An animated 2011

Excitement mounts as myself and two old creative colleagues work on a short animation that targets the rash of so-called 'small publishing houses' that are emerging. Progress has slowed over Christmas inevitably, but I have high hopes for a productive new year!

The Futura is here

In early 1984 I produced my fifth music project under the name Carrillion. Five tracks make use of the omni-present Roland Juno 6 as well as this time sticking to the Casio VL-1 for rhythms. This time however I managed to get hold of a Texas Instruments Speak and Spell from my friend's little sister. I only had it for a weekend but used it to flavour the tracks that became the mini album called Futura. Having Letrasetted my previous cassettes I was given some spare Letraset sheets from my then girlfriend Rachel - who was beginning to get seriously interested in graphic design. The sheets she gave were the typeface Futura and so I simply rubbed over the title on the sheet to get the title of my album - the sheet came first - not the word! Rachel's graphic interest had also spilled over into airbrush art and she had begun copying Athena posters with a small airbrush kit. So I took a photo of one of her paintings and used that as the cassette cover, Letrasetting directly onto it...

Such painstaking work in those days that would take but half an hour on a PC nowadays...

Anyway - the music can be heard here on Bandcamp.

Eponymous Second Album

Recorded September to November 1983, this was Carrillion's second album project. Joining myself and "Jase, the bass" was Rachel Laine who speaks and breathes through the broken WEM tape echo on the track 'Sleepless'. She also designed the logo for the cover.

Hear it here.

Eponymous First Album

Following on from the interest shown in my earlier solo work, I have begun posting the first recordings of Carrillion proper here on bandcamp. As exceptional as bandcamp is, I felt this blog would be a better place in which to expound on the creative process involved in these tracks and what memories they bring back to me.

Having formed Carrillion with bass player Jason King at the last minute for a school charity concert in April 1983, we then went on to record this, our first demo tape around June.
Recorded on a borrowed Tascam Portastudio (a 244 I think) in my bedroom, I had a Roland CR 78 drum machine, a Stylophone and my mother's upright piano. But I also borrowed my friend's Roland Juno 6, eventually buying it off him second-hand some months later. Jason plays bass on some of the tracks, anticipating the synth and bass guitar sound of New Order, Ultravox or Propaganda.

Ahead of my time, as has always been the case.



1: Awaiting Dawn
A bit of an in-joke this, as I was thinking about the time I was waiting for a girl called, you guessed it, Dawn, only to be stood up. The music reflects early optimism about the meeting but eventually begins to sound a little pessimistic and finally abrubtly stops as I realise Dawn isn't coming.

2: Glims Holm
I fed my Stylophone through the unbranded practice amplifier which had a built-in reverb which to my mind made it sound a little bag-pipey, hence the Celtic title; the name of a Scottish island.

3: Wanting More
Nothing but raw greed informs this track. I was at an age where you want everything and I was no different to everyone else.

4: Numbears
Typical of my word play, this is a pun on 'numb ears'. It features Jason's bass going through the broken WEM copycat tape echo machine. The tape in this was so stretched it distorted anything you fed into it.

5: Endtime
I think I was thinking about the short segue 'Get Carter' on The Human League's album released the year before and a massive influence on my music. Very simple, the amp's reverb again on the piano and Juno.

6: Sally Forth
Another reference to a girl, this time one who seemed to unthinkingly find herself romantically involved with a new boy every week. I think secretly I wouldn't have minded being one of those boys, and I thought writing a song in her honour might result in her favouring me too.Sadly, she never got to hear it.

7: She Likes Cream
More thoughts about sex here I suppose, but I cannot remember exactly what the inspiration was. Very hymn-like, I could imagine this played big and bold, like Ultravox's 'Hymn'.

8: Timewright
Classic Carrillion! The CR78 keeping time while Jase plays a root augmented by the Juno's rich chords and the Stylophone doodles on top. The title comes from a short science fiction story I wrote about someone who could manufacture time itself. I intended to perhaps marry the two at some point.

New Wor[l]ds Eleven

After a delay of some eighteen months, here it is at last: New Wor[l]ds Eleven collates my written work from that period.

The Need For More

I cannot understand how the months move faster as I get older and how years ago I was able to complete work faster. But is that an illusion?

I am still writing my poetry and short stories and will be producing the latest collection shortly which I am going to produce on-line in some guise or another.