Music drop...

Here is some roughly edited music written and recorded opportunistically over the years, occasionally in collaboration with friends, and with often primitive equipment. I drop it here in chronological order.

I'm a guitarist and recently bassist, who dabbles in other things. Since the growing arthritic stiffness in my right hand, I can't play classical guitar since about 2010. Most of these were performed by me using various bits of software.

Finished Albums in 2022-2023

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Jazz rock fusion Symphonic movie music Prog rock movie

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Misc (2023)

Practice piece, jazz rock (2023)

Misc (2022)

3 Springfield Avenue (for mum) (2022)

Rehearsal and testing.

Misc (2021)

Voyage by Sea(2021)

Slogans (reboot) (2021)

Valentine Skies - Animé extras (2021) - see album 2022

The Silk Road (2020)

Misc (2020)

Picard - TV series, replacement theme (2020) (CD flac) (video) Based on the theme written for STNG episode "Inner Light", and the Spock Theme by Gerald Fried and Sol Kaplan.
Picard Theme - Extended version (2020) (CD flac)
Workshop Fanfare and Call To Prayer (DevSecOps meeting) (2020)
Little Earth (unfinished song - rough guide vocal) (2020)
Donnie and Mickey Start a War 1 (2020)
Donnie and Mickey Start a War 2 (2020)
Open Skies - Tribute to James Horner (2020)
Alien rockets - Tribute to James Horner (2020)
Yelllowstone Montana Jam (2020)
Xmas jam (2020)

Stranded (2020)

Pyramid Gate and River God (2020)

Bigger, Faster, Smarter (2020)

Music for the documentary film series: Bigger, Faster, Smarter

Barry Gray - Stand by for Action - tribute (2019)

1001 L Days (2019)

2019 - Misc

Fifth Ave (2019) (CD flac)

The Invasion of the Highlands

The Ivory River (Adventure of the Hopeless Heroes)

Morning Silk Road Procession (no sound effects) (2018) (CD flac)
Opening scene. Patu and his cat Fee sneak out of bed to watch the silk road procession pass nearby. It's a legacy of the old times, but the cyborg animals are broken and poorly maintained.
A new morning over the ivory mountain (2018) (CD flac)
A new morning over the ivory (alternative version) mountain (2018) (CD flac)
Title screen. Some time in a cybernetic future Far East, where humans and animals once worked together, the sun rises casting its orange warmth across the mountain plateau. The Ivory Towers are collapsing. All around are the tusks and bones of ancestor elephants in a circle, looking inwards. Animals of all kinds are peacefully talking and reading and building things. A master library of knowledge, a great treasure. No gold or jewels up here, only the clouds, dreams and ideas. The river runs out from the plain, down into the valley towards the open sea, carrying its knowledge and water of life. Years ago, elephants left for the town below to teach and help them advance but the town priests took over and began to profit from the helper animals, controlling the supply of food and diverting the river through their temple. Now they block the path between the ivory towers and the town, and run the show for their own benefit.
Our Hero - Theme (2018) (CD flac)
Patu takes his motorcycle with his cat to the main tower in the town. He's promised to help his uncle repair a piece that fell down in the last storm. Another storm is coming. The town is falling apart because the animals and insects that are supposed to keep the buildings are not doiong their jobs. Today he is bringing his flying invention to try to lift part of the tower that's fallen, but he needs the help of the animals.
Patu and Fee work on the tower (2018) (CD flac)
Patu sets to work, but in spite of a cheering crowd, the block is just too heavy to lift.
Deep In The Jungle, Elephants Toil (2018) (CD flac)
Patu goes looking for the elephants. Legend has it that they know the secret of communicating with the animals that the priests control. They engineered the ecosystem, part living, part machine, to protect the environment. But he finds them enslaved and working labour for the priests in the forest.
The girl at the water (2018) (CD flac)
Patu spots a beautiful girl with long dark hair at the water, talking to the elephants and giving them food. Jiushi has come from the Ivory Plains to find out what has happened in the town. The elders gave her a bag of technology, and she rode a serpent down the river towards the town. She tells Patu of a time when there was a great civilization that spanned the valley and the plains, but the port owners tried to steal the wealth for themselves, and keep the plains poor. But the water flows from the plains and their wisdom once made the priests powerful.
The Storm (2018) (CD flac)
A storm comes to the town and wreaks havoc on the hills and the town. The terraces that grow food collapse and half bury the worker elephants in mud. The town is in serious trouble, and the Priests are reluctant to help for fear of losing their power over people and animals.
Freeing the Elephants (2018) (CD flac)
Patu and Jiushi use Patu's own inventions and her bag of tricks to get help from the procession elephants that carry trade . He intercepts the regular trade procession on the Silk Road who divert to the collapsed terraces where the worker elephants are trapped in the mud. Pulling them to safety, the procession elephants become angry and march to the town to confront the priests.
The Magic Carpet (2018) (CD flac) Jiushi reveals a fine carpet of butterflies, designed by the elder elephants. It acts as a nematic television screen. The carpet acts as an invisibility cloak, as well as a giant TV projector, to trick the Priests to see what Jiushi wants.
The Elephant Caper (2018) (CD flac) P & J trick the priests to give up their control over the cybernetically enhanced animals, using the magic carpet to create illusions as their wings change colour as they open and close, creating images and an invisibilty cloak, and capture the controller to speak to the animals. The procession elephants then sneak behind the guards and divert the river dams and forest routes that the priests once used to control the town. The priests are tricked into their temple, where they are powerless.
The Open Plains (2018) (CD flac)
P & J and the elephants travel across the plains to find the Ivory Towers. The procession elephants tell them how reach what is left of the legendary Ivory Towers, and lead a group from the town along the path, formerly concealed by the priests. They travel to learn about their past and reconnect with the knowledge kept by the elephants.
Finale (2018) (CD flac)
The friends say goodbye to one another at the Ivory Towers, and Patu and Fee return to their town to begin repairs to the crumbling infrastructure. The priests are humiliated, but forgiven for their greed, and there is a celebration as they plan their new future working together as a single ecosystem, as the elders originally intended. A happy ending!

Experiments, exercises, and miscellaneous cues

These pieces were made with the new orchestra sound module, as I moved quickly from faking to arranging every instrument in the orchestra properly as a complete score. Since then, I get more practice with each new project.

The Road Ahead - soundtrack based on the book

Slogans - soundtrack based on the book

I made this suite as I was learning to use Garage band, but before I found a proper orchestra sound module, still seeking a technique for making orchestral music.

I later revisited this theme in 2021 to explore a proper orchestration, see above for 2021 versions.

Dragon Boat Suite 2017

2016 - AI - Artificial Improvisation (Blues for the urban machine)

Ideas put together with Garageband (bass clarinets played by Ole Martin Løvvik).

Misc - rough abandoned sketches (2016)

I have an unreasonable fondness for these rough and ready random improvised jams. In the end, they are what they are -- not worth improving or deleting. Just ideas and moments of musical thought. Probably hard for others to listen to. I like their "purity".

Cover version ideas/experiments

Some past highlights

Live guitar improvisation (DI feed) 1989
Exterior (1995)
Dare - with N & T (1995)
IPv4 surfing (1996)
TickTock (1997) with N
Space cadets - live improv (1990-something)
Sonata in G (Domenico Scarlatti, Venezuela) Recorded 2006

2009 - Classical guitar (best effort recorded on laptop)

I recorded these pieces at a time when I didn't have access to proper recording equipment, when I decided to give up classical guitar due to arthritis in my thumbs. These are some crudely recorded pieces, complete with mistakes, right hand stiffness, and analogue and digital distortion from my cheap sound card, recorded directly in some of the moments when my arthritis was behaving itself sufficiently. These were the pieces that inspired me to play right back in 1977. I'm ashamed to say that most days it doesn't get any better than this anymore :-( This was the last time I played classical guitar.

Fantasia (Alonso de Mudarra, Spain 1546)
Diferencias sobre "Guarddame las vacas" (Luys de Navarez Spain 1538),
as played by me under the title "Three cows in a magnetic field" with the 3 extra variations interpolated.
Folias (Gaspar Sanz, Spain)
Aria (Domenico Scarlatti, Venezuela)
Sonata in G (Domenico Scarlatti, Venezuela)
Cavatina (Theme from Deer Hunter) (Stanley Myers 1971)
Spanish improv MB
Choros No. 1 (Villa Lobos, Rio 1920)
Danza Mora (Francisco Tarrega, Madrid) - :( Right hand piece

1999

The ghost of Xmas past with N

1997 - (Electronica/Jazz roughs)

Traffic jam
Repent Harlequin..
Nocturne
TickTock with N
Diamond Age
Conduit
Harlequin Lives
The Methuselah Syndrome
Tierra
Run, Harlequin!

1996 - Film & Video (Electronica)

1995-?? Space Cadets (Live, unrehearsed improvisation)

Bass/guitar (MB), bass clarinet/keys (OL) and drums (TN)

Just a few edited samples. This was completely non-serious and often so funny we would laugh until we cried. We had an uncanny telepathy for improvisation. Ole Martin Løvvik (clarinets and keyboards) and Tom Nielsen (Space Cadet drums). Note: the tracks are supposed to run together, so play in sequence.

[08] [09] [11] [17] [19]

1995 - Urban Platitudes (Industry)

Machine
Exterior
Beneath the Ice
Closer and closer
Urban Fable
Antithump
Anthony
Still Walking Home (rerecorded from 1983)
Dare - with N & T
Shocks we suffered
Waking with N

Aurora's Suite (1990)

For my late friend.

Don't Fret - 1987

I wrote these tunes while I was at University in Newcastle. We rehearsed a couple of times and then went to record them all in two days, outside Banbury. Written and arranged by MB. Guitars (fretted and fretless) played by MB, Gary Warmington (Fretless bass), Pete Barrie (Drums), Terry Drake (keys), and Terry Breeze (Saxophone, with a hole in it), vocals by Mark Charters.

Compare to Zero (CPZ) 1983

This studio session was recorded just before I went to university, with Gary Burton-Wilcock on drums, John Cowan on guitars and vocals (1,2), Pete Lofthouse on bass, and me on guitars and voice (3). I always hated everything about this recording -- it's flawed in so many ways. Here, with the benefit of digital hindsight, I corrected some of the awful tonal balance and added some reverb. The source is badly distorted however, and the original recording no longer accessible. Here it is, warts and all.

First Flight 1982

My first case of entrepreneurship, at the tender age of 16. On a very tight budget I rented Dave Pegg's (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention) local studio, and multitracked everything myself. I taught myself to play the drums, listening to Genesis, and hit real drums for the first time just before going into the studio. I think it was also the first time I'd played a bass guitar. Then I copied 120 cassette tapes and sold them for 3 pounds a piece, enough to buy my next guitar. This album got me my next band gig, CPZ. It marked the beginning of an apparent obsession with music about flight.

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