acroplane

18/03/08

"The Of End The Garden" is the new Same Actor 3" CD EP on a fairly new UK label called Discordance. It's all instrumental but there are still some underlying themes:- paranoia, the descent into madness, climate change and the cosy end of the night feeling when everything feels great even though you've only got one hour of sleep before you get up work. Well those themes aren't actually very obvious but they were in my head at the time of putting it together and it's certainly quite a sober 20 minutes of music.

"Strophe1" one of many new tracks recorded in this big house with big rooms last year. I've been starting most of my Same Actor live sets off with this very fragile structure. The live sitar plays dorian phrases against sampled sitar quarter tones.
"Don't Wait To Be Invited" .... to the asylum, early Same Actor recording from 2003 in Brighton fitted the creepy vibe
"The Overtaker" the opposite of an undertaker, a short burst of sitar samples made in Romford last year
"Text Rain" this track I made in 2004 is the like the low point (or the highlight?) of the EP, I haven't made many tracks as dark as this. It should make evrything else seem optimistic. Actually it's all made from a 2003 Urban Myth CDR. Urban Myth was a Brighton improvising group with Henry Collins, Adam Bushell, Jim Black and Kirstin Elliot. they released a recording of their gig with Steve Beresford "Live at the Friends Meeting House" on Planet Mu. Well anway needless to say this tune just uses sounds from another UM session that Jim Black gave me and doesn't sound anything like UM.
"Jaune4" sitar stretched beyond its elastic limit, approaching the plastic
"I stand still as I ride in circles" another recording from this big house this time involves me on my bike going round and round the micrpphone. I thought if I went fast enough I might get somewhere by drilling into the ground but alas is just turned out to be a popular mellow song at the end of an otherwise pretty difficult listening experience...

Just finished the artwork so it'll be out in the next few months.I know you're probably a lot smarter than me but I feel compelled to warn you not to put 3" CDs in Macbooks with those thin slots. Twenty minutes of your life you'll never get back.

30/12/07

And so there's only two nights left of this year, and then two years left of this decade. Well this hasn't been a bad year for me although I've hardly made much musical advancement in all honesty. Most of my music has been involved with my dayjobs more than being a solo electronic music artist so to speak. Maybe that's not such a bad thing: I'm lucky to have this fulfilling work: music sessions with elderly and special needs groups. Some exceptions though: I recorded a new Same Actor album in the big communal rooms of this wonderful building I'm lucky to live in, and collaborations with vocalist Charlie Porter yielding great results.

I've inevitabely seen (or heard?) some good gigs this year. This isn't hard living in London where I realised there are interesting shows just about every night. (Except over Christmas and New Years). Two very different sets that spring to mind would be the beautiful Society of Imaginary Friends at The Cross Kings and the noise of Bloodyminded downstairs at The Foundry. My favourite films were "The Lives Of Others" and I saw Tarkovsky's "Stalker" for the first time, I still haven't found a spare three hours for "Inland Empire". Of the 40 or so shows I played this year my favourite was probably the Halloween set at Clean in Coventry: a rare coincidence of the night being good and me playing a half decent set.

Next year I don't think I'll be playing so many gigs and only two releases are planned: a 3"CD on Discoordance ("King Hell") and an untitled 7" on Peter Nelson's Womb label. Now that there's terrabytes of media available on the net to keep us amused until the end of time, I'm kind of going for a 'less is more' approach, and keep all the nice but boring tracks on my rickety old harddrive.

At this reflective time, I send out peace and love to all those who've spurred me on in one way or another this year. Hope you find happiness and success in 2008.

09/11/07

New website... finally but then you've probably already worked that one out