Twinscapes Preview and Cover Image

The Twinscapes album,  a joint effort between myself and Italian bassist and composer Lorenzo Feliciati is something I've been working on throughout this year, and I am pleased to say it's now finally mixed, mastered and at the manufacturing stage. The release date is set for mid February 2014 through Rarenoise on CD, Vinyl and various digital formats.

It's been a really inspiring, continually surprising and also enjoyable process working on the album, not least because the two bass format has certainly made me re-evaluate and re-think some aspects of my own approach to playing, and also enabled me to explore some of the sonic possibilities of processing the bass with various effects that I usually can't find a context for.

Additionally, Lorenzo and I have been able to expand the album's sound with input from some amazing guest musicians, who have each added their own very special performances.

 Nils Petter Molvaer, with some of his absolutely transcendent and instantly recognizable trumpet playing.

Drummer Roberto Gualdi, (also of PFM) has played two powerful and intense performances.

Once described as the "Van Gogh of the Saxophone", David Jackson  (of the legendary Van Der Graaf Generator) contributes some magnificently spirited saxophone.

Andi Pupato, is perhaps best known as a former member of the intense "Zen-funk" group Nik Bartch's Ronin, although I also knew his work with Slow Electric and guitarist Robert Jurjendal, plays an array of percussion and has also added some unique sonic elements.

The album has been mixed by bassist/producer Bill Laswell, of whose playing and musical approach I have been a longterm admirer.

The album cover image above uses a photo taken by yours truly, utilising Redscale film and my trusty Fisheye2 camera.

I am pretty sure I took this in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whilst on tour a few years ago. I took a few rolls of film whilst wandering around, and I found it to have plenty of interesting urban geometry.
There is of course some stunning scenery in New Mexico, but I'll save that for another blog...

Design is by Stefano Fratus.

In order to hear some of the sounds, there is now a Twinscapes album preview edit on the Rarenoise Jukebox:

…and not forgetting, a very short youtube trailer over on my channel:

I'll be posting up pre-order information, track listing, etc in the near future.

Best,

Colin

More from the Untrained Artist.

I've been keeping a lot of my son's drawings, paintings etc and was prompted to sit and look at them again after watching a really interesting documentary about Outsider Art.
The term refers to art made by children and the untrained and self taught, as well as that made by people who suffer from mental illness.

I like the definition, "Art made by those who do not know it's name", which implies a very pure intent.

Anyway, I particularly like this, drawn by my son, aged 6, apparently a "Firework Machine" and part of a whole series he calls his "Network Pictures".

A pretty good example of "outsider music" would be The Shaggs, recommended by Frank Zappa himself.

Best,

Colin

Bass Day Madrid - December 14th

See above, I'll be at the Madrid Bass Day next month, on the 14th December.
I'll be spending some time talking about effects and how I like to use them.

More info in Spanish and English can be found here:

Best,

Colin

Live photos Astarta/Edwin at Days of Ukraine

Thanks to Alistair Peck for these photos from last Saturday's Astarta/Edwin set at the Days of Ukraine Festival in London.

The full set can be found over on his Flickr page

Astarta - Inna and Yulia.

Eduard Prystupa, keys and guitar.

Dima, beatboxing, playing a selection of flutes and also a Duduk.

Inna

Yulia

            Jon Durant joined us again on guitar, he has made a really significant contribution to the work in progress recordings, so I'm very glad he made it.

Just visible at the back is drummer Bogdan Kerichok.

Anyway, I'll hopefully have more to say about the project before too long, for now, I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to play the music live a few times so far, and recording is still ongoing.....

Best,

Colin

Days of Ukraine in London

Below, two tracks from the material I've been working on over the last year or so with Kiev based female vocal duo Astarta. 

We'll be performing live together this coming weekend, Saturday 19th October, as part of the Days Of Ukraine Festival, a wide cultural event showcasing a selection of Ukrainian literature, cuisine, fashion, art, and music of course, in London.

I heard Ukraine described on the BBC the other day as "...a large country in Eastern Europe about which most people know nothing" and to my (limited) knowledge, this is the first time any sort of  cultural event focussed around it has happened in London.

 I have never had any sort of personal or family connection to the place, and in fact I only first visited in 2011 to play a one-off date with Ex-Wise Heads, but since then, I have developed an interest in the vibrant and soulful sounds of a lot of the folk music I have been introduced to.

Our performance, and others, will take place at Potters Field Park, right next to the River Thames, and we are scheduled to play around 4.15pm, and admission is free, and there's more information here and also here.

I am also pleased to report that my Burnt Belief partner Jon Durant will be joining us on guitar, as fortuitously, he will also be in the UK working with me on a follow up to our last album Burnt Belief.

Best,

Colin

Twinscapes Teaser

A little taster from the forthcoming Twinscapes album, now scheduled for a February release on Rarenoise:



More to follow,

Best,


Colin

Cassette Store Day.

Today being International Cassette Store Day, it' s a good excuse to shamelessy plug again my most recent release, the "Endless Tapes" EP which is of course available as CD+ cassette bundle from here.

And once again., for anyone that missed it, I can share Petulia Mattioli's marvellous video for one of the tracks over on my youtube channel:




I was certainly a major user/consumer of cassettes for many years, and also spent many hours recording onto a four track cassette recorder, just like this one.

Here's an Endless Tape Loop playing on my old MT120.

As an aside I'd also like to share two books about music I've really enjoyed reading recently,

Simon Reynolds Retromania, (which also has fitting image of a cassette on the cover) and Greg Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever, which is an entertaining read about the history of recorded music and is well worth checking out, especially the section about the testing of mp'3s on listeners.

Best,

Colin

Henry Fool Live photos

Thanks to Caroline Traitler for these photos showing Henry Fool live at the 5 years of K-Scope event at a very hot Garage in London back in July.

It was an all instrumental set mostly taken from the last album, "Men Singing" , (or I should say "based on" rather than "taken from", given that the approach is to improvise around the structures and themes of the material), and I believe one previously unheard number.

Bearpark and Bowness on interlocking guitars.

Ebowing...

I've recently been tracking bass parts to some more song based material, which is another side of the Henry Fool output, so more to follow I think....

Line up left to right:

Stephen Bennett - keyboards, Myke Clifford on saxes and flute, Andrew Booker - drums, Tim Bowness - guitar, yours truly on bass, Mike Bearpark - guitar.

Best,

Colin

PS. 

I also messed about with my Fisheye Camera in the rehearsal, you can see the pictures over on the bands Facebook page 

Morphology

I am playing bass, (mostly fretless, but also some ebow textures and in places my vintage Ovation Magnum II ) on five tracks on Dancing For Architecture's digital album "Morphology".

You can listen and of course download the album here:



I have found, whilst working on them, that some of the tracks had a very pronounced "earworm" effect on me - in a good way, thankfully - so I hope that's true for others too.

Best,

Colin

Face in the Clouds.

I quite like this bit of simulacra, taken earlier this week whilst walking in the countryside....

Twinscapes Recording

I am glad to say that Twinscapes, set in motion for a one off experimental impromtu gig earlier this year, has blossomed into a proper ongoing collaboration with an as yet untitled full length album scheduled for release in February next year on Rarenoise.

To that end, Lorenzo Feliciati and I got together in late June in a somewhat mysterious studio, hidden deep in the English countryside to develop our material together.

Lorenzo and I are currently sifting through, editing and evolving the material further, and also planning the input of some guest musicians, more info will be forthcoming.....

We've now also confirmed a special performance at the London Bass Guitar Show in March 2014.

Bye for now,

Colin

PS. Also a shout out for Lorenzo's latest album (in conjunction with Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari) Berserk!, which is a great album for the adventurous listener and is currently "heavy spins" (as they say) in my earphones.

Photos by Alistair Peck from Human Eye 

Gogol

Gogol, a photo by colinedwin on Flickr.

Double exposure from Kiev

Mick Karn Download Day on Wednesday

Mick Karn Download Day is coming up: https://t.co/LQlOI9cKGE ....much inspiration, sorely missed....please spread the word.
— Colin Edwin (@ColinEdwinT) July 22, 2013

Astarta/Edwin live photos.

Some photos from the debut Astarta/Edwin show at the Kraina Mriy World Music Festival in Kiev at the beginning of this month.

Despite logistical hassles, limited prep time, a language barrier, all the problems inherent in doing an open air show (....in this case a rain shower which appeared out of nowhere just before we were due to play) and an hour long set of brand new, for the most part previously unplayed material, I am happy to say, everything came together really well.

Line up (above left to right Eduard Prystupa (keyboards/guitar), Inna and Yulia (vocals), Dima (flutes, ocarinas and beatboxing), Bogdan (Drums), Jon Durant (guitars) and the bass player.

Below standing in almost the exact same order on stage:

By an amazing coincidence the EBS TD650 amp I used was the same one which I had previously taken as a spare on the Incident tour with Porcupine Tree. 

Eduard and Inna.

Inna and Yulia

Punking it up for the last couple of tunes.

As well as it being a great opportunity to test out in a live environment the "work in progress" (and in some cases as yet unrecorded) tunes, Kriana Mriy was also a very enjoyable place to be.

In addition to a general wandering about, absorbing the uniquely Ukrainian atmosphere, I took some time to share a brandy with the guys from Kozak System, and take in their high energy show.

Big thanks to the "supporting cast" who made the show possible, especially Igor Romanov from Igromart music,  Dima for his invaluable translation, Nataliia for her space and Sacha from Lakeside Studios for live sound and also the most pleasant rehearsal space I've been in a long time.

More to follow I am sure.....

Best,

Colin

Endless Tapes - "Punto Di Vista Differente"

The four track "Endless Tapes EP" is out now and shipping from burning shed.

The picture below shows the CD cover, plus a couple of the limited edition cassettes :

I am also very pleased to present this very fitting video that graphic artist and visualist  Petulia Mattioli has made for our track "Punto Di Vista Differente".

Best,

Colin

New Website.....

In order to have everything in one place, I finally have a website, click here to visit, and scroll along the carousel....

....or you can paste www.colinedwin.co.uk into your browser.

Big thanks to Andrew McCabe at Firemouth for his great design work.

Best,

Colin

Fisheye Hala Stulecia

Quite pleased with this double exposure taken at the Centennial Hall - an amazing building - in Wroclaw, using my Fisheye2.
Metallic Taste of Blood had the use of one of the smaller rooms in the hall to rehearse before our show at the Asymmetry in May, so I had plenty of time to explore....

Colin

Instagram/Twitter

I now have a:


Follow @ColinEdwinT



and also an :




..please come and follow if you are so inclined.....

Best,

Colin

Endless Tapes CD +Cassette pre-orders

"Endless Tapes EP" - CD's have landed, pre-orders are now being taken via burning shed here:

https://www.burningshed.com/store/exwiseheads/

.....note that the 8th July shipping date is the correct one, as the cassettes are still being manufactured....

See my previous entry for more about it.....click here

NB>... fisheye Polaroid not included*

Best,

Colin

New YouTube Channel.

Anyone interested can now subscribe to my YouTube channel, where I'll be uploading some new videos of collaborative and solo work in due course:

Some new videos are on the way, but for now, here is a video for the  Ex-Wise Heads track "Ascendance" from the 2011 album "Schemata".

This video was made by Richard Coldman with photography by Maciej Bury.



Best,

Colin

Endless Tapes EP

Sometime ago, I connected with Brescia based drummer/multi instrumentalist Alessandro "Petrol" Pedretti, whose rhythmically interesting, kaleidoscopic and minimalistic ideas immediately appealed to me, and who was up for helping me develop some of my own musically compatible sketches. 
Working on the material together at various times has also been a great opportunity for me to do a lot of things that either I don't do very often, or sometimes don't do at all, for instance, ebow, slide/feedback style noise guitar, various electronics as well as programming, and also to explore some of the depths of my "further out" FX  (like the Ravish Sitar and my very under-used VB-99 for example). 
I am also pretty sure I've ended up playing every bass I have in my collection at some point, from fretless and upright to my foam muted vintage Ovation Magnum II .- plenty of colours.

Our remote compositions were shaped, honed, edited and mixed with sessions together late last year at Taverna Studios in Brescia, Italy with the assistance of engineer Domenico Vigliotti, and the final results mastered by a friend of mine, Brighton based producer/mixer Paul Mex.

Pedretti and I settled on the name "Endless Tapes" to work under, which I feel is appropriate for the simple reason that, although having of course a linear flow, the music contains a lot of cyclic, sometimes odd meter, circular elements, and in a lot of cases I can imagine the compositions might have resolved in a completely different way to how they have ended up. There's a certain geometric logic to some things, but the mathematical influences are not overiding or distracting in any way, and for me the music retains its emotional elements and also has a great deal of warmth.

I hope listeners will find Endless Tapes fluid, evolving, transparent, spacious, sonically adventurous, atmospheric, hypnotic and highly engaging, reflecting the natural flow that bought it all forth.

Our first release, "Endless Tapes EP" consisting of four tracks, will be available on CD and also a limited edition cassette.

Carl Glover from Aleph has designed a very fitting CD cover....see above, and Petulia Mattioli has made a video for one of the tracks, which I'll be sharing very soon.

I was for many years, a major listener of music on cassette, only recently exchanging the tape deck in my car for an ipod based system. There's something about the inability to instantly skip from one track to the next (I never had one of those tape decks that found the silence between tracks) that often led me to persevere with some tracks I didn't instantly connect with, which is no bad thing.

Anyway, cassette actually seems like an appropriate format for Endless Tapes, as perhaps the music is really best listened to whilst watching those little wheels go round and round.......

I'll be posting up some more info soon....

Best,

Colin

Astarta/Edwin - Live at Kraina Mriy Festival in July.

More cyrillic...the above poster is for the Kraina Mriy World Music Festival in Kiev, Ukraine in July, where I'll be performing live with Astarta/Edwin, i.e. myself and Ukrainian vocal duo Astarta.

 I am very pleased to have also persuaded my Burnt Belief partner Jon Durant to make the trek from Boston, USA to join us and add his amazing guitar stylings.

Jon has made some great contributions to the Astarta/Edwin material, (which is still work in progress at the moment), so it's fitting that he joins us, more details in due course.

Above - In Vyshgorod, near Kiev.

                                                          Astarta  -  Inna left, Yulia right.

Despite having an avid interest in all things mythographic, I must to confess to having been slow off the mark and totally not recognising the origin of the name Astarta, which is, I now realise, the Ukrainian-ized name for "Astarte", the Ancient goddess, certainly appropriate given the "Yin" energy that Inna and Yulia have in abundance....

Best,

Colin

Live Photos Metallic Taste of Blood.

Some live photos Metallic Taste of Blood from Wroclaw, thanks to Veronika Klimonová and Kamil Downarowicz for the pictures.

Balazs Pandi

My Wal

Eraldo Bernocchi tunes up...

 Roy Powell

Roy's hands

Eraldo Bernocchi

Balasz Pandi