simonsound

Every year Heineken run a huge DJ competition across the Caribbean islands. I have been involved in the Green Synergy DJ competitions for a number of years and one year I was even lucky enough to run music production workshops with the finalists and ‘A Tribe Called Quest’s’ Phife Dawg.

This year I was commissioned to create the branding and music beds that would be used across radio, tv and online to promote the event.  I spent time immersing myself in the latest music of the Caribbean and had a lot of fun exploring the quite different approach to production and mixing. The package is due to go live very soon and I’ll post some clips as soon as I can.

The Tone Generation series is now back online. Listeners who have been following the series for a while and are subscribed to the old podcast stream will need to re-subscribe to the new stream to continue getting the latest shows automatically. Do that here.  New listeners can subscribe following the same link or if you prefer to download MP3’s go here.

Sorry for the small glitch but hopefully everything should run smoothly from now on. The latest Tone Generation show will go live early next week.

The Welcome to Mars album is now available from Jumbo Records in Leeds. They describe it as Excellent modern library music that nods to the great pioneers of analog electronica without ever succumbing to pastiche.

Of course you can still order it direct here and if you contact Strange Attractor Press they may still have some left with the book of the same name by Ken Hollings.

I just added the latest Tone Generation show to the Sound page. In programme 14 Ian Helliwell explores composers who created scores for modern dance and ballet.

You might have noticed a new page available on the menu above. Buy is where you should go if you would like to purchase a Welcome to Mars CD full of weird and wonderful 50’s inspired electronics. In the meantime enjoy a video of me playing my new mini modular synthesizer in preparation for some Simonsound live shows at the end of February.

A mix of music from the 60’s TV series The Prisoner starring Patrick McGoohan who sadly passed away this week.  Like many TV series from this era, limited budget for original music led to a mix of commissioned material and library tracks. In this case the legendary Chappell Library provided much of the incidental themes whilst Ron Grainer, of Dr Who theme fame, composed the main opening and closing themes.

The Prisoner was one of my favorite TV shows when it was repeated in the 90’s, the mixture of mystery, spies, amazing location (Portmeirion Village in North Wales)  and strange music perfect for a teenager needing a bit of escape . I wanted to live in the village and sit by the beach reading the Tally Ho (the village’s newspaper that only reported on local stories) whilst No.2 plotted new ways to extract top secret information from my mind.  Patrick McGoohan not only starred as the lead character, he also wrote and directed many of the episodes. Be seeing you Patrick.

Get the mix here

Just planning some more live stuff. Will keep you posted.

In this hour long special Ian Helliwell digs out tracks from his collection by Tom Dissevelt, Bernard Parmegiani, John Baker, Miles Davis, Archie Shepp, Nucleus, Freddie Hubbard/Ilhan Mimaroglu, Paul Bley, Sun Ra and Herbie Hancock  to illustrate the theme, and as usual explains a bit of background about each one.

Happy Christmas and New Year from Simonsound

Get the MP3 or subscribe to the series here.

The Welcome to Mars album is now available to download and comes with over 10 extra tracks not available anywhere else. Originally composed for the radio series written and presented by Ken Hollings, the music evokes the fear and excitement of the future as experienced in the 1950’s.  The Wire recently said of the music that it “…not only evokes the mood of the era, it also stands on its own as inventively conceptual electronic music“.

Download the 28 track album here for $12.99

As well as DJing at Mondo Mancunia I will also be performing in the Welcome to Mars All Stars group on the same night. Ken Hollings will be supplying the reading (from his freshly launched book) and Mark Pilkington, Bruce Woolley and myself will be supplying electronic tones and space sounds. Toolshed are headlining and I’m really looking forward to hearing them live. We are scheduled to play at 20.30 but that could easily drift. The venue is Shunt Vaults, it’s £5 to get in and right next door to London Bridge Tube Station.

Speaking of the Welcome to Mars book, I attended the launch last night at the Horse Hospital. There was a great turnout and Ken Hollings was in demand all night only pausing briefly between signing books to read a short passage from the book about the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. Those that purchsed Welcome to Mars last night also got the free CD with music I created for the radio series that forms part of Welcome to Mars‘ illustrious history.

I enjoyed providing the soundtrack to last nights event by way of tape loops, Minimoog and space echo.

Get your copy of the book here. The first 200 copies come with the CD. The music will also be available to buy separately on CD and digital download.

Listen to the Welcome to Mars radio series here.