simonsound

Part two of our ten part radio series ‘The Tone Generation’ is aired on Resonance FM this Friday 18th at 19.30 GMT. This week the focus is France with music from Iannis Xenakis, Ivo Malec, Pierre Henry and Spooky Tooth.

You can subscribe to the podcast here or find MP3’s for this and previous shows on the sound page.

This Friday sees the launch of a new simonsound produced radio series looking at the history of electronic music as a worldwide phenomenon. The 10 part series called ‘The Tone Generation’ is presented by electronic musician and film-maker Ian Helliwell. Starting in Europe and finishing in the Southern Hemisphere Ian will be playing vintage tracks - some celebrated, many obscure and overlooked, to give an overview of electronic music. Part one starts with Great Britain and features music from a number of BBC Radiophonic composers including Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire.

The series will be broadcast every Friday evening at 7.30 on Resonance 104.4 FM. Subscribe to the podcast by clicking here (the podcast feed now seems to be working) or download an MP3 of show 1 here.

Other radio news - Expo 67 was transmitted on BBC Radio 6 last week and has been broadcast in Paris, New York and Bristol over the last 5 months. The complete programme will be available to download here shortly.

Just added to the video player some clips from the music branding I produced for TNT Cartoon Network which launched this week. Broadcasting much loved classic cartoons as well as brand new characters to 7 million households across Turkey. The music is a variation on one of the themes we created for the general entertainment channel TNT which also launched this week. TNT is a terrestrial channel broadcasting to 17 million homes.

Been spending some time going through old music that I produced with my brother in the mid 90’s. We produced music under a number of different guises for labels like Skint, Bush and Magnetic North. I’m going to add some of it on the website somewhere but for now here is a 11 minute megamix that I created in 2000 (I know it says 2001 but that was when I got round to doing something with it).

I hadn’t listened to it for ages and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard it with fresh ears. I guess the mix of music goes some way to show the varied styles of music I love. From weird covers of Doors tracks through to Dick Hyman, Information Society and Carl Craig. It is part live mix part megamix with the tracks cut up and extra beats and samples added. It is also interesting because I made this at a time when the first computer based ’studio in a box’ software packages were becoming available. Its easy to take for granted how easy we’ve got it these days, we really are spoiled. Listen to the mix below.

I just delivered a new sonic logo to accompany Turner Classic Movies latest visual branding. Check it out on the video page. It is a mix of contemporary and orchestral with simple sound design elements to bring out the movement of the zeotrope.

I have now added a video player so we can start showing off my TV work. There are some successful commissions along side pitches for TV adverts available to view. I am also going to add some snippets from the upcoming simonsound album and a blast from the past montage of early music that I produced for labels like Skint, Magnetic North, Bush and Deconstruction.

The latest Ford Focus TV commercial hit the screens in the UK this week. Featuring an orchestra playing instruments constructed from Ford Focus car parts. Interesting but not as interesting as you might imagine. It sounds so close to a traditional orchestra that you’d be hard pressed to spot the difference. Create Digital Music has a scoop interview with sound designer Bill Milbrodt who created the instruments (yes they really are made from the parts of a Ford Focus).

Would have been more appealing to me to hear more of the character of the car in the sound rather than just trying to replicate traditional instruments. It almost makes the instruments in the ad little more than props, and as Bill Milbrodt says in his CDM interview, it would have been cheaper to do it with a real orchestra.

I think overall it is the right sound for Ford. I don’t think Musique Concrete is a particularly good fit for their brand.

See the extended ad here.

The ever informative Speechification guys bought this excellent radio feature to my attention last week. Fifteen Inches Per Second tells the story of 1/4 inch tape and how it revolutionised the world of recorded sound. From its use by Hitler to broadcast multiple ‘live’ speeches, its huge impact on music through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and its abuse at the hands of experimental composers, this feature is a well produced bite size history. Listen here.
simonsound still use a (ex BBC) Studer 1/4 inch tape machine to add warmth to the sometimes cold digital world of computer based recording.

The end of 2007 was a busy period with a last minute music and branding job for TNT who are launching a new terrestrial TV channel in Turkey. Working closely with Turners in house creative team I created the channels core music and sound elements. Clips are on the showreels page.

In other news I put the finishing touches to Expo 67 - a radiophonic collage. Not sure of broadcast dates yet but I’ll keep you posted and we’ll probably post a MP3 early in 2008. The collage was created by Ian Helliwell and I supplied post production and sound design services.

Heres to more interesting sound and music projects in 2008. Happy New Year.

Strange Attractor Press have announced the release of the Welcome to Mars book, with the first 200 copies including a CD with music from the radio series produced by simonsound.

A story of weird science, strange events and even stranger beliefs, set in an age when the possibilities for human development seemed almost limitless, Welcome to Mars offers a fascinating, detailed chronology of where it all went wrong.

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