I don't know why I'm crying...
22/03/25 20:22
The emancipating power of samplers & sequencers in the work of Kate Bush during the early-to-mid 80s
09/09/24 21:32
This is a video paper for the 21CMP conference, to be held at Townshend Studio, University of West London/London College of Music, 9–10 Sept 2024. The conference theme is on the uses of Commercial Electronic Musical Instruments. I realise my reading is low volume in a few places - especially against the music examples - so probably best to turn on closed captions.
https://www.c21mp.org/events
Abstract:
The leap in sonic and musical daring from the piano-led pop of ‘Wow’ and ’Symphony in Blue’ (Lionheart, 1978) to the shattered shards of ‘Babooshka’ and the ammunition-click percussion of ‘Army Dreamers’ (Never for Ever, 1980) were the result of Kate Bush’s conscious manoeuvring from one side of the recording studio’s glass divide to the other. In addition to seizing control of her own productions, Bush embraced cutting edge commercial electronic musical instruments (CEMIs) of the era that transformed her working methods, compositional idiolect and sonic aesthetic in the early-to-mid 1980s. Sampling and sequencing technologies, in particular the Fairlight Computer Music Instrument, E-mu Emulator II, and the LinnDrum, not only made writing, demoing and arranging tasks more accessible and autonomous, they opened up fresh, expressive dimensions and granted the artist unprecedented access to aesthetic control of her outputs.
Tracking and analysing imaginative uses of these technologies across a run of Kate Bush albums between 1980–85 (Never for Ever (1980), The Dreaming (1982) and Hounds Of Love (1985)), provides a case study in how these CEMIs not only afford new creative possibilities for self-producing songwriters, but offer new levels of access to arrangement realisation, novel sound design, sonic world building, and the expansion of the studio’s role in the songwriting process to be a space for both open-ended experimentation and meticulous control. The journey of these gradual shifts in process, perspective and autonomy culminate in Bush building her own home studio in 1984. The emancipating power of CEMIs in the narrative of Kate Bush’s career during this period are multi-dimensional, with lasting impact not only on the artist’s subsequent career trajectory, but in pop music culture ever since.
https://youtu.be/77rUKjwoAQ0?si=JtidkNq_IQn_ugik
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https://www.c21mp.org/events
Abstract:
The leap in sonic and musical daring from the piano-led pop of ‘Wow’ and ’Symphony in Blue’ (Lionheart, 1978) to the shattered shards of ‘Babooshka’ and the ammunition-click percussion of ‘Army Dreamers’ (Never for Ever, 1980) were the result of Kate Bush’s conscious manoeuvring from one side of the recording studio’s glass divide to the other. In addition to seizing control of her own productions, Bush embraced cutting edge commercial electronic musical instruments (CEMIs) of the era that transformed her working methods, compositional idiolect and sonic aesthetic in the early-to-mid 1980s. Sampling and sequencing technologies, in particular the Fairlight Computer Music Instrument, E-mu Emulator II, and the LinnDrum, not only made writing, demoing and arranging tasks more accessible and autonomous, they opened up fresh, expressive dimensions and granted the artist unprecedented access to aesthetic control of her outputs.
Tracking and analysing imaginative uses of these technologies across a run of Kate Bush albums between 1980–85 (Never for Ever (1980), The Dreaming (1982) and Hounds Of Love (1985)), provides a case study in how these CEMIs not only afford new creative possibilities for self-producing songwriters, but offer new levels of access to arrangement realisation, novel sound design, sonic world building, and the expansion of the studio’s role in the songwriting process to be a space for both open-ended experimentation and meticulous control. The journey of these gradual shifts in process, perspective and autonomy culminate in Bush building her own home studio in 1984. The emancipating power of CEMIs in the narrative of Kate Bush’s career during this period are multi-dimensional, with lasting impact not only on the artist’s subsequent career trajectory, but in pop music culture ever since.
https://youtu.be/77rUKjwoAQ0?si=JtidkNq_IQn_ugik
-----Book promo
24/08/24 20:42
'Akoustiki' music video and behind the scenes with Mari Dangerfield
01/09/23 19:22
The Kingston Uni Stylophone Orchestra has a new music video! Our very own sci-fi odyssey 'Akoustiki', filmed in the dangerous galactic realms of Visconti Studio.
Directed by Kasia Kaczmarek
Cinematography by Hsien Yu Niu
Production Design by Lola Flemming
Costume Design by Cristiano Casimiro
Edited by April Mitchell-White
VFX Supervisor Javi Sanchéz-Blanco
VFX Artist Pablo Miranda
Colourist Karolina Matela
Featuring members of the Stylo Orch 2022 cohort. Starring Zuzanna Wężyk.
'Akoustiki' was written by Zuzanna Wężyk, arranged by me, lead voice by Arte Spyropoulou. It's from our debut album STYLOPHONIKA.
And as a bonus, Mari Dangerfield created a behind the scenes video blog about the shooting of the music video. Thanks so much for doing this Mari, you're a star!
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Directed by Kasia Kaczmarek
Cinematography by Hsien Yu Niu
Production Design by Lola Flemming
Costume Design by Cristiano Casimiro
Edited by April Mitchell-White
VFX Supervisor Javi Sanchéz-Blanco
VFX Artist Pablo Miranda
Colourist Karolina Matela
Featuring members of the Stylo Orch 2022 cohort. Starring Zuzanna Wężyk.
'Akoustiki' was written by Zuzanna Wężyk, arranged by me, lead voice by Arte Spyropoulou. It's from our debut album STYLOPHONIKA.
And as a bonus, Mari Dangerfield created a behind the scenes video blog about the shooting of the music video. Thanks so much for doing this Mari, you're a star!
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Analysing Bowie tracks on YouTube
15/08/22 16:32
I've been making video blogs of the track analyses from my book. My thinking is it can be easier to understand a musical discussion when you can have examples.
I've been having a fun time with these, learning about content creation as I go. I'll keep adding to this playlist until they're all done.
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I've been having a fun time with these, learning about content creation as I go. I'll keep adding to this playlist until they're all done.
-----'Black Star' cover with Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq.
02/10/21 20:40
Yes Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq. and I covered 'Black Star' (not THAT one, but the other one) to celebrate my book being made available for preorder.
And if you haven’t heard of the magnificent Thomas B Wild before, you can check out his excellent music here: https://tombwild.com/
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And if you haven’t heard of the magnificent Thomas B Wild before, you can check out his excellent music here: https://tombwild.com/
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Tony Visconti Interview
18/04/17 22:41
Here's Tony in conversation with M-Audio, on location at our very own Visconti Studios at Kingston University.
*Proud face*
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*Proud face*
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[Vacuum] by SINLOGO
29/01/13 16:47
Here's an unexpected thing - a short piano improvisation of mine from way back in 2009 has been used in this wonderful short film. Brazilian producer Nivaldo Godoy, whom I have collaborated with in the past on his "CUBO" project, has pulled these sounds together and used my little piano recording to great effect here, I think. Check it out below.
I Care If You Listen: Hanging Out With Leah Kardos At Steinway Hall | Hang #2
21/02/12 01:01
While in New York City last week, I had the great pleasure of finally meeting up with long time twitter friend and fellow composer Thomas Deneuville, who runs the great new music blog I Care If You Listen (which you should all check out immediately, by the way).
We got to hang out together at the gorgeous Steinway Hall, in the Henry Z Steinway recital room. He asked me a few questions and I performed a slightly ropey improv around the themes from Feather Hammer's Katerina on a piano probably worth more than my house. Check out the video below.
We got to hang out together at the gorgeous Steinway Hall, in the Henry Z Steinway recital room. He asked me a few questions and I performed a slightly ropey improv around the themes from Feather Hammer's Katerina on a piano probably worth more than my house. Check out the video below.
Video + Editing + French accent: Thomas Deneuville
Opening animation: Daniel Thompson at DTWebart (http://www.dtwebart.com)
© 2012 I Care if You Listen
CUBO: COPAL
02/05/11 14:27
I'm so excited about this. You may remember back around new year I was posting a few improvisations with the curious title "Copal". It was for a collaborative project with Brazil based composer/producer CUBO, aka Nivaldo Godoy.
We met (in the virtual sense) on the Steve Reich remix contest in Indaba, and he invited me to take part. It started with a facebook group, initially with people posting videos and pictures of dream-like subject matter. I responded to the stimuli with some improvisations, and from there the music passed through many hands - singers, guitarists, composers, arrangers, sound designers - so many talented people have their fingerprints on this thing. I'm glad I got to be one of them.
We met (in the virtual sense) on the Steve Reich remix contest in Indaba, and he invited me to take part. It started with a facebook group, initially with people posting videos and pictures of dream-like subject matter. I responded to the stimuli with some improvisations, and from there the music passed through many hands - singers, guitarists, composers, arrangers, sound designers - so many talented people have their fingerprints on this thing. I'm glad I got to be one of them.
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More AV from Spider & I
12/03/11 14:38
A couple more AV realisations have been created for the AV performance project. First up, a reworking of a Black Mouth of August movement III: Silent Movie. This loosely improvised track uses a MIDI foot switch to drive various digital effects - bit crushing, delays, static. These effects are also linked to the video mixing.
The next piece uses/recycles parts of the Feather Hammer sessions, working with infinite loops and sampling/retriggering. The warped piano sound is a beatmapped filter effect I just discovered by accident, which made the whole thing sound about 80% more evil than I originally intended! The strange video just adds to the "eraserhead" vibe.
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Core
07/03/11 20:07
This video is a demo for a live audio visual project I have developed with Matthew Greasley - something about creating experimental textures and surreal imagery that we can manipulate and improvise through live performance. At the moment we're collecting a new live set - the stuff is mostly being drawn from the Feather Hammer project, but a few older pieces might also get a look-in (like the ill-fated Black Mouth of August project, for example).
This piece, Core, is an unusual one for me as it started life as a poem. I'm a terrible poet so there's no chance of me posting the thing here, I only mention it because it's a strange way for me to work - from words; taking a picture in my mind and abstracting it with imagery and language, then further abstracting it into music and sound. The best bit is passing the music over to Matt Greasley to see what he sees in it. The final beautiful abstraction that gives the whole thing a new context.
I am loving the imagery Matt is coming up with - the perfect soft/heavy subject matter to match the style of the music.
Black Mouth of August - II Dance Movement (excerpt)
03/07/10 13:35
Piano and technology improv piece, video art by Matt Greasley. One day when I get my shit together imma write a bunch of these and do some whacked out psychedelic improvised multimedia gigs with Matt and a bunch of interfaces/laptops...
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