Last week John Collier and myself guested on the popular Type 40 podcast to discuss the project. You can watch it here:
We’ve recorded a couple of other podcasts, so watch out for those!
Blackpool Revisited will be available for free download on Saturday 28th August, from the project website.
Details of my illustration work for the recent Blackpool Remembered project have been added to the Special Projects section of this website. As well as detailing each of the book’s exclusive illustrations, I also take a retrospective look at my personal history with creating Doctor Who artwork, right back to childhood!
I’m pleased to announce the release of Chiaroscuro; a new instrumental album inspired by city life and the layers of time. Nighttime atmospheres blend with nostalgic, melancholic tones forming a dreamlike musical world in which to escape.
“The world of chiaroscuro is one of contrast – between light and darkness, of transition between one realm and another. Colours blend, textures merge, and it is the difference itself which gives meaning to the whole.
Change is the essence of life, and contrast is the basis of understanding what it all means. This album takes us through an appreciation of how we can make sense of the differences that flow through our existence, against a background of the cities in which we live. They have their darker and brighter sides, and we need to grasp the relationship between them within ourselves.
Light and shade are part of the same process – one has no meaning without the other. We need both in order to make sense of the artwork that is our life.”
The track list for Chiaroscuro is as follows:
Berlin Stratum
Silver Screen
Afterimage
Aberration
There and Then
Neon Twilight
Evanescent
Here and Now
Nightowls
The full album download comes with a bonus PDF booklet containing a specially-written introduction by Richard Hayes plus a selection of my own photography juxtaposed with archive images that all represent the theme of Chiaroscuro.
Chiaroscuro is available now in digital formats from Bandcamp and MusicGlue.
Here is a video for Silver Screen:
I have spent a large part of the last six months working on my new instrumental album, Mutate. Now it is time to present some brief previews of the first four tracks.
For those of us whose lives are soundtracked by music, we remember moments of discovery and musical revelation and all other manner of minute details, which are somehow important to us – especially those songs or albums that made a certain impact at the time never fail to evoke certain feelings.
It was with this in mind, that I approached Mutate. I returned to my musical ‘roots’ in a sense, listening again to many albums that had a profound affect on me, and the kind of albums that originally made me want to make music.
However, my own music needed to go somewhere different, so I set myself a specific creative parameter for the new project, which was to – wherever possible – only use sounds that I haven’t previously used. This meant getting rid of old favourites and ‘comfort zone’ instruments that I might normally use for my early demos ideas. This would make me think or work in a new way to achieve the very specific sound, style and atmosphere in mind. I usually have a number of potential titles to work backwards from, but this time, the final upheaval of my normal working process starting work without titles, and seeing where the music went.
Album preview #2 will follow soon, along with cover art and release info… stay tuned here or follow me on Twitter or Facebook.
My next album project is nearing completion, and will be called Mutate.
Mutate will be released in digital format via Bandcamp, hopefully with a limited CD edition following later in the year.
Watch this space for further details, but meanwhile, here is a brief taster.
I have been working on a new album pretty solidly over the last couple of months, and it is now starting to take shape.
For this new project, I wanted a darker, grittier sound, and I decided to avoid using any previously used sounds, where possible in order to create a fresh sonic landscape.
Here is a brief taster of three current works in progress. Stay tuned for further updates!
Edinburgh-based science fiction magazine Shoreline of Infinity‘s recently launched podcast, Soundwave (to which I lent my music!).
Last summer I recorded an extensive interview with the Soundwave host RJ Bayley, discussing all aspects of my work and interest in science fiction and beyond. A genuinely great fun hour of conversation! We conducted the interview via Skype, which accounts for my echoey room… but echoes aside, we discussed so many things, including synaesthesia, artistic influences and creative processes.
But it’s not all about me – you’ll also hear narrative from other Shoreline contributors. Episode two is available to stream and download now.
I’m really happy to have been involved in Soundwave, an exciting new science fiction podcast from Edinburgh-based publication, Shoreline of Infinity.
The Shoreline of Infinity magazine has gone from strength to strength, recently winning the British Fantasy Society Award for best magazine/periodical, and the next step in this creative and collaborative journey – which champions new and existing writers, artists and more – is the launch of this podcast.
I have been interviewed for a future edition of Soundwave, but my initial involvement was the production of the intro and background music.
Episode Zero of Shoreline of Infinity’s Soundwave can be heard here.
Here is the front cover artwork for Desperate Measures – book five of Alice Sabo’s Changed World Series.
This cover was an enjoyable challenge. Alice had a rough idea of the kind of thing she wanted, but wasn’t sure how or even if it would work as a book cover, so that’s when it fell to me to come up with an atmospheric and thought provoking image, that would also sit comfortably alongside the other books in the series.
With most of Alice’s previous covers, I have always worked up one or two rough sketches beforehand, whereas with this one, I launched straight into the actual artwork.
Desperate Measures is out now – check out Alice’s blog for further information.
Following the previous post on my cover art for William N. Gilmore’s science fiction/crime novel No Space for Justice, as promised, here is the full front and back illustration for the paperback edition, which is available now via Amazon.
And here is a photo of the finished book itself, which landed this week – William kindly sent all the way from Atlanta! Now that’s a well-traveled book.
The moment you see your pixels come to life in print never fails to be rewarding.
The Light Dreams 