simonsound

We are having further problems with our hosting service Odeo which means the first 8 Tone Generation shows are currently unavailable to download. Sorry if you have come to here to listen to the series and been disappointed but please be patient. You can still listen to shows 9 and onwards here.  More positive news is that the next installment of The Tone Generation,  ‘Electronic Music Authors’, is recorded and ready to upload - the only thing stopping me doing this is that I don’t want to upload whilst Odeo have technical problems. Lets hope they sort them out soon. Stay tuned for more news.

UPDATE - Odeo seem to have given up on any kind of customer support. After emailing them twice in the last 10 days I haven’t heard anything back from them. It looks like we will have to find and alternative hosting solution and migrate the series.

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

Under the Radar is the name of  a multimedia lecture which explores the avant garde electronic music that crossed over to the mainstream through its use in TV, Radio, Film and advertising in the 50’s and 60’s. I presented the lecture at Ravensbourne College in November 2008 and I’m keen to bring it to other learning establishments. Download the PDF to find out more, and if you are interested in booking me to visit your college or university please get in touch.

UPDATE - I’ve been invited to present Under the Radar to fine art students at Central St Martins in London at the end of January.

Go to the Under The Radar page for more info

Under the Radar PDF

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

Ken Hollings and Simon James at the Welcome to Mars book launch.

The first 250 books ordered from publisher Strange Attractor ship with a CD with over an hour of original music composed for the radio show and a 20 minute live recording from Interesting 2008. Listen to the original 12 part radio series originally broadcast on Resonance FM.