[Modulator ESP Weblog]

More live dates for 2009

2009-03-02T22:24:00.002Z

Awakenings, Burton on Trent 18th April performing a minimal ambient/experimental set, also on the bill The Omega Syndicate and 4m33s

Elektron 09 Redditch 25th April performing an ambient set with Peter Tedstone and a Berlin School set with Peter and John Sherwood aka 4m33s

Ghosts in the Machine III Swindon 13th June performing an ambient/experimental set. Lots of other acts on the bill including Ion, 4m33s, The Glimmer Room and Edge Effect

Sonic World Festival 2009 Ripley 4th and 5th of September performing an ambient set on the Saturday afternoon. Lots of other acts on the bill including Harvey Bainbridge, Whimwise, Loscoe State Opera, Sendelica, Hashtronaut and Steve Palmer's Non-Existent Group

I'm also hoping to do a Nottingham gig in June sometime with Peter Challoner/SpiralEye, hopefully some more Stillstream streaming concerts and maybe even something abroad in October.

New Releases: Live 2008 Parts One and Two

2009-03-02T22:13:00.002Z

Historic Edition Vol 5 - Live 2008 Part One

Volume 5 features two live tracks from 2008, the recordings of my electro-music.com NYE performance from January 1st 2008 and my more experimental set at Mantile on 16th August

Personnel: Jez Creek, Synthesizers and sequencers
Style: Improvised Berlin School Sequencing/ Experimental Ambient/Drone

Running Time: 77:34 (2 tracks)

Available as CDR in wallet with printed inlay and label:

Historic Edition Vol 6 - Live 2008 Part Two

Volume 6 features three live tracks from 2008, the recordings of my sets from Elektron and Awakenings in June and my set opening Dundee-Live from October

Personnel: Jez Creek, Synthesizers and sequencers
Style: Improvised Berlin School Sequencing/ Experimental Ambient/Drone

Running Time: 79:39 (3 tracks)

Available as CDR in wallet with printed inlay and label:

Rammel Club #2

2009-01-28T21:01:00.000Z

The Rammel Club gig went really well and I really enjoyed the whole thing. the place was full as loads of people had come to see Emeralds.

I was on second, after Gareth Hardwick who did some droney/ambient guitar looping stuff, joined on stage by Dan Layton aka Apalusa, who I'd seen before an rather enjoyed. Their set was plagued by technical difficulties at the start and took quite a while to get going, but ended up much as I'd hope from hearing them soundcheck, as a wall of chiming, droning guitars

I went on shortly after they finished, after a speedy equipment change and played 30 minutes of improvised space music 'to help propel you into the outer reaches of the cosmos', or something like that

My set was improvised live using a Nord G2, Electrix Repeater and SP-404 through a couple of Boss pedals, a DD-20 Giga delay and an RC-20 Space Echo. It was my first gig using the Repeater to build up loops and layers and it worked really well, I cam up with some stuff that surprised even me and at one point I got a loop going that just made me grin

I tried to keep things changing, playing live stuff over loops from the Repeater and layering in some stuff from the SP-404, at one point I even went a bit Vangelis, just for the fun of it

Recording of my set is on rapidshare here

After me came Birds of Delay who started out with a single bass note drone that didn't change much for four or so minutes, when it was joined by something that sounded like metal blades being sharpened and then this all dropped out to be replaced by several different versions of the word 'snap' repeated and layered in ever so slightly out of sync loops for about 20 minutes. I stayed for a few minutes but decided this was a good opportunity to retire to the bar

Emeralds were on last and they were what everyone had been waiting for, myself included. They are three young chaps from Ohio, two with synths (Korg MS10 and Moog Microomoog) and one with a guitar, all three with lots of pedals. They played a set with huge walls of synth/guitar drone interspersed with sections of spacey melodic guitar and even a section of sequences. It was all very loud and noisy but still kind of cosmic and was over far too soon after only 30 minutes.
lots of people I knew turned up, so many thanks to:

Alan Walker
Pete Challoner
Rob Johnson & Jon Poole
Dave Davies
Susi O'Neill
Suzie and Ian from work
Dave Buxton and Geoff Kemm

Astrogator, The Omega Syndicate, Create & Modulator ESP, Live at the Awakenings 8th July 2006

2006-07-12T23:43:00.000+01:00

The gig last saturday went really well, I got there last but was set up first, which shows that keeping the same rig from one gig to the next really helps.

I went on first at just after 7pm (halfway through my tea) to perform for roughly half an hour as Modulator ESP, doing a lightly more ambient set than usual and using my laptop to edit Nord Modular sequences on the fly. i also had some sequences set up in the Regelwerk, which was triggering the SH-101 and Mono/Poly. The time went really quickly without any major cock-ips and I was fairly satisfied with my set. Audience feedback was pretty good.

Next up was fellow Astrogator Steve Humphries aka Create, who performed a couple of nice spacey pieces for his solo set, he had a few technical difficulties in the first one, but carried on regardless. there were also a few humourous samples, just for fun. I really enjoyed Steve's second pice which had some nice minimal backing sequennces.

Next up were The Omega Syndicate, with new members Glenn Alexander on keys and Rob Clynes on guitar. What followed was a powerful set of sequence heavy EM/prog/space rock. The new boys added extra dimensions to the TOS sound and allowed Dave and Xan to concentrate on some nice lead work and sequencing respectively.

Finally to round off the evening Steve and I performed a live improvised version of Dreamlight, which sort of had the main themes and ideas from the rehearsal versions, but with a slightly different structure and extra bits. I really enjoyed this set and according to Steve the recording sounds pretty good so who knows, maybe it will be made available as Dreamlight Live.

The only downside was that the audience was quite small, though we had a nice surprise in that a US EM fan who happened to be in the UK came over from Manchester to see us. Thanks Tom. Read his review on the Awakenings website.

We released the new limited CDR 'Dreamlight' and sold quite a few copies on the night.

All in all a fine evening of EM

Photos soon...

Time Zero Review

2006-06-28T21:24:00.000+01:00

Nice review of Time Zero by Artemi Pugachov

"Tronic Pulse" starts with warbling & rasping synthesizers coupled with mysterious Mellotron flute. After a while a sequence builds and we are immediately in mid-70's Tangerine Dream territory. Not bad!

"Beyond the Sun" has excellent deep intro. Jez made an excellent job of synthesizing really out-there sounds on this one. This is cosmic EM of the highest order. I just have to wonder why they don't use this stuff in movies about cosmos these days, going for some boring orchestral drek instead. Excellent sequence starts and what a great sequence it is! Coupled with a super-punchy bass sound it really has a bite to it! The Mellotron flute appears in this track as well, combining to great effect with synthetic textures. This is Berlin School with a fresh attitude - top notch stuff!

"Quadratic", once again has quite an aggressive intro, with harsh, raspy sounds and echoing clangs. After a while a slow sawy bass sequence appears. Another sequence joins the flow, making this a real wall-of-sound experience. This is stark, dark and decidedly un-commercial Electronic Music. The sequences are excellent while the overall nature of the track remains absolutely otherworldly. I think if you're into geometry - you will enjoy this. Jez has really managed to express the beauty of simple geometrical forms with this one - sort of a dry, naked beauty wrapped in intricate forms. And where one would be without that Mellotron flute? There's a bit of that too, but it only appears for the last several seconds of the track.

Next is "Eos Flight" that initially sets the stage with deep and mysterious effects & pads. A rhythmic pulse starts but never dominates. Looks like it's the most laid-back track so far. Various lead sounds and additional sequences play on top but overall the track retains that relaxed, jamming feel.

The title track starts with echoes of unknown origin but after a while we hear some whooshing sounds and very deep bass throbs. Various other sounds can be heard and this is easily one of those effective intro's you don't want to end. However, as we are closing the 10 minute mark, a slow bass / rhythm combination starts and takes us to the next section that is dominated by ever-so-slightly shifting and morphing rhythms, all of them of the laid-back variety. This is an unusual track indeed and it's unlike anything I've heard from Jez so far. A great lead line is heard around the 16 minute mark. Another sequence appears as the lead line continues its play. Some heavier rhythms can be heard after 20 minutes into the track that has turned into quite a journey by now. Superb analogue-sounding solos add a pleasant warmness and really make me go "wow!" This is quite simply some of the best neo-prog EM I've heard in a while. Fans of Berlin School will be delighted, especially those who favour complex, long-form compositions with great rhythms, lots of sequences, atmospheres and a sparkling solo or two to boost. One thing to add is that Jez' sound is now much more refined (compared to previous efforts) and supplied with a good dose of reverb, adding the pleasant "spaciness" to his compositions. He seems to have put much more effort in his songs which are now better thought-out and composed with a level of precision and feeling that many would be jealous of. The last part of the title track lets the sequences to shine in all their glory and adds a new bell-like sequence that sounds very organic. A mournful pad sound is all one needs to complete the mental picture of traveling through space & time. The journey's over and we want more.

But wait, Jez serves us a little dessert in the form of "Chromium". It consists of typical "Modulator ESP" atmospheres - all in a mysterious and a bit claustrophobic setting. Interesting little track.

"Time Zero" is the best Modulator ESP album so far and a real must for fans of Berlin School / sequencer music. Excellent!

from the Encyclopedia of Electronic Music

Latest Updates

2006-06-27T12:27:00.000+01:00

Shrewsbury gig with Mooch:

This went very well and was most enjoyable, there was a good reaction from the audience and I even sold some CDs. Stayed over at a very nice B&B and spent the following day mooching round Shrewsbury with Steve Palmer (Mooch).

Time Zero:

Was released at the Shrewsbury gig and initial sales went very well with virtually no advertising and I got some good reviews from people who bought copies. At the time of writing there are now only 7 copies left. There are full details here and reviews here

Awakenings 2006 vol 2:

This compilation will feature a new exclusive Modulator ESP track entitled 'Time Running Out'.

Awakenings 2006 vol 2.5:

This ambient compilation will feature a new exclusive Astrogator track entitled 'Astral Drift' which is an edit of material from the second Chesterfield Jam.

Astrogator:

Went over to Steve's house on 2nd - 4th June, primarily to go on his stag do but also to plan/rehearse our set for our next gig, which is on July 8th at the Brudenell in Leeds. We will be doing a set as Astrogator and individual solo sets. Also appearing are the mighty Omega Syndicate. Should be a good one.

Listening back to recordings of the sessions we decided we probably had enough material for a limited edition release, provisionally entitled 'Dreamlight' which we hope to get sorted in time for the July gig.

I am also working on my solo set for Awakenings on July 8th and hope to do something a bit different from my last appearance.

Artist Server:

I've also just upgraded my Artist Server account so I can upload loads more music, I've just put up some old stuff and a couple of new pieces, which were improvised using the step sequencers in the Nord modular:

Modular Xperiment 01 - An experiment using multiple layers of shifting sequences, ebbing, flowing and morphing. One slot was used for sequences and another was used for background noise effects. This one turned out to be quite 'Berlin School' like.

Modular Xperiment 02 - Another experiment, this time with more random sequences. Sort of minimal chaotic ambient.

New album - Time Zero/ Gig update

2006-04-19T21:03:00.000+01:00

The next Modulator ESP album is due for release at the Shrewsbury gig on 2nd May 2006. The album is called 'Time Zero' and will contain a selection of unreleased studio and live recordings. The provisional track listing at the moment is:
1. Tronic Pulse (Retro Improv)
2. Eos Flight
3. Quadratic
4. Chromium
5. Undecided as yet (possibly something new, if not, one of the catalog of studio and live improvs currently residing on the hard drive)
6. Time Zero
It will be a limited edition CDR release, probably of about 25 copies. Each copy will be individually numbered and signed. Let me know if you'd like a copy reserving

Provisional cover artwork:

Flyer for gig:

Running times:

Doors around 7:30
Modulator ESP 9:00-9:45
Mooch 10:00-11:00
DJs Jez and Steve playing spacey music 'til about 12:00-12:30

Modulator ESP: Live Shrewsbury 02.05.06

2006-04-12T00:41:00.000+01:00

I am currently due to play at a club/bar in Shrewsbury called C:21 on Tuesday 2nd May.
This will be supporting Steve Palmer aka Mooch as he launches the new Mooch album Gaiaspace.

Further details as and when they become available.

New tracks and Myspace

2006-04-12T00:32:00.000+01:00

I've recently uploaded a couple of newish, rather Berlin Schoolish tracks:
Quadratic - This was to try out some ideas for the Quadra Jam recorded on 18.02.06. A bit rough, but some nice sequencing using the P3 and the Cheetah MS6, other sounds were from the Microwave XT, Prophet 600 and Prophet VS. A report of the jam is still being drafted.
Retro Improv - This is a simple improvisation, and is my first recording to feature Mellotron flute, courtesy of my new Roland M-VS1 sound module. Sequences were from the SH-101, other sounds were from the Prophet 600 and Prophet VS.
Also if anyone else on here is on Myspace I have recently set up an account. Both of these tracks are currently available to stream from there...

Updates: Forum, Recording, Jams

2006-02-09T23:30:00.000Z

Forum: I have a new forum, for the discussion of my music and electronic music in general, it's at:

Recording: Work has begun on my new studio album at last.

As I've been concentrating on improvising it's been a bit of a change trying to do something a bit more organised.

I've booked a couple of days off to do a bit of recording as I never seem to be able to find the time, what with work and life and stuff .

It's not gone so well so far as I'm still suffering from my cold and my concentration isn't so good. The hacking cough doesn't help either.

Have managed to get started though, which is always the biggest hurdle.

Have a very nice spacey intro and some nice analog sequences laid down so far.

Hopefully, now that I've got the ball rolling I'll be able to add to it in due course.

Jams: I've got a couple of jams lined up, tomorrow I'm off to jam with Steve and Dave and Xan of The Omega Syndicate. Should be fun.

Then on the 25th of February Steve and I are off down to Bedford to jam with Brendan Pollard (Rogue Element) and John Sherwood (4m33s, Entity, Cult of Ashand). This should be a very interesting session as we will get to try out some of the vintage gear in the Rogue Element studio

Formication + Modulator ESP 19.01.06

2006-01-29T18:10:00.000Z

Well the gig with Formication went really well, apart from a few technical problems and a few car-related incidents that I will get to later.

Got to the venue for 7pm, parked outside (on a bit of pavement) and unloaded, helped by the Formication guys.

Got everything set-up quite quickly and tidily and was soundchecked by about 8:30. Somehow managed to misplace my camera while setting up but did manage to get the video camera set-up to tape the gig.

The venue was full of young trendy students, quite a different crowd to a normal EM gig. A few friends also came down, including Dave, Pete, Alan, Ian and Katy. (Thanks guys)

I was quite nervous due to the large crowd, but pulled myself together and went on at 9:05 and played about an hour long set of drones, spacey ambient sections, sequencer sections and a few wig-out solos too.

Unfortunately I had a few technical problems during the gig:

I forgot to press record on the minidisc, then when I did remember, when I checked the recording levels I realised I'd also forgotten to plug the minidisc in, as I'd been using it's output with my headphones for a few final checks. Hopefully I should only have missed about 5 mins.

Also, during the first half of the set, when I came to fade things out for a transition, I found I had some stuck notes droning in the background. After desperately checking all the faders on the mixing desk I realised it was the Prophet 600, but in the dark I couldn't really work out why, so I just turned it off. Later when I decided to give it another go I discovered that about 5 of the top keys had slipped out of alignment and were sticking down.

Apparently no-one noticed so hopefully the recording won't have been ruined.

There was a fair bit of applause at the end of the set and at several points during the set where it sounded like I may have been coming to the end of a piece.

Unfortunately, as soon as I came off stage, Alan, one of the promoters, came up to me to tell me that someone had snapped the wing mirror of my car whilst I was playing. Luckily the bouncers had manged to get the pieces off the miscreants. I managed to put all the pieces back together but despite the best efforts of Alan and myself we just couldn't get it back on. Deciding to leave it 'til the morning I headed back inside to sort a few things out.

I was still on a high from the performance and wasn't really bothered, as I was sure it could be fixed.

Reports from people I spoke to afterwards were that my set was pretty well recieved and that there were even people dancing. I sold a few CDs too.

Next thing I knew, Jared, the other one of the Leftlion promoters was outside arguing with a traffic warden, who wanted to give me a ticket for illegal parking. Ooops, in all the excitement I'd completely forgotten to move my car and lo and behold I was issued with a £30 fine. Bugger.

Even this didn't really phase me, so I got in the car and drove off to find a parking space 1/2 a mile up the road.

Headed back in time to catch the bulk of Formications set, slightly dazed by the evenings events.

Jared very kindly paid my fine too, which made me feel rather guilty as it was really my fault, but it made him happy as he was still feeling guilty about the wing mirror incident.

Some photos:

Gratuitous gear shot

Me in action (photo by Alec of Formication)

Formication in action

rest here

All in all, quite a strange evening, but overall a positive experience.
I even had some girls come up and ask me questions after the gig which was nice.
Also big thanks to Joe who helped me pack up afterwards

Dave Davies + Modulator ESP 13.01.06: Secret gig report

2006-01-16T18:02:00.000Z

Did a 'secret' gig supporting Dave Davies at Bunker's Hill on Friday 13th January, sort of as a dress rehearsal for the gig supporting Formication on the 19th. Was very useful as it helped me iron out a few wrinkles in the sounds and setting up departments. gig was video-taped and recorded and highlights should be made available in due course.

Photos:

The funky backdrops lit properly

Dave performing his very minimal spacey electronica

Nice shot of me in action

More here

Modulator ESP interview in LeftLion

2006-01-15T23:11:00.000Z

Here's the text of an interview I did recently for LeftLion, a magazine and website dedicated to Nottingham culture

When did you begin to record as Modulator ESP?

Well, I have been recording bits and pieces in between playing in bands since the early nineties, though I didn’t actually decide to use the name until about 2001, when I compiled my first proper solo album (Random Fluctuations) out of the best stuff I’d produced over the previous 5 or so years. More recent albums as Modulator ESP have all been recordings of improvised gigs. I’m just about to start work on my second studio album, if I can ever make the time.

How would you describe your style to new punters?

A mixture of (dark) ambient, ‘70s electronic music (Jean Michel Jarre/ Tangerine Dream) and prog rock (Rick Wakeman). To people who don’t know the music of the artists mentioned I’d say it was spacey instrumental music, the sort of music they would play in planetariums.

So what exactly is this experimental synth project?

A ‘get out clause’ so that I can do different things when I want to without getting labelled as one particular style. Also a way to get round the one small problem I discovered after choosing to call my project Modulator, that there is an American pop/rock band who have been using it slightly longer.

What instruments and kit do you use to create the music?

I use analog and digital synthesizers in combination with analog style step sequencers that allow real time interaction with the sounds and the rhythmic parts enabling me to improvise more freely.

Tell us about the other bands you’ve been in during your time in Nottingham?

I’ve been in three ‘bands’ in my time in Nottingham: ‘Spiritland’ was a studio project with a guitarist called Dave, we made a tape and then he left to play with Toyah, she dumped him after the tour and he lives down somewhere down South. ‘Voyage Within’ was an obscure ‘prog’ band. We did about 3 gigs, very weird, complicated music in all sorts of odd time signatures. We had terrible problems with drummers and vocalists and were an instrumental band for most of the time we were together. I left due to ‘personal’ differences. ‘Made in the Shade’/ ‘Shadowdancer’ was the last band, doing quirky melodic rock/pop, with another two guys called Dave, we did lots of gigs around Nottingham and even one in Derby, again without a drummer. I left to do my own thing, which turned out to be the current project ‘Modulator ESP’, and I’m also in another band called ‘Astrogator’ with a chap from Manchester.

If you could get anyone in to hook up on a track, who would you choose?

I’d quite like to do some stuff with a guitarist, someone like a young Dave Gilmour or Robert Fripp, into more textural stuff.

What other music in Nottingham are you feeling?

Not a lot really, there doesn’t seem to be anyone doing the sort of stuff I’m into in Nottingham these days. I mostly go to gigs up in Leeds or at the National Space Centre at Leicester.

What other music are you feeling generally?

At the moment, I’m listening to lot of pretty obscure electronic music, stuff by Steve Roach, Stephen Parsick/ [‘ramp], a band called Node etc.

What’s your idea of a good night out in Nottingham?

On a night out I generally prefer the rock end of the music spectrum, so I like the Tap for a drink then on to Rock City.

Do you follow County of Forest in the footy?

Neither, I’m afraid I’ve never understood the appeal.

Who is your ultimate Nottingham hero?

After much deliberation I’d have to say Richard Beckinsale, he was funny and it was tragic that he died so young.

What was the last thing that made you laugh?

Marvin the Paranoid Android shooting the Vogon soldiers with the Point Of View (POV) gun at the end of the Hitch-Hikers movie, leaving them all collapsed on the floor moaning about how depressed they were. Sad to say the POV gun was probably the funniest bit of the film.

What was the last thing that made you cry?

The end of King Kong., when Kong dies at the top of the Empire State building

What was the last film you saw?

At the cinema – King Kong on my birthday, fantastic, made me laugh and cry and even feel a bit sick.
On DVD – The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as a huge fan of the books/radio series/TV show I couldn’t bring myself to see this at the cinema after reading a review that slated it. It was an interesting experience, with great visuals, but I felt it suffered from superfluous additions to the plot, crap characters and the wanton removal of all Douglas Adams jokes. I did laugh occasionally though, the POV gun amused me

What was the last book you read?

Batman Year One, graphic novel by Frank Miller, an extended take on the Batman origin detailing his first year as a fighting crime and corruption in gotham City.

What can we expect from your gig at the Orange Tree?

Depending on time, one or maybe two quite long evolving improvised pieces, with some weird abstract bits and some more rhythmic, melodic bits. There are several good examples of live sets available from my website, including one recorded very early on New Years Day which was streamed live around the world.

Is there any question that you really wish we had asked you..?

No, these have been pretty comprehensive.

Anything else you’d like to say to LeftLion readers?

Come to the gig at the Orange Tree if you fancy an evening of music almost but not completely unlike anything you will hear anywhere else...

link to interview online here

New gigs in January

2006-01-12T17:59:00.000Z

Details here

Awakenings 02.12.05 AirSculpture, SkinMechanix, Astrogator, Entity

2005-12-18T18:32:00.000Z

Well I had a pretty good night, barring a few 'technical' problems things went quite well. Here's a brief review:

Entity opened with a good set of spacey ambient/sequenced EM. They played one continuous piece, also called 'Entity'. John and Steve produced some nice music with a very minmal set-up. There is a download of part of their set available from here.

Astrogator was fun. One member of the audience said it was like seeing TD in '81. We did a very sequencey set, semi-improvised (Steve and I had exchanged some basic ideas on CD so that we weren't too crap). Track 1 didn't work out as planned as Steve couldn't hear half of what he was playing, and the original melody got lost somewhere along the way. Tracks 2 and 3 were more fun because by then we were both a bit more relaxed and decided to go for it. Due to time constraints we couldn't really go for the long drawn out gradual development of our more improvised jams, but most people seemed to prefer it when the sequences all kicked in. Maybe next time we'll be able to do a bit more spacey stuff.

SkinMechanix had had problems getting to the venue and had to setup halfway through the gig. Dave played some new stuff, which was more ambient/melodic, some of which even used the Zeit! Dave's more structured appoach to EM isn't really my cup of tea these days but there were some good bits when it all came together.

Airsculpture played two pieces, the first was about 40 minutes of solid sequencing, which got off to a slow start but gradually built-up into some sort of demented hybrid of EM and dance. do I detect the influence of Mr Nagle?
The second piece, their encore, was a bit more traditional and started out as the intro to TranceAtlantic, then built solidly as more sequences were added and then changed. Nice

More photos here

All in all, apart from a particularly horrible drive home, it was an excellent end to the first proper year of Awakenings gigs, thanks to everyone who played, attended and especially to John Sherwood for setting it all up and organising it.

Looking forward to next year already.

Hampshire Jam 4: Liphook 12.11.05

2005-11-29T12:31:00.000Z

The Hampshire Jam was a bit different this year, as Steve Jenkins, the organiser, had decided not to do the usual Berlin School sequencer fest. He'd got an interesting line-up, with plenty of variation, but even though nothing stood out for me as much as Arc at HJ3, there was some good stuff from each of the acts.

Narcosis played a short set, which was a bit like the more improvised bit of Stephan Whitlan's HJ2 set, with Steve Jenkins adding backing textures and sequences. Stephan then performed his infamous SF medley.

RMI played a very mixed set, started ambient and weird and then built up into some huge sequences, then did a couple of pieces which didn't really do it for me (too structured and rather formulaic, with cheesy organ chord sequences) and ended with a very experimental piece (which was like an excerpt of the Leeds Awakenings gig) and a guitar, bass and drum workout called 'Syd Barrett'

Keller, Schonwalder & Broekhuis had a few problems with gear in the first part of their set, but got back on track for part 2 and their encore. Nice to see a laser harp being played. Also some nice sequence manipulation from Mario. I thought Detlef played some really nice stuff, esp in part 2, but just wished that the sequences had been a bit more upfront.

Technical problems throughout the day held everything up so much that der Spyra went on an hour late. His set started out very modern and quite melodic then he was joined by a guest performer, who played the 'bow chime' for a mulimedia experiment in Metallitronics called Steel Lament, with projections of steelworks and such. The second part of the set was much more powerful, with some nice basslines and sequences (from 2 laptops). Wolfram really seemed to get into this part of the set, even standing up to play.

All in all a good day of live EM finished off with a good curry with Adrian and John from Airsculpture.

What more could you want?

Free System Projekt: NSC 29.10.05

2005-11-07T00:29:00.000Z

Went to see the extremely wonderful Dutch EM band FSP last Saturday at the National Space Centre. They play some quite retro stuff inspired by the great electronic music of the '70s. I saw them do a great set last year at the Hampshire Jam and expectations were high.

As ever there was plenty of new and vintage equipment on stage, which was put to work producing deep sequences, dark spacey pads and drones and weird effects.

They played two long sets and an encore and there were some amazing moments in both sets. A particular highlight for me was when the 3D light show took us on a journey through the Solar System and out into space with FSP's music providing the soundtrack.

More photos here

Two have fun in Holland - E-Live 2005

2005-10-24T23:39:00.000+01:00

Well, it's taken a while, but I've finally caught up on nearly all the things I had to do and now have time to record the adventures of Steve and myself in Holland

Day One - Thursday 13th October - Departure

I had to work Thursday morning, so I didn't get home to get my stuff ready until about 2:00, Steve was coming to pick me up at about 3:00. It took me ages to get all my stuff together, even though most of it had been packed the previous night, as I spent ages looking for one power supply. Even when Steve arrived I had a bit of a job making sure I didn't forget anything. Eventually everything was packed and we headed off to Hull.

Arrived in Hull around 6:00 pm and got to the ferry terminal about 6:15. We were on the ferry by about 6:45. We found our room, dumped our stuff then headed up to the top deck so we could get reception to send a few text messages. Enjoyed some entertainment from a Yamaha Grand acoustic piano, which was merrily playing itself, and then some 'light cocktail' music from a young lady singing acoustic ballads.

We then had a wander round to see if we could find some food, discovered everything was really expensive and finally settled for some Continental snacks. We then headed back to the cabin for a can of beer. Steve was pretty tired from all the driving and went straight to bed, whilst I had a play on my P600 for an hour or so and then decided to get some sleep too.

Day Two - Friday 14th October - Lost in Holland/ Garden Rehearsal

The ferry arrived into Rotterdam at about 7:00 am, which was 8:00 am UK time. We had directions from Ron from Rotterdam to Best, were he lived, which looked fairly simple, but were in fact rather confusing. We found ourselves looking for a road called the A16, but could only find the A15. Not having a map we decided to stop at some services to see if we could buy one. Unfortunately they had maps of France and Belgium, but not Holland. Luckily there was a map on the wall on the way out which we used to get our bearings and plan our route.

Back on the motorway we made good time and got to Best around 11:00 (NL time). We found Ron's house quite easily and rang the doorbell, which was answered by his wife, who invited us in and made us a drink :)

Ron wasn't there when we arrived as he was finishing a few jobs ready for the big day. We wanted to unload our gear and Steve wanted a bit of practice, so rather than clutter up Ron's house, as it was a lovely sunny day, we decided to set up outside, under a canopy on Ron's patio.

Gear in the garden

Posing

Ron returns

Steve played through his set then we practised a few ideas for our encore as Astrogator and then just jammed for a while. Whilst we were playing we were joined by Mick Garlick who had come over with Michael Shipley and Steve Smith (VoLt), who stayed for a chat and a bite to eat then had to head off to check in to their hotel, but not before arranging a rendezvous in Eindhoven for beer that evening.

We finished rehearsing, packed all the gear up, moved it into the house and then sat out on Ron's patio as darkness fell. Ron returned from some more preparations and we had a discussion about the electronic music business and Ron shared his views on EM from the perspective of a musician, label owner and retailer. Some thought provoking stuff.

Then it was time for dinner, burgers and fries (with egg) and then into Eindhoven for beer. We decided to drive, as taxis are relatively expensive in Holland, so we got directions from Ron and confidently headed off. Unfortunately we hadn't got our bearings right and got horribly lost, then found a road into Eindhoven, then had to do several circumnavigations of the town centre as we couldn't find anywhere to park, eventually finding a car park near the station. Then we had to find our way to our destination, based on memories from last year, which amazingly, we did.

We met Mick, Steve and Mike, as well as Phil Booth and Ian Russell and spent a pleasant couple of hours enjoying some fine Dutch lager and chatting about electronic music. It was quite weird the way the bar was run as waitresses came to take orders, but never took any money. Soon it was time Steve and I had to leave, so that we could get back to Ron's before the door was locked at 1:00am and we still hadn't paid any money, so as the others were staying, we left them some money, which was lucky for Mike and Steve, who got the bill for the whole evening when they finally decided to leave.

Well, unsurprisingly enough we had a job getting back to Ron's in time as we managed to find a different way back to Best and got completely lost, ending up going round the ring round trying every exit until we accidentally found one that led to Ron's. We were pretty tired and headed off to bed as we wanted to make an early start as we had a big day ahead.

Day Three - Saturday 15th October - E-Live 2005

After the previous two rather tiring day our good intentions of an early start came to nothing as we slept in late, luckily, as we were playing in the evening we only had to get our gear to the venue by lunchtime. We just about managed it as we only got slightly lost on our way to the venue. thanks to Ian we got our stuff in as Pyramid Peak were sound checking, and stored it all on the side of the stage.

We then went off to the artists dressing room for some food and a chat with the Kees and the boys from VoLt, then we had a wander round the stalls before the acts started up. It was nice to meet a few people from the EM forum and chat about music and stuff.

The first act on was 'Fear Falls Burning', billed as an ambient guitar project. He produced some rather loud and occasionally abrasive drones and loops that built into a cycling wall of noise. It was rather interesting to see a mass exodus of folk who weren't at impressed. No photos I'm afraid as it was too dark :)

Next we nipped upstairs to see René van der Wouden, from Holland, who was performing on the sub-stage between the acts on the main stage.

René apparently played three quite different sets, but due to having to get our gear onstage and soundchecked as soon as Pyramid Peak had performed, we only managed to catch the first set. This was pretty pleasant melodic EM, with some nice sequencing and understated solos.

Next up on the main stage were Pyramid Peak, from Germany, who seemed to perform their set to backing tracks played from a DVD which provided the synced visuals. The music was quite good and what was played live was execute well, I just felt that the backing sounded a bit flat and let them down a little. It was an extremely professionally executed performance, but it just seemed to lack life.

Next up were Steve and I, Steve to do about an hour or so as Create, then the two of us to do the encore together as Astrogator, following the example of Gert Emmens and Ruud Heij from E-live 2004.

Both VoLt and us had about an hour to setup and souncheck, apparently we did really well as we were ready to go after 45 mins, so Steve got some extra practice time.

Setting up

Soon it was time to take my seat and watch Steve's performance, which I thought was much improved over his performance at the Awakenings in August, thought there was one small timing problem in the last track, but I doubt many people would notice.

(Thanks to Martin Hoegee for the photo)

As Steve started his final piece I started to get a bit nervous as I would be joining him on stage soon. I actually thought about pretending to have fallen asleep, which wouldn't have been too difficult as the long days and lack of sleep were starting to catch up on me. Then Steve was announcing that I was to join him and I had to do the long walk down to the stage, across and up to my synths.

(Thanks to Martin Hoegee for the photo)

I started the piece with some rather nice ambient sounds from my Prophet VS and some FX from the Prophet 600, then layere in an arpeggio from the Korg Mono/Poly. Steve joined in with some spacey sounds and we gradually built it up until it was time for the main sequence to come in. I dropped ou the arpeggio an layered up a few sounds to allow Steve's sequence to be mixed in and then we were off on the main section and all the nervous energy was unleashed. Too soon it was time to draw everything to a close, which we did in time honoured tradition with a nice spaced out ending.

I think it went down well as we seemed to get a fair amount of applause, which helped make all the effort worthwhile.

Loads of people came up to the stage to look at our gear and take photos and several said they had really enjoyed it. There were some nice comments about my gear too.

We got some good feedback about the fact that both Steve's main set on his own and the two of us together as Astrogator had obviously been 100% live, which people seemed to really appreciate.

We almost sold out of Astrogator CDs after the show and Steve was busy signing Create CDs. I even got asked to sign a copy of The Darkness Between, which was quite nice.

All too soon it was time to head back to the auditorium to see Steve and Mike. VoLt had almost as much gear on stage as we did, and used it to good effect, producing a set of classic sequenced EM, marred only by a mysterious hum which turned out to be somehow be something to do with the lights. A particular highlight for me was a medley of old Michael Shipway tracks in the middle of the set, and the rocking encore.

I have to say, if I had only gone as a paying audience member, this set would have made it worth going all the way to Holland. As it was meeting VoLt and getting to know Mike and Steve as fellow musicians made seeing them play even more enjoyable.

Then it was time to pack up, helped once more by Mr Russell. Unfortunately we couldn't go into town for a farewell beer as we had a car full of gear to get home so we headed back to Ron's for the traditional post gig kebab supper with the crew.

As ever we managed to get lost once more, but still made it back just as everyone was starting to eat and managed to get some food and join in the discussion about how the day had gone. which was very well apparently, then it was time for bed, 'cos we were knackered.

Day Four - Sunday 16th October - The Aftermath

We stayed in bed 'til 11:00, then got up to have a lazy breakfast, then we were joined by Ron who showed us round his studio and played us a new track from his next album. We had an interesting afternoon talking about gear and recording and found out a lot about Ron's history as an electronic musician and the history of E-Live.

Soon it was time to head for Rotterdam to catch the ferry home, which we managed to do without getting lost at all :-)

The ferry back was much the same as the ferry over, so not much to tell, except we decided to have the beers we hadn't been able to have the night before and had a pleasant evening getting ever so slightly drunk ;-)

Day Five - Monday 17th October - The Traffic Nightmare

With the time difference and journey time we expected to get into Hull pretty early, only to find that they had obviously come back slowly to compensate, which lead to us getting into Hull just in time to hit the morning rush hour. It took us nearly an hour to get onto clear roads, then we hit fog on the M1 and it was back down to a crawl for about another hour. This wouldn't have been so bad except that Steve had to work that evening and wanted to meet his girlfriend for lunch before he went on a late shift for several days.

In the end it he was lucky as work actually gave him the day off, but it was pretty frustrating as we were sat in traffic, and nearly spoiled the whole experience, but not quite.

Maybe one day we'll get to go back and do a full set together, I certainly hope so it was great fun.

It was a dark and stormy night...

2005-10-11T23:02:00.000+01:00

...as I drove down to Northampton motorway services to pick up my latest piece of musical equipment, a Korg Mono/Poly purchased at the weekend from a guy called Matt from London, who had intended to send it to me by courier, but on Monday when he'd gone into work to pick up the box he'd put aside for it he discovered that it had been removed. Not wanting to risk posting such a fragile item without proper packaging we agreed to meet up halfway. Because he worked until late he couldn't head off until 9:30, so we arranged our rendezvous for around 10:30. Rain was pouring down and visibility on the motorway was abysmal, but we both managed to get there on time and though the trip was pretty scary at times, it was well worth it

Eos Flight - New Modulator ESP track uploaded

2005-10-07T00:27:00.000+01:00

I've just uploaded a new track. Eos Flight is an almost complete track I found lurking on my hard disk recorder this evening. After giving it a quick listen I thought, this is pretty good, all it needs is a few small overdubs, basically some fx and a lead part, and it will be finished, so rather than mess around, I added the extra parts live whilst mixing down to the pc. Hope you like it.

Awakenings 30.9.05: Vietgrove, Second Thought & Nick Robinson

2005-10-03T23:33:00.000+01:00

Nick Robinson got things off to a good start with some ambient looped guitar, using fx to morph the loops into otherworldly textures.

Then Second Thought, in his first ever live appearance, made some interesting rhythmic electronica with a laptop and acoustic guitar. He was very nervous and kis keyboard stopped working but he still made some nice noises.

Finally Vietgrove returned to the stage after 8 years to perform a selection of new and old tracks. both Mark and Norman played lots of guitar, with a lot of the rhythmic keyboard parts being sequenced. Not surprisingly there were a few rough bits, but there were also som bits where it all came together. norman used his Wiard modular for some ambient bits and for their final improvised encore.

After all the trouble we'd had earlier, with the main PA amp dying and so on, it was a great gig and we actually managed to finish early - hurrah

And here are some photos from the gig:
Nick Robinson

Second Thought

Vietgrove

rest here

Modulator ESP + Astrogator 04.09.05

2005-09-07T00:18:00.000+01:00

The gig went pretty well and was pretty enjoyable. Thanks to those who came, especially Ian and Phil who came a long way and Pete for taking some photos.
Dave did eventually perform, but only a very short set as he was not fully recovered.
Unfortunately I don't think the venue is very suitable for EM gigs as the stage is quite small and the room is up two flights of steps. Will have to keep looking

Live 04.09.05: Modulator ESP/ Astrogator Update

2005-09-03T23:40:00.000+01:00

David has had to pull out due to ill health, but as they say, the show must go on. The line-up will now be Modulator ESP and Astrogator, with an hour of each. Popped in to Bunkers Hill this afternoon and it's looking good following it's recent refurbishment. Hope to see a few people

Live 04.09.05: Modulator ESP/ Astrogator & David Davies

2005-08-27T17:22:00.000+01:00

Started preparations for the Bunkers Hill gig on the 4th September and got some new sounds and sequences programmed today, but there is a lot more work ahead. Steve Humphries will be joining me for the encore of my set and we will perform a piece or two as Astrogator. As ever it will be all new music from both acts. NB it looks like we will be going on first so will probably start playing about 8:30, rather than 9, so that Dave can go on just after 10.
Gear will be much the same as the Rose of England gig, but with the addition of the Prophet 600 and my other new aqcuisition.

Awakenings 12.8.05: Create, The Glimmer Room & debut of Astrogator

2005-08-14T14:33:00.000+01:00

The Glimmer Room went on first with a very minimal setup, which was good, as Steve's gear took up quite a lot of the stage. Andy and Mark were both using laptops, Andy had a controller keyboard and a Nord Modular rack and Mark played bass and guitar. Their set was pretty chilled out and included re-workings of material from both of Andy's previous releases, Tomorrow's Tuesday and Grey Mirrors.

Steve was on next with a run through of his set for E-Live. The set included some new and old stuff, Kindred Spirits and Biospherical Imagery Part 1 (Awakenings Mix). His keyboard setup was pretty impressive and sounded rather nice. For the encore I joined Steve onstage and we played two pieces together as Astrogator. The two pieces were completely unrehearsed improvisations which seemed to go down well.

We hope to have a repeat performance at my next gig, where Steve will join me for the encore. All this will be good preparation for when we play together at E-Live in October at the end of Steve's Create set.

Minimal gear for the night:
Adrenalinn
Korg ER-1
Nord Modular, with laptop to edit
Roland SH-101
Sequential Prophet VS
Sequential Prophet 600

Unfortunately none of the pictures with me in came out very well, but there are a few good ones of Steve

The evening also saw the release of the Astrogator CD 'The Darkness Between' which is now available by mail order direct from the band. See the Astrogator music page for samples and ordering details.

Gig and other announcements

2005-08-08T00:37:00.000+01:00

The next Modulator ESP gig will be with my old friend Mr David Davies at Bunkers Hill Inn, Hockley, Nottigham on Sunday 4th September 2005. See my gigs page for details.

Also worth noting, I will be making my live debut with Steve Humphries (Create) as Astrogator at the Create Awakenings gig at the Brudenell Club in Leeds on Friday 12th August 2005. The gig will also see the launch of the debut Astrogator album 'The Darkness Between' (artwork below). See the Astrogator music page for details and mp3 samples. I've also recently designed a nice little website for Steve's Create project.

Nice day out to Manchester

2005-07-10T23:50:00.000+01:00

Had a very nice trip out to Manchester today, to view a vintage Prophet 600 synthesizer. Took my girlfriend and went by the scenic route through the Peak District. Nereta did an excellent job navigating us there. The guy selling the synth was really friendly and it was in excellent condition and sounded gorgeous, so I just had to buy it. Then as we were in the neighbourhood we popped round to Steve H's to see his new house and visit his local for a rather splendid pub lunch. After which we headed back to Nottingham. Had a bit of a play with the P600 this evening and it looks like it will slot perfectly into my live and recording rig and that I may now be able to retire the trusty Yamaha AN1x.

Sequential Circuits Prophet 600

Chesterfield Jam 2 Report (23rd & 24th June 2005)

2005-07-02T23:33:00.000+01:00

Well the 2nd Chesterfield Jam is done and dusted. Once more we booked two days at Digital Image Studios in Chesterfield.
Day One: We arranged to meet at the studio for about 10. Steve beat me there and was having a cup of tea and chat with Glen whilst waiting for me. I was itching to go so started unpacking whilst Glen made me a brew. With Glen's help we managed to get all the gear through the house to the decking outside the studio (see photo). As we had both decided to streamline our gear as much as possible and Steve had invested in some new stands so we were set up in double quick time. The only slight problem we had was Steve mangaing to scrape his Mum's car when moving it after we had unloaded. Luckily we managed to get some stuff to cover it up when we nipped out for lunch.

True to his word Glen had re-arranged things so that we could use the large half of the studio and had plenty of room to spread out in comparison to our rather cramped experience last time. This was extremely fortunate as it was a very hot, extremely muggy day and we would probably not have survived the heat.

Glen outside the studio:

Once set up we got straight into recording and did a mixture of ambient and sequence based tracks, plus work on some ideas for use in our upcoming live performances.

Astrogator in the studio:

We nipped out around 6 to book in to the hotel and thanks to Glen's wonderful map drawing skills managed to get almost but not quite completely lost, though not for too long as Chesterfield isn't actually that big. (the B&B we used last time had unfortunately just been sold). On our return we did another session until 10 then went for a curry. We went to the same place, got the same table and had the same food and it was gorgeous just the same.

We went backed to the hotel for a well deserved shower and off to bed, ready for an early start on day two.

Day Two: We awoke to find the weather had changed somewhat and found that although it was still hot, it had clouded over. We had fun getting back to the studio due to some roadworks prompting a bizarre diversion through the countryside. After another diversion for breakfast we arrived at the studio in the middle of a huge downpour and got completely soaked. No sign of Glen as he'd been out for some beer the previous night, so we had quick cuppa then back into the studio for some more recording. Strangely enough the heat was even worse and got extremely tiring. We had quite a productive day ending with a totally retro Mellotron and sequencer fest. Then it was time to pack up at the end of two days that had flown by.

Big thanks to Glen for cups of tea, helping with carrying the gear and generally just a being a cool dude, even on day two when he was nursing his hangover. We both can't wait for the next one, but we've got a few gigs to perform first.

More photos here

Tangerine Dream 11.06.05 "Retro gig shock"

2005-06-27T00:13:00.000+01:00

Well, the Awakenings gig on Friday was just the start of my weeken d of Electronic Music as Tangerine Dream were playing the Shepherd's Bush Empire on the following day.

The gig had been billed as the first live performance of Phaedra an album originally released 31 years earlier in 1974. As TD have quite a reputation for re-vamping older material, sometimes so much that it is virtually unrecognisable, it was all a bit up in the air whether this would be one of these Dream Mix gigs or something more true to the spirirt of the original music.

Steve Humphries came down from Manchester to my house just after lunch where we were joined by Pete Challoner, who had offered to drive us down to London. We made good time and got down to London in time to meet up in the designated pub for a beer before heading off to get a bite to eat from Subway, after which we decided it would be best to get a place in the growing queue.

Whilst queueing I handed out some Awakenings flyers and in doing so managed to avoid the TV crew interviewing fans in the queue. I wonder if Steve and Pete's comments will make the final cut?

After a while queueing we got into the venue and got ourselves some nice seats on the first level of the balcony, just behind Dave and Marion Horrod (EM's biggest fans). After a trip to the bar and a chat with Marion it was soon time for the gig to start.

Which it did with Edgar messing around on electric piano, having some fun with the piano intro to Ricochet part 2, after which he joined the rest of the band onstage in the classic 3 player formation, starting off with their backs to the audience then moving to face the audience after a few older pieces.

Onstage throughout the gig were Edgar on e-piano and synths, Jerome on synths and guitar and new guy Thorsten Quaeschning on synths, occasional percussion and e-pinao. They were joined early on by Iris Camaa on percussion and at various points by Linda Spa on sax and synths and Zlatko Perica on guitar.

They played a varied set of mostly older material, and mostly sympathetically to the original versions, though there were a few Dream Mix style pieces and one new piece. It was nice to see a few nods to their history, particularly the use of huge monitors showing the Arturia Moog Modular V software, though there is some question whether this was actually used. Also from my vantage point I could see that it looked like everyone was actually playing, but it was obvious that there was alot of pre-recorded backing which was kind of disappointing.

The other thing that was really disappointing was an over zealous security woman enforcing the no photography rule. It really spoiled my night. The ights were pretty good, the sound was pretty clear but seemed to lack a live dynamic.

After the gig it was time to hit the road, but not before a quick kebab to keep us going, especially Steve who wouldn't be home for a long time. How little did we know then how long!

Well, it had been a pretty good day so it was no surprise that something had to go wrong somewhere and for us this was heralded by a a strange flapping noise and a warning light on the M1 about 40 miles from Nottingham.

Luckily Pete had the presence of mind to pull over on to the hard shoulder and get out and have a look. To all intents and purposes, to us non-mechanically minded EM fans, it looked like his fan belt had come off.

Pete was all for taking a chance on driving off, but I persuaded him to call the AA to check what the risks might be. They suggested we err on the side of caution and wait for a patrol. Luckily we did, as it wasn't his fan belt, but the timing belt, unluckily it took over an hour and a quarter for the patrol to arrive, to tell us we had to be relayed back to Nottingham as it wasn't something he could repair.

That hour and a quarter, standing in the cold on the side of the M1 at 1 o'clock in the morning was incredibly bizarre. We were all a bit tired, more than a bit pissed off with our bad luck and getting quite cold. After we had finished totally dissecting the gig and deciding that TD were a rubbish live act we ended up making up silly songs about waiting for the AA man to the tunes of such classics as Autobahn and Cars.

I think Steve got home about 5:30 am and Pete was lucky to not do any major damage to his car. What a night - there's always something isn't there.

More photos here

Awakenings 10.06.05 "It's dark in Leeds"

2005-06-26T22:35:00.000+01:00

Well it's been just over 2 weeks since the last Awakenings gig, which was the first of this year's mini-festivals and featured 3 acts, 4m33s Extended, Omega Syndicate and Radio Massacre International. Organisationally this was quite complicated especially with John sherwood the main organiser performing as 4m33s, so I went down early to help man the doors and merchandise stand during John's opening set.

4m33s Extended

John started procedings around 5:15 if memory serves and produced quite a varied set, with much more rhythmic content and support on guitar from Steve munslow aka HyperEx Machina (hence the 'Extended'). highlights for me were some nice sequencing and leads from John and some tasty guitar from Steve. It all came together pretty well, considering the only prior collaboration had been by emailed mp3 files. They also performed some stuff from their 'ambient rock' project Cult of Ashand, which was different.

Omega Syndicate

Dave Gurr and Xan Alexander's set was only their second live performance and unfortunately was beset with technical difficulties, with mixer and sequencer problems. Whilst this made their set a bit disjointed in places, when things got going they produced some excellent music. They made a nice effort to dress up and brought a nice backdrop and lighting effects to enhance their set. Hopefully more gigs will help to iron out the bugs.

Radio Massacre International

Well, what can I say, RMI's set was 'different' to say the least and consisted of nearly 2 hours of continuous music, built up of drones, looped bass and guitar, cosmic synth fx and percussion. It ebbed and flowed at an almost tectonic rate with long almost unchanging sections gradually morphing together. It was also very dark and quite oppressive. Occasional sections of sequencing raised the energy levels but were far from the norm. As John said afterwards, "this will be a classic in years to come".

All in all it was a pretty successful night of EM, the audience was more than the last one and we had some famous guests in the guise of Ian Boddy and Paul Nagle.

Paul was somewhat out of it, but made an extremely astute comment after the gig, when told he was off to Bradford, he remarked, "I wonder if it is as dark in Bradford". Now there's a good name for the album if RMI release their set :-)

Gig report: Rose of England 04.06.05

2005-06-05T18:05:00.000+01:00

Well, that was a strange one - there was I expecting to go on first as support to Dave Davies (ex-Shadowdancer), when out of the blue I'm going on last and there are some surprise special guests. So Dave went on first to do an experimental electronic set, accompanied by first guest, Dave Atkins (also ex-Shadowdancer) on acoustic guitar. This set had it's moments but came to an end all too soon.

Following this Dave D strapped on his bass, fired up his drum machine and did some Rush covers (Tom Sawyer, Spirit of Radio) and a old Shadowdancer song 'Secrets of the Sphinx. These didn't work too well for me without a proper prper band backing and Dave seemed at times to be struggling, unsurprisingly as he hadn't been able to bring a stage monitor.

Next up was second guest, 'Saltfish John', a local character, from Monserrat, who played (sang) a few 'tunes' (including the Monserrat national anthem and the Beatles 8 Days) whilst playing a snare, military style. Quite bizarre. He also did a couple of songs on acoustic guitar, OK I suppose, but not really to my taste.

After this Dave A did a short set of songs on acoustic. Quite mellow after John.

Then it was time for me to play. I was feeling particularly weird after all the strange goings on so started of with something nice and spacey, to counterpoint the surrealism of the preceding acts. This gradually built and evolved as I added sequences, mostly stuff from Leeds, but with some new layers and edits. I watched the minidisc to time the ending around the half hour mark.

For my second piece I was joined by Dave A on acoustic guitar, which I thought might be a bit of a gamble, but worth the risk. Unfortunately things didn't really gel until about halfway through, with it all going a bit chaotic in places, but I think we pulled it together by the end.

Davids Davies and Atkins

Photos courtesy of John Sherwood. More available from here

Back from holiday/ latest gig news

2005-05-31T22:17:00.000+01:00

Well I got back from a nice week in Cornwall to prepare at rather short notice for my next gig. Whilst in Cornwall I visited some nice places including The Eden Project, Boscastle, Tintagel, and Goonhilly Earth Station. Whilst there I logged onto my email to find that my old bandmate Dave Davies had sent me an email to tell me he had booked a gig and ask whether I wanted to play. Obviously I said yes, even though it was a bit short notice, so here I am with less than a week to prepare. The gig is at the Rose of England, Mansfield Road, Nottingham on Saturday 4th June. all the details are on my website. Mini-flyer below

Fear of Backwards continued

2005-05-17T23:03:00.000+01:00

Well, I managed to get the remaining three parts up this evening. I'll look into uploading the second piece from the gig when I get back from my holiday

Fear of Backwards Part Two

Fear of Backwards Part Three

Fear of Backwards Part Four

Fear of Backwards

2005-05-17T00:38:00.000+01:00

I finally got round to listening to the recording of the first piece from the Awakenings gig and decided I quite like it. It's a bit rough in places, but has some nice development, though the levels of some bits are a bit off, but hey, it's live.

Due to the interminable slowness of my dial-up connection I've got to upload it in 4 parts, and will hopefully finish uploading the bits over the next few nights.

Anyway, here is the first bit: Fear of Backwards Part One

Even more Awakenings photos

2005-05-13T00:10:00.000+01:00

3 out of a further 10

The rest are on the Modulator ESP Images page

More Awakenings photos

2005-05-11T21:21:00.000+01:00

Here's some rather psychedelic photos courtesy of John Sherwood

I particularly like this one :-)

More to come...

Awakenings 22.04.05

2005-04-29T17:36:00.000+01:00

Well the big gig finally arrived last Friday and I think it all went pretty well. It didn't take me too long to get to Leeds and I found the venue really easily from memory.

It was the first tryout for my new live set-up and as I'd not had chance to try this out before the gig there were a few teething problems, but nothing major.

Finally got everything set-up, posed for some photos then went out for pizza.

I was onstage at approx 8pm and played for around about an hour, performing two new, improvised and as yet nameless pieces.

The whole experience was quite nerve-wracking and has to be my scariest gig so far, as there was quite a large audience (by my standards), full of 'EM Rock Stars' including Steve Dinsdale of RMI, Dave Gurr and Xan Alexander of the Omega Syndicate, David Hughes of Skin Mechanix and Ron Boots who was headlining. There were also quite a few faces I recognised from the National Space Centre gigs and an unexpected appearance from an old friend who'd driven all the way from the Lake District to see me play.

So first the first few minutes I was rooted to the spot with fear, praying that everything would work and I'd not make a huge cock-up of it all.

After a nice atmospheric intro (well apart from a some uncontrolled resonance in one of my fx patches producing some rather alarming distortion) I started to settle into a groove and began to enjoy myself. After about 26 minutes (how time flies when you are having fun) I decided to gradually bring things down and fade out on the weird noise fx (and some more distortion - oops - forgot about that)

The applause was nice

Part two began a few minute later after some frantic re-setting and patch changing. Unfortunately there was a bit of a cock-up with the drum machine as I forgot to turn it down, but heh, that's what you get with live music. I didn't think the second piece worked as well as the first and I got a bit stressed as things weren't sounding how they should and it just didn't seem to flow as well as the first part. Soon of enough though another half hour had come and gone and it was time to finish part 2.

More applause, perhaps it wasn't so bad after all.

After me was Ron Boots and Harold van der Heiden, with some melodic EM in a sort of Klaus Schulze vein, though I was a bit too shell-shocked to pay too much attention for the first half of Ron's set, I definitely got into it in the second half.

after that it was time to pack up, then get lost in Leeds and finally home to bed.

I've not listened to the minidisc recording yet as I've just had quite a busy week

Moe photos will be posted in due course.

Awakenings Update

2005-04-19T09:10:00.000+01:00

Well, it's less than a week now 'til the gig. I've finally settled on what gear I'm using and had a day off work on Friday to do some concerted programming and practicing. Everything went well until one of my racks fell on my head whilst I was doing a bit of re-wiring. Talk about suffering for your art, I got a nice gash and there was blood everywhere, but my girlfriend reckons it wasn't that deep and I've just got a sore head now.

I've been having lots of fun preparing so here's hoping it all comes together on the night.

The last few weeks...

2005-04-13T17:16:00.000+01:00

... have been pretty hectic all in all

Squeak update:

Poor little Squeak had to go under the knife to find out what was wrong with her, a very costly and traumatic procedure. It turned out she had gallstones, a diseased liver and irritable bowel disease. However, whilst the prognosis wasn't too good she currently seems to be responding well to treatment and almost back to her old self. Unfortunately she's on medication so we have the stress of giving her her pills everyday

Astrogator Update

As it looked like Squeak was on the road to recovery I decided to go up to Steve H's house on Good Friday for an improv session. Not knowing what room their would be I took a very minimal amount of gear (Nord Modular, MAQ 16/3, Microwave Xt and P3). We had quite an enjoyable day, recording most of the stuff we played. I found the minimal gear set-up quite powerful and decided to use something similar for my Awakenings gig.

Recent gigs:

Judas Priest - total heavy metal overload at the Sheffield Hallam Arena on 28/3, with the Scorpions as support. I'm not a huge fan of either bands but this seeemed like too good an opportunity to miss and I wasn't disappointed with excellent sets from both bands. :D

Porcupine Tree - the warm-up gig for the tour for the new album 'Deadwing' in Nottingham on 31/3, at the Rescue Rooms, a nice small venue with about 500 capacity. The set included quite a bit of stuff from the new album and this sounded really good. I've since bought the album and like it a fair bit more than the last one, 'In Absentia'

Radio Massacre International - at the National Space Center, Leicester on 2/4. I was completely shattered by the time I got to the gig on Saturday evening as I'd driven down to Bedfordshire earlier in the day to look at a Sequential Circuits Pro One. Unfortunately the Pro One didn't appear to be in very good condition so I decided to pass on it.

The gig was worth the effort though with yet another stonking set from the RMI boys. Nice to see some analog synths in addition to the usual gear (SH3-A and Source for the gear spotters) although the drumkit was conspicuous by it's absence. There were two pieces in each set, a long 45 minuter and a shorter 20 minuter. Most of the sequencing was by Mr Goddard on P3. The first set started with coalescing icy noise fx with projections of the arctic and featured Mr Dinsdale on hand percussion and some strange flutey wind instruments. Gary started on SH3-A and joined in on guitar as the sequences built up adding some nice spacey guitar. The second set started with guitar and bass and just built into the most awesome set of sequencing, with chunky layered guitar, Source solos and fx and strange vocalisations from Steve. Duncan was using the P3's ability to edit sequences from a keyboard to produce some incredible, constantly evolving and shifting sequencer lines. All in all pretty cool.

Driving home from the gig my car started to play up and seemed to be using rather a lot of petrol, in fact I only just made it back into Nottingham, even though I had started the day with a full tank. So I booked it into the garage to find that one of the valves had gone at some point so it was only firing on 3 (out of 4) cylinders. More expensive repair bills.

Awakenings Preparations

For the last few weeks I've been working on my preparations for my Awakenings gig in Leeds on 22nd April. These include: deciding what equipment to use, racking up my MAQ 16/3 and the P3, designing new sound, learning to use the P3 and working on pre-prepared sequences.

Based on my experiences with Steve, my provisional rig for Awakenings is going to be the Nord Modular, MAQ 16/3, Microwave Xt and P3 as on Good Friday, with a couple of extra keyboards (AN1x and Prophet VS) and the Super Bass Station.

Just to make my life even more interesting, last week my girlfriend was diagnosed with diabetes , involving trips to hospital and yet more stress. She seems to be coping OK, but it was a big shock for both of us. Now all I have to worry about is the gig :¬)

TGI Friday

2005-03-18T18:07:00.000Z

It's been a pretty rubbish week all in all, numerous scares over the health of my cat, Squeak, trying to keep my girlfriend's spirit's up (she loves Squeak) , loads of work and not enough time to do much music. Hopefully Squeak is on the mend and we won't find that there's anything else wrong with her. Off work most of next week so should get some time to experiment with the P3. Only 5 weeks to go now 'til the Awakenings gig so I need to decide what I'm going to do for it...

P3 arrived today

2005-03-14T11:48:00.000Z

Serial no #1001, the first of the production models, and it's a beauty.

My Sequentix P3 is on it's way

2005-03-07T23:00:00.000Z

Good news today from Colin Fraser the designer and manufacturer of the Sequentix P3 Analogue Sequencer, the production cases arrived today and units should hopefully be shipping by the weekend. Sent my cheque off today so if all goes to plan I should be getting my P3 sometime next week.

Analog Sequencing

2005-02-19T23:25:00.000Z

After doing my track for the EM Forum Analog Sampler project I decided to invest in some more analog monosynths to augment my SH-101 when sequencing. To this end I have recently purchased a Novation Super Bass Station (SBS) and a Dave Smith Instruments Evolver. I've also re-arranged a few things in the studio and now have the SH-101, SBS and Evolver hooked up to my Doepfer Regelwerk, though when I get my Sequentix P3 this may take on main sequencing duties. Each of these have their own sound and I'm really enjoying sequencing with them.

Super Bass Station

Evolver

Awakenings Leeds: 11.02.05 SkinMechanix + HyperEx Machina

2005-02-14T11:57:00.000Z

The first Leeds Awakenings gig was held on Friday at the Brudenell Social Club. After a terrible journey up the M1, I finally arrived in Leeds around 6:30, followed John's directions to the venue and only managed to get slightly lost as I missed one turn-off and had to go round the block.

The venue was set a way back from the road and quite easy to miss, but I somehow managed to find it first time. From the outside it looked a bit rundown, but inside it was much nicer, though it was like going through a time warp back to the '70s, all a bit 'Phoenix Nights'.

Steve Munslow (HyperEx Machina) and John Sherwood were already there and had already set-up the PA and Steve's gear. Dave Hughes (SkinMechanix) arrived shortly after I did so I joined in and helped with unloading his gear.
Dave got his stuff set-up and soundchecked for about 7:30 with no technical difficulties. John's new PA was nice and loud and the venue's acoustics were excellent. His lights were quite nice too in a quite hypnotic way :¬)

HyperEx Machina went on stage about 8:15pm, wearing a particularly stylish shirt, and played for roughly an hour. Using only a Korg MicroKorg synth and a Roland MC-307 groovebox he produced a set combining ambient and rhythmic EM, as John said "He played an absolutely magical set, I've seen him live a few times, but this time he really went to town. Mysterious piano chords and swirling pads, intense beats sections, arpeggios and sequences flying all over the place. Brilliant." My friend Pete said it was like a "Berlin Wall of Sound" which I thought was quite appropriate. I quite quite enjoyed the set, particularly the last piece which ended with Steve walking off the stage with the sequences still playing.

A full mp3 download of his set is available from the Awakenings website

SkinMechanix had loads more gear, including a Roland JD800 and a Kurzweil K2000 for the keyboard parts and an Akai DR8 for the backing parts. Dave was apparently quite nervous but once he got on stage and started playing it certainly didn't show in the music, which was confident, melodic, powerful and totally absorbing. Their was plenty of his trademark keyboard soloing and a particularly nice new piece. The already legendary Zeit sequencer was also present on stage, though not actually used live it had been used to generate some sequences on the DR8 and was briefly demonstrated in the soundcheck. Overall, this was a great first gig for Dave's new project and was remarkably free of the technical difficulties that had plagued his previous outfit 'T-Bass UK'

More photos are available from the Awakenings website

The turnout was respectable but we could have done with a few more people, but this was the first Leeds gig, and it was cold and raining, though we did have some people down from Edinburgh. Hopefully a few more will make it to the next one, which features me, Modulator ESP in support of the legendary Mr Ron Boots from Holland.

Modulator ESP on Aiir Internet Radio

2005-02-02T16:14:00.000Z

Some of my music is going to be featured on the All Electronic/Synth show with Gus between 2-4pm EST/7-9pm GMT on Thursday 3rd Feb 2005

Click on the banner below - Realplayer 10 required

Awakenings 2005 3CDR set is now available

2005-01-28T21:01:00.000Z

Modulator ESP has two tracks featured on the new Awakenings 2005 3 CDR set.

CD1 features the exclusive track 'Transpatial' recorded live during the practice sessions for my November Awakenings gig last year and CD3 features 'Dark Star Voyage', recorded at my first ever live performance.

The full track-listing and details of how to order are available from the Awakenings website.

Thanks to John Sherwood for organising this.

Sneak Preview - New Track

2005-01-16T23:38:00.000Z

I've just uploaded a new Modulator ESP track, written between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. My goal had been to write a track using only analog equipment, to be included in the EM Forum Analog Sampler project, but as I was writing the track I was affected by the events occurring in Asia and the mood of the piece became quite sombre and reflective. Therefore, in remembrance of this natural disaster it is entitled Tsunami
Equipment used:
Roland JUNO-106 (Strings, Flute and FX)
Roland SH-101 (Sequences)
Doepfer MAQ 16/3 Analog Sequencer
Yamaha AW16G Digital Multi-track Recorder (Recording and Effects)

Astrogator website - Modulator ESP updates

2005-01-11T10:33:00.000Z

New Astrogator website is now online at www.astrogator.co.uk

Modulator ESP website has been expanded and updated.

Astrogator logo unveiled...

2005-01-05T17:16:00.000Z

Some reviews of my work

2005-01-04T01:20:00.000Z

Random Fluctuations (self-released, 2001)

"Random Fluctuations" is a two-part electronic suite composed and recorded by Jez Creek in 2001. Each part is divided into several sections that all have their own subtitles, so in the end it's kind of a musical story. By listening to Jez' music, I'd venture that he has progrock background - there is a sense of thematic development and multiple part transitions typical of classic Progressive Rock works and also some classic EM albums like Tangerine Dream's "Tangram" or "Logos". So, if you like early 80's Tangerine Dream or the music of Mark Shreeve, then this CD is for you. It's also quite symphonic sounding, with great dynamics and rhythms. Dark sounds get the first part underway. Soon subtle bass textures are introduced as the soundscape becomes even more intense. This is brooding music - very good stuff. After the 6 minute mark the rhythms are deployed full-time as well as some solos and sequences. I found my head nodding as I listened to this. Great themes and melodies! All is quite and mysterious again after 9 minutes into the track. Of course this section is a transition to the next part that has some warm flowing pads and is surprisingly gentle. Very, very good! Slow rhythm keeps things tight, while the melodies do soar in the sonic ether in a soothing and comforting way. There's even a hint of solemnity in there. The rhythm becomes faster and there are some symphonic textures that strongly remind of "Tangram"-era TD. This is uplifting EM at it's best. And, oh, those solos...! It reminds me on EM from the days gone by. The track ends rather abruptly. The second part starts with dramatic string / drum section. Pretty suspenseful stuff. Some e-drums are introduced along with a melodic sequence and we have a rhythmic section that's halfway between sad and mysterious. The dramatic strings and drums return after a while, sounding like an orchestral movie soundtrack. This time the string sounds are combined with the electronic rhythm and piano playing. Some great synth soloing is also welcome. There's a short intermission after which we get upbeat sequencer lines and a fast theme depicting the war I guess (according to the subtitle). Some very 80's electronic drums (Simmons-like) are used to great effect here. A piano theme comes next, with the sounds of wind in the background. The rhythmic elements do not take long to appear and take control of the proceedings. It's a mysterious and somewhat reflective part. Some processed voices are heard as the screaming solo takes over after 17 minutes into the track. Everything fits perfectly - from voices, to rhythms, to sequences, solos and atmospheres. It all calms down and all we hear for a while are phased / processed synth pads along with some recurring effects. But after a while another excellent melodic motif appears. I loved this part - very complex, even reminding a bit on some of Klaus Schulze material from the 80's. The final section starts with bleeping synths and upbeat rhythm. This is a bit techno influenced (mainly in the rhythms department). I loved the urgent electric piano motif although the main theme is a bit too "techno" for my taste. "Random Fluctuations" is a darn fine album of melodic thematic Electronic Music, that those into most of vintage EM will enjoy, be it early 80's Tangerine Dream, the less sequenced Mark Shreeve, some 70's Vangelis or even Dave Greenslade's "Pentateuch of the Cosmogony".

Reality Excursion Sequences (2004), Time Clouds Distant Memory (2004)

Both albums are live minidisc recordings from concert performances in 2004. They feature sequencer-based music, vaguely in the Berlin School mould. The sound quality is nice but I'd prefer more reverb - the sound is a bit dry to my ears. Reality Excursion Sequences starts with "Dark Star Voyage", which is a lengthy suite with multiple parts. The structure is a bit loose, so you kinda know this is a live recording when you listen to it. Some nice textures, but as I've said earlier I prefer a more spacey, reverbed sound. Nice sequencing and solos, though. "Silent Planet" is a nice mysterious track (that also includes rather cheerful sequences towards the end) with repeating bass motif and good sequences / rhythm combination. "Chaos Theory" is a chaotic (pun intended) and busy sequencer track (which initially makes use of the same sequence that appeared on the previous number). The second live album starts with "Time Clouds" that has an atmospheric introduction with pads and soundscapes, but after a while melodic motifs and, subsequently, rhythmic sequences are introduced that drive the rest of the track along in a relaxed, unhurried mode. You will encounter some pretty tasty solos along the way. The second track is called "Astral Dreams". There's an abstract beginning with noises, soundscapes and stuff, but the sequences ought to appear sooner or later, and viola! - they do as we are nearing the 3 minute mark. Low threatening chords are heard as we are propelled forward at a pace faster than usual with Modulator's recordings. I think it's the best of his live tracks (despite some use of preset choir sounds) - the sequencing is very competent here - pure New Berlin School, a bit trancey and yet more like prog EM. The title of the last track is "Dark Star Voyage" - the same as the first track on Reality Excursion Sequences, but it's a totally different version. It starts with a reflective piano part that gives way to rhythmic notes and in the end it's another mid-paced sequencer track, in typical Modulator ESP style.

reviews by Artemi Pugachov of The Encyclopedia of Electronic Music

New Year's Update

2005-01-04T01:10:00.000Z

Happy New Year to everyone.

Here's a quick update on my project with Steve Humphries:

We met up on New Year's Eve to go through the output from the Chesterfield sessions and decide which tracks to use and what editing, if any, was required. I will be attempting to do the editing during January.

We have also agreed on a name for the project, which is 'Astrogator' a concatenation of the words Astronomy and Navigator, which is quite apt due to the spacey, journey-like nature of the music.

(see also wordreference.com definition: astrogator the navigator of a spacecraft)

I remember the word from a SF book I read in my childhood, called 'Starman Jones' by RA Heinlein (review)

I can also report that Steve's Prophecy is now fully functional :¬)

We intend to release any music on our own label, which is provisionally called 'Ephemeral Dream'

I've designed a nice new logo for the project and will upload it very soon...

Chesterfield Jam Photos

2004-12-21T10:58:00.000Z

Photos are now online here, as you can see it was quite a tight fit...

Chesterfield Jam Report

2004-12-15T13:40:00.000Z

Well the first Chesterfield Jam is all over now and was definitely a fun and interesting, though quite intense and often tiring experience. I think we both learned a lot from working with someone else and hopefully some of the stuff we produced will be worth releasing at some point.

Day One: I packed all my gear on Sunday night and printed off maps and directions. On Monday morning I was up nice and early to load the gear into the car and have some breakfast. I left my house at about 9:15 for the drive to Chesterfield to meet up with Steve at Digital Image Studios. Chesterfield is an easy journey for me as it's just 3 junctions up the M1, but I gave myself plenty of time, as you can never predict what will happen on the motorway. A good job too, as traffic completely ground to a halt for the last 10 miles, making a 30-minute journey into a 45-minute one. Still, I arrived just on time to find Steve had got there just before me. I parked the car and went in to find him chatting with Glen (the owner of the studio).

The Studio: The studio was a new building at the end of his back garden. Before unpacking, we decided to go down to have a look around and plan how we were going to set-up our equipment. We were expecting a room somewhat bigger than what we actually found. In my telephone conversations with Glen he'd said the room would be about 10' by 10' but it actually turned out to be more like 8' by 6'. It was really difficult to tell whether we'd actually be able to get all our stuff in. As we'd both invested a fair bit of time and effort getting our equipment out of our respective studios and were really itching to play together, we decide to give it a go. So then we started on the hardest part, unpacking and setting everything up, which entailed trailing to and fro through Glen's house and up and down the garden path, a job which wasn't helped much by the fact that Glen was in the middle of a major refurbishment/ re-decoration project, with piles of stuff dotted here and there to trip the unwary.

Setting Up: We decided to set Steve's gear up first, as he wanted to be in the farthest corner. As previously stated setting up wasn't much fun and it definitely wasn't helped by a particularly obstinate keyboard stand and an accident that left Steve's Prophecy slightly damaged. What a start! Luckily the Prophecy should be easy enough to fix and a spare part is on its way as I write.

We finally managed to get everything set-up in roughly 3 hours and finished just before lunch, we had a quick jam then went out to Pizza Hut for lunch. After lunch we nipped over to the B&B to pick up our keys, as we'd be finishing quite late.

Recording: We came back after lunch at about 2:30 and then played through 'til about 10 pm, recording 2 80-minute minidiscs worth of material. For most pieces we used a mixture of Steve's pre-prepared sequences (from Reason) and my improvised sequences (generated by MAQ 16/3 and Nord modular). We would usually jam for 10-15 minutes so that we could get some sounds and keyboard parts that worked together, then once happy we had an idea we'd hit the record button and just go for it. We tried to avoid falling into the trap of every piece having the usual structure of ambient bit followed by sequencer bit followed by ambient bit, though we found that we needed transitions between our different sequencer parts. We even worked on a shorter song that may make a good live encore one day.

At the end of the day... We went out for a curry, via the local supermarket to get out some cash to pay for the B&B and studio costs. During the meal we had a chance to discuss the day's events and decide on a plan for the next. After the most excellent curry we headed off to our B&B for some well-earned sleep. Alarms were set for an early start.

Day Two: Up early for a nice cooked breakfast then off to the studio. Got there to find Glen still having his breakfast.

Recording: Headed down to the studio, fired up all the gear and set to work, recording another 2 and a bit minidiscs worth of material. We even managed to get our sequencers to synchronise to each other, though this caused Steve problems as Reason insisted on jumping back to the first pattern set-up in it's sequencers, which unfortunately weren't the ones Steve wanted to use. Hopefully we will be able to avoid this next time we work together.

Packing Up: Finished at about 6:30 for a quick bite to eat and then started packing up at 7, which went altogether much more smoothly than the previous day's setting up. Managed to get everything packed in about an hour, then with help from Glen we got everything out to the cars and packed up ready to leave by about 8:30.

In conclusion: It has to be said that whilst the room was a bit smaller than we had expected and it wasn't that easy to get stuff in and out, Glen was extremely helpful and patient with our seemingly endless traipsing back and forth with piles of gear and said that next time we came we'd be able to use the larger control room, as he intended to swap the contents of the two rooms around.

The Music: From my point of view it was great playing and improvising music with someone else and though it was our first attempt I think that our styles complemented each other. We definitely had some inspired moments where it all came together, though there were also other pieces which were harder work. It was all good experience and hopefully with more practice we will be able to work together even better. It was something we'd both like to repeat, probably early next year. We each took a day's worth of recordings home to transfer to cd and exchange, prior to editing for compilation of the best bits into an album (or two)

Chesterfield Jam Prep

2004-12-12T11:31:00.000Z

Well one day to go until it's time to set off to Chesterfield for the inaugural Chesterfield Jam, two days of EM improvisation and jamming with Mr Steve Humphries aka Create. We've hired a little studio at the end of someone's garden to set up our respective equipment and just make music. It will be the first proper EM collaboration for us both and it will be interesting to see how it all turns out. We are approaching it is as an experiment which will hopefully be fun and possibly result in some good music. Everything will be recorded, so from two days of music it's quite likely we will produce something worthwhile.

Full report and photos to follow...

My top 15 EM albums released in 2004

2004-12-10T13:33:00.000Z

1 Redshift - Faultline
2 RMI - People Would Really Like Space Rock If They Would Only Give It A Try
3 Rogue Element - Premonition
4 Axess/ Maxxess - Contact
5 Tangerine Dream - Bootleg Box 1
6 Redshift - Oblivion
7 RMI - E-Live 2003
7 RMI - Walking on the Sea
9 Create - Reflections from the Inner Light
10 STDM - Binary Motion
10 STDM - Solipsism
12 Omega Syndicate - Analog Waves
13 Ian Boddy - Chiasmata
14 Paul Ellis & Craig Padilla - Echo System
15 FSP & DATT - Passenger 4

Omega Syndicate and Paul Nagle photos online

2004-12-02T14:11:00.000Z

My photos from the Omega Syndicate and Paul Nagle gig at the National Space Centre on 13.11.04 are now online here http://public.fotki.com/modulator/omega_syndicate/.
It was a really good gig, Paul produced an excellent set, aided and abetted by Phil Smillie on guitar and atmospherics and The Omega Syndicate, though obviously nervous at the start, produced some excellent music once they got into their stride. Paul and Phil joined Xan and Dave for the encore of Ricochet (part 2 iirc)

New track 'The Eclipse' now online

2004-11-19T21:36:00.000Z

I've uploaded a new track recorded during the practice sessions for my last gig. Entitled 'The Eclipse' it is available from the music page of my Soundclick site. Hope you enjoy it.

New track 'Sturm und Drang II' now online

2004-11-12T14:37:00.000Z

I've just uploaded this track, to both the Modulator ESP Music page and the Soundclick site. Sturm und Drang II was the second piece played at my gig at Peggers on 3.10.04 and was inspired by a request from an audience member to play something with choir in. Thanks Steve.

Modulator ESP + Create 7.11.04 gig photos now online

2004-11-12T14:10:00.000Z

Photos from the Modulator ESP + Create gig are now online at Modulator ESP and Awakenings websites.

Hampshire Jam 3 photos now online

2004-11-12T14:05:00.000Z

My photos from Hampshire Jam 3 are now online at http://public.fotki.com/modulator/hampshire_jam_3. Enjoy

First online CD sale and last night's gig

2004-11-08T23:08:00.000Z

Well, minor celebrations are in order as I actually sold my first CD online. Big Thanks to Peter for purchasing a copy of Time Clouds Distant Memory. I had a few teething problems getting set up to receive credit card payments via Paypal, but got all that sorted out and posted it today.

As to last night's gig I think I can safely say that it was the most enjoyable so far, in fact I think I may have got a bit carried away in places. Initial feelings are that it was an improvement on the previous gig, as John said 'That was really good last night, both sets, no boring moments at all, total attention-grabbing. Excellent.' I think it helped that I had some new sounds and tried some old ones that I hadn't used before and it was all quite inspiring. I think I'm getting better at sequencing with the MAQ and tried to vary my sequences throughtout the set. I do think I need to work on my transitions as I really don't like the awkward silences between pieces and I'd really like to do one continuous piece, thus cutting down on the actual talking to the audience in between as I still find that vaguely embarrassing.

It's a good job I had today off work as it was also extremely exhausting. My girlfriend Nereta was my roadcrew for the evening, as Pete was busy getting ready to go off on holiday, and she coped admirably with my instructions to, 'fetch this' , 'hold that', 'put this in there' etc. It all gets quite stressful at times but I think we got through it OK.

Many thanks to everyone who came, especially Steve (Create) who was the support and did an extremely good job, especially considering it was his first gig. Thanks also to Pete, Phil and John and newbies Dave and Ray (who actually came after I gave them a flyer at HJ3)

Don't know when the next one will be, maybe not until next year as I'm going to organise some Awakenings gigs that I don't actually play at to see how that works.

Progress to date

2004-11-03T16:53:00.000Z

Started work on the pre-programmed sequences for the upcoming gig last night. Programmed a new Combi on the Korg Karma. Recorded a 12 minute improvisation using the new sound and sequences combined with some improvised sequences from the MAQ, so things are proceeding nicely.

Had an interesting conversation with a work colleague today about describing musical styles in advertising in which he decided my music should be classified as 'weird spaced-out hippy shit'. Not sure if that's entirely appropriate, but who's to say :-)

Quick update - less than a week to go

2004-11-02T01:10:00.000Z

Well, not much to say really, it's less than a week to go to my next gig, did the handing out flyers thing on Friday night and had a bop around at Spiders, did the going round town putting up posters thing on Saturday. Now it's down to the grind to make sure everything is OK for the gig, I want to program some new stuff into the MMT-8 and try to get a few new sounds programmed up on my synths as that always helps in the old inspiration department. Luckily I've got Thursday and Friday off on leave this week so everything should be done for Sunday.

Hampshire Jam 3

2004-10-27T13:51:00.000+01:00

Went to Hampshire Jam 3 last Saturday. The Hampshire Jam is an electronic music festival held in the small Hampshire town of Liphook. This year I felt I somehow contributed in a small way to it's success as I designed the website http://www.hampshirejam.co.uk

FSP were probably the most retro-sounding but in the best possible way and got the event off to the best start possible. It was good to see them having such a good time. Their encore piece was particularly good.

This was my first Airsculpture gig and after a slightly shaky start they built up into an extremely powerful groove with some classic sequencing and great leads. This was some of the most complex multi-layered sequencing I've heard them produce and the sounds they were getting out of their Nord modulars was excellent.

I must mention at this point that the lighting at this gig was extremely effective and complemented Airsculpture's powerful performance. I think they had the best lights of the event.

Schonwalder, Keller and Broekhuis started the evenig session off all dressed up to go in matching white shirts. I'd not heard any of there stuff before and found their music to ba quite a modern take on the Berlin School, at times quite reminiscent of Schulze. One criticism would be that a couple of pieces went on a bit without much variation, but apart from that it was very enjoyable, especially Mario's enthusiasm and interaction with the audience.

Finally, in only there 2nd ever performance and their UK debut ARC produced a set of sublimely beautiful layered EM. Mark's sequencing was less strident than with Redshift at E-Live and Ian was on evidently enjoying himself, bopping away to the sequences, adding his synth percussion, strange textures and ambient bridging sections. Their set was over far too soon and ended extremely climactically with an e-piano piece from Ian and some huge chords from Mark.

Steve Jenkins did his big round of thank yous whilst ARC were setting up for their encore, which was the highlight of their set. Amazing to think they'd only got together the previous Tuesday and it was all new material.

I had a great time at my first Hampshire Jam, let's hope the organiser Steve Jenkins feels the urge to do another as it was well worth the effort. As Phil Booth, the guy sat next to me, said all 4 bands were excellent and I would find it very hard to decide between them as each had their own slant on sequencer driven EM.

Will post photos on fotki in due course

E-Live pics now online

2004-10-19T23:45:00.000+01:00

Photos from e-live are available from http://public.fotki.com/modulator/e-live_2004/ other peoples photos are available from http://www.cont.it/photo/ and http://www.groove.nl/egfx/g04/photos2004.html

E-Live, Equestrian Events and a Marathon

2004-10-18T21:24:00.000+01:00

Went to the E-Live last weekend (9-10 October), which is an electronic music festival, with John (main organiser of the Awakenings gigs aka 4m33s) and Steve (Create) in Eindhoven, Holland.

Met up with John in a Travelodge near Stansted on the Friday night. As our flight left at 6:45 on Saturday morning we had to be up at 4 am to get there and checked in on time. Met Steve in departures as he had decided to come down directly from Manchester, but was rather delayed by the fact that the M6 had been closed for some reason.

The flight, which was my first, was actually quite exciting though uneventful, wasn’t even long enough for me to drink a cup of coffee. Was a bit disappointed to not get a window seat, but managed to get a look out of the one behind me.

We arrived bright and early at 8:45 and got a taxi from the airport to our hotel in Eindhoven, called De Bengel, only to discover that Steve had inadvertently booked us into the wrong De Bengel, 10 miles away in the town of Earsel. So we managed to rack up some taxi fares going to and from the hotel, but it has to be said it was actually very nice.

We got to the auditorium just as Redshift were unloading their van and had a brief chat with Mr Shreeve. He promised us some 'rocking sequences' and 'not too much ambient stuff'

The festival was well organised and there were quite a few stalls selling stuff. Steve and John bought some bits and pieces but I was holding out for the new Redshift stuff, which was Redshift VI - Faultline, the HJ2 recording and Redshift VII - Oblivion a new studio recording. They also had a Faultline DVD, which was a limited run of 100 copies, which sold out. Luckily the Redshift stall, run by Mark's wife and most probably daughter, were accepting English money as we were all conserving our euros for taxi fares.

Maitreya (aka Simon Lomax of Council of Nine) started the proceedings off in a very mellow vein. It was a bit too mellow for some who rather rudely got up and left during his performance, but Steve, John and I stayed the course. He was doing some improvisation to backing tracks on his Apple using a very small Midi controller, probably an Oxygen 8. John liked Maitreya and even has some of his albums.

Second on was Sunya Beat who apparently sound very Ashra-like, which means nothing to me. They were quite funky and very rhythmic, with a line-up of drums, guitar and a guy on a laptop and 'electronics'. They had some very good visuals, as did Maitreya.

I bought a new camera before going so I'll try to post some pictures of the performers somewhere online at some point. I also got some nice pictures of some quite nice architecture, which might get used if my musical collaboration with Steve, an idea that was born as we wandered round sunny Eindhoven, ever comes to pass.

Anyway there was about a 3-hour gap between the fist two acts and the last two so we got a taxi to our hotel to check-in, then back to Eindhoven for some tea, which consisted of beer and pancakes. I do like savoury pancakes :)

Gert Emmens was on next and he played some very melodic, Berlin school influenced stuff. I recorded his set so will do you a copy. He was joined for the last two pieces and a very unrehearsed encore by Ruud Heij for some more retro BS improvisation, but I have to say I preferred Gert's solo stuff.

The might Redshift were on last, slightly delayed by Gert and Ruud's unplanned encore and they deliver a set of storming sequencing with all the usual weird ambient link sections whilst Mark re-programmed his sequencers and re-tuned, plus lots of ep from James who also ventured in to axe-hero territory, but was no replacement for Rob Jenkins. I have to say Mark was getting some very hard, almost distorted stuff out of the Moog and I think this was a bit off-putting to some of the purists, but it's good to see them evolving.

We spent Sunday trying to work out how to get back to Eindhoven from Earsel without using a taxi, our efforts being hampered by the fact that the whole town was full of visitors for some equestrian event and the road we wanted to catch our bus from being closed didn't help. We eventually found a bus stop outside the town and a bus eventually came to take us back into Eindhoven, where they were holding a marathon. So we spent the day drinking coffee and discussing EM, as you do.

Got a bus to the airport, waited round lots and then flew back, arriving 15 minutes early. As I said before we saw Simon and his girlfriend on arrival at Stansted as well as Mark's wife and gave them all Awakenings flyers. Hopefully this might lead to either Maitreya or Redshift doing an Awakenings gig at some point in the future

Drove home listening to Oblivion on repeat, it's pretty good in a very similar style to the last Redshift studio album, Halo. Now I'm looking forward to HJ3, which is in a week or so.

Apparently Klaus Schulze is playing in Bologna sometime next year and plans are afoot to organise a bit of a trip out there, with Steve, John and myself and another chap called Phil (who was at E-Live with some of his friends).

In other news I have updated and re-designed the Awakenings website

Gig pictures

2004-10-05T13:58:00.000+01:00

Here are some pictures of me at the last gig, courtesy of Pete Challoner

Last night's gig

2004-10-04T13:11:00.000+01:00

Well, first of all a big thank you to everyone one who turned up especially John for his excellent support set, Phil and Steve who came down from Manchester, Pete, Martin and Toby for help with setting up and packing up.

Used the MAQ 16/3 sequencer to compose new sequences on the fly, and I think this went pretty well, but I'll wait until I hear the recording before I pass final judgement. Comments on the night were very positive so I guess things went quite well. Will be posting some music if it turns out OK. I have to say this was probably the most nerve wracking gig so far, mostly due to the new setup, but also due to getting Phil and Steve to come all the way from Manchester, so I hope you enjoyed it.

Also noticed a few people in the audience I didn't know, so either they arrived by chance or the advertising paid off.

The only downside to the evening was that as I was trying to pack up my gear an annoying drunken idiot kept trying to persuade me to add vocals to my stuff and make loads of money doing dance music. Not that I've got anything against dance music per se, it's just that it's not what I want to do. I do the music that I do because I love it, not for the money. He just couldn't understand that and just went on and on, only giving up when the landlady told him to shut up and leave me alone.

Now I just can't wait for the next one...

It's been a while...

2004-09-29T20:21:00.000+01:00

Well, what can I say, it's been about 7 weeks since my last entry so I've got some catching up to do. Since then I've been on holiday to North Wales and was extremely lucky to get one week of good weather, I've bought some more new gear in the shape of a Roland SH-101, I've been learning to use this and the Prophecy and working on integrating them into my current set-up. I've arranged another Awakenings gig, this time I'm performing with a friend by the name of Steve Humphries who is also known as Create. Check out his music, it's excellent.
The gig is on Sunday 7th November at Peggers in Nottingham.

I've been to see quite a few gigs recently including Rush, David Wright & Bekki Williams and Magnum. In fact at the David Wright gig I actually had a chap come up to me to buy some of my cds, so if you're out there Dennis, thanks, it made my day :-)
I've also got a few good gigs lined up, including the mighty Redshift at E-Live in Holland, Hampshire Jam 3 (Arc, Airsculpture, Free System Projekt and Keller & Schonwalder).

Currently I'm very busy practicing for my next gig which is imminent and have decided to break with my usual practice of preparing the majority of my sequences in advance. For this gig and from now on if it is a success I'm going to use my Doepfer Regelwerk to create and edit new sequences as I play, so expanding the improvisational aspect of my performances. At home, in the studio I have found this very inspirational, but it might not work out as well on stage. Fingers crossed :-)

The Leeds series of Awakenings gigs have been expanded and I'm now playing next December on the same bill as the amazing Airsculpture.

I've also been busy writing new music and will probably be posting some after the gig. I might even have some more live stuff to put online if all goes well.

Modulator ESP Music Update

2004-08-04T22:13:00.000+01:00

I've uploaded the track Silent Planet to the Music page of the website. this was recorded at my first ever gig on 25.01.04 at Bunker's Hill, Nottingham, UK. It's a large file (about 11.23MB) but I quite like the menacing sequences layered with weird synth fx. This piece is another candidate for re-working for the new cd. Hope you enjoy it.
In other news I've also joined the EMforum.nl which looks like a place for lively discussion on all aspects of Electronic Music. Also in the planning stages for the next Modulator ESP gigs, hopefully later this year. I hope to have support from John Sherwood performing as 4m33s and Steve Humphries performing as Create and will probably do these under the banner of Awakenings. Check out their sites. :)

minor update

2004-08-01T15:40:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a quiet week, all in all, with work being particularly tiring this week. No real music done this week, though I have been playing around with the arpeggiator on my new Korg Prophecy and can see it generating some interesting musical ideas. Also joined the OnlineMusic World forum, which seems to be quite an interesting place. It appears that next year's appearance at the AmbientLive Awakenings concert series is a goer. I will be supporting Dutch electronic musician Ron Boots. My design for a flyer is below, I hope it gets used. It's based on some ideas that the organiser, John Sherwood, posted at OMW.

no news..

2004-07-27T01:23:00.000+01:00

is good news, so they say. Well it's not quite as bad as that, I managed to get Chromium uploaded to Soundclick today, so it's now available as a low resolution stream for those like me who only have a crappy dial-up connection. Oh that ntl 60 days free trial is so tempting, but I know it will all end in tears. Will the temptation get the better of me - watch this space. Oh and I've added even more stuff to the Modulator ESP website, so go have a look, you know it makes sense.

lazing on a Sunday afternoon...

2004-07-26T00:21:00.000+01:00

Well, I didn't get anymore recording done today but I did find an old tune to add to my website, called Chromium (3:58 - 3.63MB) It's a weird, spacey, ambient track improvised live to minidisc using a Korg Wavestation and a Nord Modular last July. Other than that, as the title of this post suggests, I had a very lazy Sunday afternoon, spending a bit of (rare) quality time with my girlfriend. Then when she went to bed, I set to work trying to find the problem I've been having with Internet Explorer. it kept crashing whenever I loaded the index page of my site. As it seemed to be when it got to downloading the background sound, it occured to me that perhaps this had somehow been corrupted. As it had always been a bit on the loud side I thought I'd make it a bit quieter, in doing so updating the file, then uploaded it to my site. Strangely enough it appears that my hunch was right and this seems to have done the job, for the moment anyway. It was whilst I was searching for a better copy of this sound file that I chanced across the tune that I eventually decided to upload.

saturday night

2004-07-25T01:52:00.000+01:00

Apologies to anyone reading if this seems a bit random, it's the first time I've done something like this so you'll have to bear with me, I'm still in the making it up as I go along phase.
Anyway, even with all my best intentions I didn't actually get any music recorded today, but I have practiced a few melodic parts ready for when I get a spare hour or so.
Did a bit of work on the website as well today, but I was feeling a bit tired all day as I somehow managed to stay up til 5am and then got up again at 11:30, so I've been taking it easy.
Discovered a good website today, particularly if you're a fan of the old TV series 'The Prisoner'. Try walking on the map and going somewhere you're not supposed to :-) http://www.arvincasas.com/prisoner

friday night/ saturday morning

2004-07-24T03:51:00.000+01:00

Hi, just thought I might be able to get a quick post in before going to bed. Had an excellent night at Spiders. Went down on my own and got there for 10:45. Met a nice couple called Tony and Louise. Louise, like most women I know, wanted the DJ to play something he wasn't prepared to play. On this occasion it was the Doors. Unfortunately she didn't get what she wanted, but he did play a few things that she liked.

Had a most bizarre experience at the bar when a young, rather attractive girl came up to me and said that she recognised me from somewhere. Turns out she remembered me from a while back when I was handing out flyers for the last Modulator ESP gig in March. Said hello and found out that her name was Kim. Later found out that Kim was having boyfriend trouble, but it seemed to sort itself out.

Also met and had an interesting conversation with a young lady from the Czech Republic by the name of Rebecca (though I think her real name was actually Eva). Rebecca (which apparently means 'bitch' in Czech) and I had a very interesting discussion about the cultural differences between our two countries and various other things, particularly her extremely enthusiastic dancing :-)

Time for bed, said Zebedee
Hangover permitting will try to do some music this afternoon.

friday afternoon

2004-07-23T17:39:00.000+01:00

Just about to leave work. Managed to do a bit of editing on my blog template at lunchtime, but there's still a way to go. Updated my profile to include some stuff about me. Tonight I'll be off to my favourite rock club, Spiders http://www.spiders-nottingham.info/ for some beer and a boogie to some Classic Rock and Metal. Tomorrow I intend to finish recording on Dark Star Voyage and begin work on another track, probably Silent Planet.

this evening

2004-07-23T01:17:00.000+01:00

I have been updating the Modulator ESP website, located at http://www.modulator-esp.co.uk , which is a good place to look if you are interested in me and my music.

I've got some mp3s for free download at http://www.soundclick.com/modulator if you fancy a listen. At some point I shall be getting round to adding a profile and all that stuff and possibly moving this blog to the same server as my main website.

Further info is available from my Faceparty profile here http://www.faceparty.com/jezter which has links to some of my friends. Off to bed now :-)

my first post

2004-07-22T14:30:00.000+01:00

Hi, my name is Jez Creek, I'm 35, live in Nottingham in the UK and I'm a musician and composer. This is my first post to my new weblog for Modulator_ESP, which is the name of my electronic music project. I've set this up as a way to share my thoughts on life, the universe and everything, but particularly stuff relating to music. Hopefully over time it will serve as an interesting record of my journey through life.