18/01/2012

Tune in to Dermot O'Leary's BBC Radio 2 show at 5-6pm this Saturday (21st January) to hear the first single from Captain Wilberforce's album Ghost Written Confessions, "A Beautiful Waste of Time". You will also hear a radio jingle fabricated from the song.

06/01/2012

Dorothea will be played on Tom Robinson's BBC Radio 6 show tomorrow night - so tune in after you've been out!

If you can't listen tomorrow, you'll be able to hear the whole show for 7 days at the BBC Radio 6 website.

You can also call up any of the request shows on BBC Radio 1 or 2 to get it played! Find the numbers for the shows at www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/ and www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/programmes/a-z

Get dialling!

01/01/2012

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm happy to announce that I have become a consultant producer for Infinity12 Records - a global record and production company!

Big things for 2012...

13/12/2011

Dorothea's Boat is streaming for free at my Soundcloud. Just click on "Follow" and you'll get an invitation to stream the album within 24 hours.

Also - from January I will be working with Samplephonics to source rare and antique instruments, and engineering them in the studio to create Kontakt instruments. Do you like the Marxophone on "Species" and "Over, Under" from Dorothea's Boat? Well in the new year, you will have access to the exact instrument I own. In perfect condition, with no antique maintenance, or tuning issues, for a fraction of the price that I paid for it. It will also be available in exs24, ableton live, halion and as many different sampler versions as you can imagine!

28/11/2011

Liars, Charlatans, Jinxmongers (for voice and accompaniment) is now available as a digital download through iTunes, Amazon, and nearly all other digital download shops. It is also available on Spotify, Rhapsody and Napster etc.

If, like me, you still prefer hard media, there are still some first-pressing copies left in the store. Any orders made by December 14th will be posted to arrive before Christmas (within UK - outside of the UK might take a bit longer).

Again. Follow me on Soundcloud in order to hear Dorothea's Boat in full, from 8th December.

22/11/2011

To make way for the arrival of Dorothea's Boat, Liars, Charlatans, Jinxmongers is on sale for £4.97 with free postage and packaging within the UK. If you haven't already got it, now's your chance to grab a copy of the first pressing (very limited numbers remaining) in time for Christmas - just head over to the store.

Liars will also be available on all good digital download retailers in two weeks time!

Don't forget! Follow me on Soundcloud in order to hear Dorothea's Boat in full, for FREE on 8th December, well before it will be released in 2012!

06/11/2011

Happy belated Bonfire Night to everyone in England! It's not a big thing here in the States (well... it's not a thing at all), and that makes me sad. I hope wherever you were and whatever you were doing was fun, and everyone was safe.

There are now a few pieces of music from my new album to stream over in the Media section, as well as a piece from my album with David Lines. The release date for both albums is still to be confirmed.

Don't forget to go to my Soundcloud page and follow me there to hear new work first, as well as to hear Dorothea's Boat in it's entirety before it is released!

22/10/2011

Wow. It has been over a month since this website was updated. That's probably because a lot has been happening!

I am on the home straight with Dorothea's Boat. I am expecting it to be completed by early December, but the powers that be will decide on when there is a physical release. That said, I have decided that if I get enough followers on my new sparkly Soundcloud page by the time the album is finished (and it will be within a couple of days either side of 8th December this year), then I will make the whole album streamable with private privileges for those following.

At the moment there are three pieces in a pre-touch-up-when-the-album-is-complete mix state, along with three pieces from my collaboration with David Lines - Parasol (which is also awaiting the powers that be to decide a release date).

So go to my Soundcloud page and click on follow. Have a listen. Leave some comments. Most importantly - pass it on and spread the word. If there are enough followers, then everyone will be able to hear Dorothea's Boat in its entirety before it is released!

There is some more exciting news, but I'm not allowed to share it with you all yet...

12/09/2011

Thank you to all who came to this year's Alight Festival! What a wonderful evening to share with you all. The other artists were superb, and the four part story seemed to catch the imagine of all of the kids (big and small).

I will be returning to America this week to work on more of Dorothea's Boat, and will return to the UK in December. Stay tuned for performance dates if and when they are organised.

18/08/2011

This year's ALIGHT Festival will be held at the Easingwold Maize Maze on 10th September. The evening promises to be an enchantingly theatrical take on the traditional music festival. There will be three stages, with a mixture of Music, Visual and Poetry.

Confirmed so far are...

Gwyneth Herbert

Tickets are priced at £12 for Adults (over 16), £8 for 16 and under. Children under 5 go free - and there will be something for ALL ages!

To order your tickets from the festival website, click HERE.

David Lawrie merchandise will be available at the festival!

16/08/2011

Captain Wilberforce's album Ghost Written Confessions was released yesterday, officially. It has already received some glowing reviews. Simon will be performing with his full band in Birmingham this Friday - 19th August, at The Sunflower Lounge as an official launch party. Details of the event are here.

Thank you also to everyone who showed up on the 6th to Natalie Ward's exhibition. It was wonderful to see so many people taking an interest in her artwork and my music. It was especially nice to see some of her originals selling at breakneck pace. The piece of electroacoustic music which was playing might be made available in the future. Who knows...

...in the meantime though, preparations for Alight festival are going well. I will be performing a set of almost entirely new material with the help of Liam Ledgeway, Jonny Greenwood and Phil Grainger. I hope you can make it!

Until then...

28/07/2011

The first national reviews for Captain Wilberforce's Ghost Written Confessions are starting to emerge.

Here's one from Uncut!

Four Stars!!

26/07/2011

I'm coming back to England in a few days for 7 weeks...

...during which time I have many things going on!

On the 6th August I will be at Pyramid Gallery in York for the opening of Natalie Ward's "The Tempest" Exhibition, featuring her abstract collages based around Shakespearean plays, with a distinctively aquatic theme. My new electroacoustic piece Not a Drop to Drink: Every Chance to Sink will be installed alongside her work for the duration of the exhibition. Head over to the Live section for more information.

I will also be rehearsing all month; putting together a live show before I perform at Alight Festival, which will be held at the Maize Maze near Thirsk. This will be the first time that any of the pieces from my forthcoming album have been performed. The website hasn't been updated with this year's line up yet, but head over to the Live where you will find accurate information. The show will be on the 10th September. Merchandise will be available, including the diminishing supply of the first pressing of Liars, Charlatans, Jinxmongers (for voice and accompaniment) and the VERY limited edition Hand signed decorated T Shirt.

The live line up will be entirely different to how it was. Liam Ledgeway from Lost From Atlas; Jonny Greenwood and event organiser Phil Grainger will be joining me on stage along with a group of singers.

I hope you can all make it!

Also, remember that Captain Wilberforce's new album Ghost Written Confessions is being released officially in August, so keep checking back on his website for information of shows around that time.

And that about covers everything...

...for now.

21/06/2011

Happy Summer Solstice to all. Enjoy the longest day!

C P Stewart's new collection of poems "Considering the Lilies" has recently been published by 6tHouse and is available at all good bookstores. If you prefer virtual shopping, then it is available on the Waterstones website, but has sold out at Amazon.

The more observant of you may have made a connection with the name to The Laughing Gravy, with whom I have worked, and you would be correct. Before creating the band, Stewart was a poet, and after disbanding, he returned to poetry and was quickly published in journals worldwide. Considering the Lilies is his second exclusive publication since disbanding The Gravy.

I'm sure he won't mind my favourite excerpt being written here - it is one of the shorter poems from the collection:

Two Crows

One October morning.

Make sure you pick a copy up asap!

In other news, the August release of Captain Wilberforce - Ghost Written Confessions is getting closer and closer, and has already had airplay in the USA.

My collaboration with David Lines, Parasol, is completed - release date to follow.

I promise that I am working hard on Dorothea's Boat...

13/05/2011

Captain Wilberforce's new album Ghost Written Confessions is now available (unofficially). Here is the statement from his website.

Ghost Written Confessions, the third Captain Wilberforce album will be available on CD from Monday at Blue Tuxedo Records. Yay.

Tell your friends!

I couldn't have put it better myself!

Head over to the Discography section to find out more!

16/04/2011

My mentor from when I studied my Master's degree in Music Production, Dale Perkins, has made available his award winning electroacoustic compositions (including "Axe" - featuring source performances and recordings by yours truly) via his website www.daleperkins.co.uk in 16 bit 44.1kHz stereo waves - you can also stream mp3 versions of the pieces there.

Dale was a massive influence on the way I approach sound and sound design. I wrote and produced Liars, Charlatans, Jinxmongers (for voice and accompaniment) as the main body of my Master's work under his supervision, and was constantly challenged to completely rethink the way popular music can be restructured harmonically, texturally, melodically and how so called 'electroacoustic' styles were not exclusively reserved for small circles of the high art elite. Suffice to say, I quickly learned how electronic manipulations of acoustic sound sources, when blended with instrumental performances, whilst completely abstracted from their original form, can indeed make much more sense sonically than combining completely electronic instruments with live instrumental performances - a notion I have developed in the two years since graduating, and used in production and composition work both as a solo artist and via commission.

I assure you that Dorothea's Boat is very much back on track, and I can tell you that the balance of instrumental and electroacoustic is more even than any of my previous works. I can't wait to finish it and let it set sail.

Anyway - enough time away from Logic and CDP. I'm going to get back to making music - and in the meantime I recommend that you head over to www.daleperkins.co.uk and have a listen!

Until next time...

05/04/2011

Captain Wilberforce's new album Ghost Written Confessions is ready to go to press and is available to pre-order HERE.

Unusually, as the producer and sound balance engineer, I actually ended up mastering the album, as well. This brought up the issue of intrinsic loudness in the final product - and it was something I had hands-on control over. From previous bulletins, you will all be aware of my advocacy for increased dynamic range in recorded music (and you'll even notice that as I've become more confident about the content of my own work, the intrinsic levels have decreased and the dynamic ranges have increased). I am happy to say that I stuck to my instincts and preserved a healthy rms level of between 10 and 14dB on the tracks on the Captain Wilberforce album. Funnily enough, it doesn't sound particularly quieter than many of the hypercompressed albums of the last few years, but has an intrinsic level more akin to the great sounding records of the early-mid 90s. In my opinion, that is the period where we had achieved true hi-fidelity sound in recorded music with an intrinsic level that is appropriate for the most situations and applications. To further this notion - do you notice a level increase when a 90s rock piece is followed by a 2010 rock piece on the radio?

I didn't think so.

I hope you all share my views on this absurd "Loudness War" which really has had no effect on music sales (if anything, it's had a negative effect) and I'd love it if more people could spread the word about bringing dynamics back to music. Have a look at Turn Me Up and watch the video below...

....and don't forget to order yourself a copy of the new Captain Wilberforce album!

23/01/2011

Captain Wilberforce - Ghost Written Confessions will be released in May. You can pre-order the album for a reduced price of five pounds and fifty pence (including UK postage and packaging) HERE. The Captain Wilberforce back catalogue is also available at a reduced price!

The album is in it's final production phase from my end, and I am assured that the artwork is coming along nicely. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the Captain throughout 2010. He came to me with demos of one minute ideas, four bar riffs, lyrical concepts and all unfinished ideas. We worked on the structures, arrangements, lyrical ideas and everything else together over the entire year. It has been a great experience and I am so excited to finish the mixes and hold the final product in my hands.

I won't be resting for very long, though...

As soon as the Captain's album is done, I will be mixing PARASOL - a collection of spoken word songs on which I have been collaborating with The Modfather author David Lines. I am also particularly excited about this album as it is unlike anything I have worked on before. It is at the same time very simplistic and honest in it's instrumental arrangement, and lyrically linked with David's forthcoming book. I do not have a release date for this album, yet, but I would hope it would be late summer/autumn 2011. I'll update you as soon as I know any more.

15/01/2011

Come one, COME ALL - to the BLACK HOUSE

Long-time collaborator and best friend Idiophonic released his debut album BLACK HOUSE today, which is available to buy and stream at www.idiophonic.co.uk - I suggest you head over there with your wallets open!

Having not been in England for quite a while, now, at 3am this morning (GMT) I heard the final masters of Black House for the first time. It is a magnificent debut album!

For those of you in or around York tonight, you can catch the launch gig at The Duchess where Idiophonic will be performing alongside We Could Be Astronauts.

More David Lawrie news soon!

09/01/2011

Happy New Year to you all!

I am currently mixing the new Captain WIlberforce album Ghost Written Confessions in a very Snowy New Haven, Connecticut. Keep checking back here, or there for updates. I am simultaneously (not literally, of course) mixing 'Parasol' - a collaborative album with David Lines. Expect releases of both of these albums later in 2011.

Also, head over to the Lost from Atlas Myspace page to hear a new track "Reach" from their forthcoming EP which I produced in 2010.

Let's hope 2011 brings happiness and success to us all!

13/09/2010

The Last Miner will be performed at The Theatre Royal in York on October 25th at 11.30am and 3.00pm. If you want to attend, book early as it is likely to sell out quickly. York is both mine and Jim Harbourne's hometown. I will try and be there for the performances.

Hope to see you all there!

26/08/2010

A new track from the forthcoming album Dorothea's Boat is up on MySpace. Keep checking back for news about the album!