simonsound

The debut album from the group I’m in (that just happens to have the same name as this website) is now available to buy on vinyl, CD and as a digital download.

<a href=”http://thesimonsound.bandcamp.com/album/reverse-engineering”>Tour De Mars by The Simonsound</a>We were lucky enough to be invited to record a session at the famous Maida Vale studio for Gilles Peterson’s BBC Radio 1 show. It was a real treat to visit the studio that used to be the home of the Radiophonic Workshop, especially since so much of the material on the album is inspired by the golden age of experimental electronic music. Maida Vale is full of history and I’d have happily paid an entry fee to wander around its strangely quiet corridors, daydreaming about Desmond Briscoe, Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, John Baker and co. winding lengthy tape loops all over the place.It also made a nice change to be on the other side of the glass….

The session, which includes an exclusive medley of ‘It’s Just Begun’ and ‘Tour de Mars’, and an interview with The Simonsound was played on Tuesday 25th May and you can download the full show here.

We just took delivery of finished vinyl copies of ‘Reverse Engineering’, the first Simonsound album which is due for release in May on First Word Records. Emily at iamstanley has created the perfect visual representation for the space age, science fiction and strange sounds contained within. We are forever indebted! Look out for limited edition prints and t-shirts featuring the album artwork.

Gilles Peterson has been featuring tracks from the album on his BBC Radio 1 Worldwide show and even included a track on his ‘All Winners’ programme which features his pick of the year so far.

Head over to the official Simonsound website for more info and to listen to tracks. Its worth pointing out that ‘The Simonsound’ and this Simonsound website are two separate but slightly confusing things! This website is for my commercial music and production work and ‘The Simonsound’ is my music project with Matt Ford. Still confused? Me too……

I just finished this package of branding for online radio station totallyradio.com. The station, which has now been online for over 10 years, features loads of interesting programmes including some spoken word - in fact it’s where I cut my teeth creating music and sound design for radio! The new branding is heavily inspired by the kind of experimental electronic/tape material that organizations such as the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Raymond Scott’s Manhattan Research Incorporated pioneered in the late 50’s and through the 60’s.

My music project with Matt Ford is moving along very nicely towards our first album release in May on First Word Records. Our first two self released singles have been met with much praise and support in the form of DJ’s such as Cut Chemist, DJ Muro, Edan and Florian Keller, and our cover of ‘It’s Just Begun’ was even reportedly cut up by legendary Bronx DJ Rockin’ Rob at a B-Boy event in NYC last year prompting Grandmaster Caz to run to the turntables and excitedly demand to know the identity of the mystery version.

Most recently we’ve had support from Strictly Kev/DJ Food and DJ Spinna, the latter hooking up Gilles Peterson with a copy of our forthcoming album, ‘Reverse Engineering’. This has led to BBC Radio 1 play and an invitation to do a Maida Vale session which should hopefully be broadcast around the release of the album.

Other exciting things to look out for around the album release are a series of EMS Synthi VCS3 ringtones, a bank of 127 MiniMoog Voyager sounds, a Solid Steel radio mix and video and hopefully some prints and t-shirts featuring the amazing artwork created by Emily Macaulay for our album cover.

I’ll keep you posted!

This just in from Ken Hollings -

Welcome to the Virtual Battlefield…
My feature on the ‘military-entertainment complex’ goes out on BBC Radio 3 this Sunday, February 21, at 9.30 pm.

From Gameboy to Armageddon features some amazing contributions from Tim Lenoir, Ed Halter and Tom Chatfield on the relationship of games and simulations to Past and Future War; P W Singer of the Brookings Institute on current deployments of UAVs and robots; some vintage archive material from RAND’s Tom Schelling on the Cuban Missile Crisis as a game; plus Michael Macedonia and Jim Korris on the founding of STRICOM and the Institute of Creative Technologies, the amazing Jim Dunnigan on Clausewitz and Kriegspiel, Skip Rizzo on ‘Virtual Iraq’ and a rare interview with the legendary Jack Thorpe –  responsible while seconded to DARPA from the USAF for devising SIMNET, the first real-time, practical version of cyberspace. Acronyms totally rule on this one.

I just finished sound design and post production on the 4th episode of Lance Dann’s mysterious radio drama The Flickerman.

Praised by The Guardian as “new and amazing”, “fashionable compulsiveness”  and ” a strange and exhilarating project”, The Flickerman tells the story of Cornelius Zane-Grey as he tries to unravel the strange events that have seen his girlfriend go missing and moments in his life captured and uploaded to photo sharing website Flickr.

Episode 4 is an exhilarating ride with new characters, further plot twists and turns and lots of intricate (and some over the top) sound design that I’m very happy with.

The first transmission is on the 12th January 2010 on Australia’s ABC radio network. I’m pretty sure it will be available at the Flickerman website shortly after. Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are available now, also at The Flickerman website.

Thanks to Emily @I am Stanley for a great label. Buy the single here.

Very excited about this release and so far feedback has been really good. I won’t say any more as I prefer to let the music speak for itself. Here is a very simple video I made so I could put the track up on youtube. It is out on vinyl and digital download from the 2nd of November. More info here.

This week I start production of an audio tour for 2009’s White Night in Brighton & Hove. More info will follow soon.

Note - I’ll also be performing live at White Night with Ian Helliwell using his multiplayer Helisizer. Venue to be confirmed.

For some random iPhone recorded audio snippets go to audioboo. It’s a bit like Twitter but with audio and thus all the better for it! I often record bits and pieces when I’m out and about or working in the studio. Listen.