simonsound

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.

The Simonsound will be DJing at the Graham Massey curated Mondo Mancunia event being held at the Shunt Vaults in London on the 19th/20th/21st/22nd of November. Mondo Mancunia is a celebration of Graham Massey’s many musical and art projects starting with Biting Tongues and being bought right up to date with Sisters of Transistors and not forgetting 808 State in between.

The Simonsound will be playing spaced out electronics, psychedelic sounds and a few sneak preview tracks from the forthcoming album on the opening night 19th 20th November. If all goes well we might also have some copies of the Simonsound mix CD Have you Heard…. The Simonsound which is a sonic introduction to the world of The Simonsound featuring music from groups and artists that have inspired us and original material.

Full line up

Check out the Simonsound myspace

I’ll be supplying electronic sounds for the launch next week of Ken Hollings‘ book Welcome to Mars. The event, being held at the Horse Hospital on the 18th will be a great opportunity to hear the author read excerpts from his book and maybe even pick up a CD containing music I created for the original radio series.

Welcome to Mars can be purchased online direct from the publisher Strange Attractor. The first 200 copies come with the limited edition CD of music from the radio series.

Part twelve in the ongoing series of radio shows looking at the history of electronic music is now available to podcast subscribers or to download as an MP3. In this latest installment Ian Helliwell explores the history of the massive RCA Synthesizer built in 1955. Featuring tracks composed by Otto Leuning, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen.

Just wanted to alert you to a new Tone Generation programme. This new episode features music performed and created for Expo 58.

Adding to the original 10 part Tone Generation series, this special World`s Fair edition focusses exclusively on electronic music aired at Expo 58, and was first broadcast as part of the Oscillatomium programme live from the Atomium in Brussels in October 2008, organised by mobile-radio.net.

Subscribe to the podcast or download the MP3 here.

Go here to find out more about the man behind the series Ian Helliwell. I’m in the studio with him next week working on another Tone Generation special and I can’t wait to hear his music selection.

Great news. The full series of The Tone Generation is now available to download in MP3 format or as a podcast. The series has come to an end now and it was a real pleasure to work with Ian Helliwell putting each episode together. A mixture of fun and education as I discovered a huge amount of music I’d never had the opportunity to listen to before.