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THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.
May 14th, 2024
“Don’t delete anything!” – Simon Ballard, Mute Song Publishing A SHORT NOTE ABOUT DEDICATIONS & TITLES I never sit and make music specifically for people – the music just appears. Then, once the pieces have been decided, and the sequencing of tracks begins, a period of reflective listening enables ideas, images, and people to appear. READ MORE
2024 Leaf Label Releases
April 18th, 2024
MINING – Chimet After a lengthy gestation, and many years in the making, Chimet has already been making waves(!) digitally, but is soon to be available on CD (and in a unique double-LP format) from May 17th. It’s a project involving myself, Craig Kirkpatrick-Whitby, and PJ Davy. Together, we have endeavoured to bring our varied READ MORE
Abreagierung 50°56’01.6″N 0°47’33.4”E + Daylight Music: The Church Tour
March 29th, 2023
Piano. Today is Piano Day. Happy Piano Day. Abreagierung 50°56’01.6″N 0°47’33.4”E is a piano + memorymoog track that now resides within the Piano Day Compilation Vol. 2 alongside some very distinguished artists, including Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Yann Tiersen, Hélène Vogelsinger, and others. This track would have otherwise been homeless had it not been for Nils READ MORE
Making Irrealis
May 27th, 2022DÉBUT FRIENDSHIP, COLLABORATION, AND THE UNREAL These pieces were made barely moments after recording a piece for another project – caught impulsively, but also on the precipice of velleity from which much of my work seems to emerge. There is a liminality to these proceedings, but on the conclusion of each piece, there seemed an READ MORE
Studio Build Part I // Not making a brick but building a wall
December 16th, 2020What follows is a sort of photo blog, chronicling the period between April-December 2020. This was time spent neither making any new music, nor being particularly creative.
Be ready, always: on working with Keith Tippett
April 9th, 2020ENTÊTE This blog is a mixture of personal reflection, thoughts on process, on how working with Keith Tippett has helped reshape the topography of my piano/performance practice, and deserved praise for the work and pianism of one of the most significant musicians of our time. BACKGROUND Since discovering Keith Tippett’s music (Mujician I, II, III / Dedicated READ MORE
Help the grand piano to stand on its own (four) feet for the very first time
October 6th, 2019Not so long ago, I visited Sarah Nicolls at her studio in Brighton, and was introduced to her ‘inside out’ piano: a grand piano with its frame and interior displayed on the vertical plane, opposed to the traditional, horizontal position. There are many benefits to such reorganisation – not least for the opportunity to become READ MORE
Mike Westbrook’s Letter
April 22nd, 2018On discovering the work of various figures from British Jazz, I quickly came to the Music of Mike Westbrook – albums such as Metropolis, Marching Songs Vol. 1 & 2, Love Songs, Release, and Citadel/Room 315 (composed in the old Leeds Polytechnic building; now part of Leeds Metropolitan University), were the ones always leaning against my READ MORE
Twenty-Seven Areas of Contention: celebrating the life and work of Basil Kirchin
October 26th, 2017Twenty-Seven Areas of Contention is a piece I was commissioned to write by Serious, for Mind on the Run: The Basil Kirchin Story, and was premiered at Hull City Hall on February 19 2017. Devised using two of my favourite electrically-powered musical instruments: the LAMM and my beloved Roland Re-201 Space Echo tape delay, Twenty-Seven… is READ MORE
Paul Bolderson
December 22nd, 2016Paul Bolderson 21/03/48 – 21/12/16 Paul Bolderson lived an extraordinary life Affectionately known as ‘Peebs’ or ‘PB’, Paul’s larger-than-life persona was infectious and inescapable – and he never failed to leave a lasting impression on those who came into contact with him. I was introduced to Paul via Sam Hobbs, way back in 2001 – READ MORE