I thought it was time to let you in on some of the new music I’ve been working on this year. Most of you probably have Mandala by now, or have at least heard it on Bandcamp. And you will of course have checked out the latest Rejectamenta EP, which consists of tracks that didn’t quite fit on the new record but were recorded during the same period.
Yesterday I posted an unmastered preview track from the new record The Knowledge of Things To Come on my Soundcloud page. I had a great response over Twitter and Facebook from a number of people and thought it should be posted here on the blog.
I also thought this would be a good time to talk about what it is I do when I’m playing solo. Many people who bought Mandala have asked me whether I played all the instruments on the album. They were surprised when I told them it was just me playing solo live and I’ve found it is quite difficult to explain to non-musicians the concept and process of live looping without the music in front of me.
So I’ve annotated the track on Soundcloud with their rather useful timed comments utility. This had allowed my to provide you with a running commentary as the track plays through, explaining what is occurring musically and technically in real time.
Obviously this is one of the simpler tracks from a live looping perspective. A lot of what I do is a kind of musical plate-spinning exercise where I’m both playing and steering the arrangement live with the Looperlative. All the sounds on this track were produced wit the Pod X3 Pro going through the LP1.
The new record should be ready sometime over the next couple of months. It just needs mastering now. I also posted a preview of the album artwork via Instgram last night; got a good response for that too which I was really pleased about. The main image is by the excellent Icelandic photographer Johann Smari and the cover design is my own.
I was lucky enough to be invited by the excellent bassist and educator Lee Pellington (@Guerillabass on Twitter) to give a masterclass at Leicester College on Friday. We talked about what it means to be a freelance session musician and what you need to know to make it on your own. We also talked briefly about the solo bass project and I performed a few short live looping improvisations for the bass players in the morning. So, seeing as we’re looking at the process in today’s blog post, here’s a short video of one of my improvisations filmed that morning. The sound isn’t great and the noise of me pressing buttons is louder that the music, but you get the idea…
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Hope you like it. It’s also up on YouTube if you want to share the link. Watch this space for news of the new record. As soon as it’s ready I’ll be sending out advance download copies to a few bloggers and music writers for reviews. If you are a music blogger, reviewer, podcaster or radio host and would like to be included in this select bunch, then drop me a line here and I’ll put you on the list. Â Phil and Oliver, you are at the top of the list…
Thought I should drop a quick post to keep you up to date with the various goings ons…
Just got back from a whistlestop trip to Poland. We were revisiting the little festival we played a few years ago (in fact, I blogged about it at the time). We were playing again at the Amfiteatre Dolina Charlotta near the town of Slupsk (which is apparently pronounced ‘swoopsk’ I discovered). It’s a lovely little place by a lake and this time we got to stay in the lovely hotel next to the gig that they were still building last time.
The rest of the band arrived in Poland the night before but I left the house at 5am to catch the early flight. we soundchecked in the afternoon, which is when it became apparent that the weather in Slupsk is much much colder than at home…
Gordon was provided with exactly the wrong kind of Nord keyboard and spent a lot of the soundcheck trying to program up a few sounds for the gig. We were playing before Bonnie Tyler, which was great. We had to reshuffle the stage completely as her drummer flatly refused to share the (hired) drumkit. But we got there in the end…
The gig was a lot of fun and the crowd were fantastic. The only problem was the temperature onstage. It was absolutely freezing and pretty windy. None of us managed to warm up all all through the 90-minute set, and I’m pretty sure the cold I’m suffering with right now is as a result of that gig…
We’ll be returning to Poland in June for another show. Not sure where it is yet but it’s quite near Krakow apparently.
In other news, Clare Teal’s new album Hey Hocomes out May 9th. Featuring me (mostly) on bass with Grant and Ben. We’re working our way through the ‘Great British Songbook’ with songs from Noel Coward to Moloko and Snow Patrol. You can preorder the album at Amazon if you simply can’t bear the wait…
We’ll be playing in Jersey this Sunday and we’ll also be only This Morning on Friday with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, so don’t forget to tune in…
And finally, as I mentioned in my last post here; my new EP Rejectamentais available for download on the music page, where you can also stream the whole EP in full. Hope you like it. I’ve had some great feedback so far. In fact, here’s the player embedded from Bandcamp so you can stream it right here. I’d love to hear your comments…
It’s official, my debut solo album Mandalais now available on CD!!
In fact I’ve just heard that a few lucky folk have already received the copies of the album I sent out yesterday afternoon. The postal system is obviously improving somewhat. I picked up a motherload of CDs from the lovely David at Key Production yesterday lunchtime and am so happy with the finished product.
The CD is exclusively available on my website (click here for a shortcut!). It comes lovingly packaged in an eco-friendly recycled card sleeve designed by my friend Symeon Cosburn with photos by Ary Vidot. The CD version also includes immediate download of the digital version of Mandala in whatever format you prefer (FLAC, 320k MP3 etc).
I keep getting asked about the record; what sort of music is it? Is it really just bass? So here is some of the info I’ve started sending out to give you some background…
Simon Little releases solo album Mandala
Having been experimenting with live-looping technology for the past few years, bassist Simon Little has now released his debut solo album Mandala.
Best known for his work with The Divine Comedy, Clare Teal and Duke Special, Simon has appeared on numerous recordings and this is his first release under his own name.
The entire album was recorded using solely his Warwick Thumb VI, a wide array of effects and a Looperlative LP1. Simon uses live looping to create ambient soundscapes as a basis for improvistion. He explains:
When I was 17 I was listening to the Weather Report live album 8:30 and heard Jaco perform his solo live-looping piece ‘Slang’. It changed the way I thought about playing the bass and so began my obsession with making music using the bass as a solo instrument.
Whilst I was studying at The Guildhall School, a friend introduced me to the fantastic Eberhard Weber album Pendulum. This album really opened my eyes to the possibilities of using live-looping technology to create vast soundscapes and textures as a basis for improvisation.
Mandala is the culmination of my ongoing experimentation with looping technology. Each track is a live improvisation using the Looperlative LP1.
Some lovely people have also been asking how they can help promote the record and spread the word online. As you can imagine this is incredibly important for an independent release and I am a great believer in the power of Social Media. My best suggestions for anyone who likes the music is simply to tell your friends, tell your colleagues and tell your family via whatever method you prefer. I use Twitter and Posterous to share new musical discoveries and recommendations. Some people prefer Facebook or Delicious. Some people even prefer MySpace (!). One great way to let people hear the album is using the embeddable player from the Bandcamp page itself. Just click the Share button to copy and paste the code onto whatever page you’re using. Easy…
Big thanks to everybody that has bought and downloaded the album already. I’ve had some great feedback and hopefully will be getting a bit of press coverage in the near future.
