Since the widespread application of electronics in music, the music that has been produced has become something that producers painstakingly create in a piecemeal fashion in private, without ever entering into a direct dialogue with their audience. As much as possible, I want to return to the "pure" state of live performance, to create true interaction between myself, my work & the audience.
Even in this "golden age" of music, there was a stage in the process where the composer worked on a score in private. This is no different to my vision of how electronic music is created: Edge Effect is partly improvised, but pre-preparation also plays an important part.
Im trying to blend high-art sensibilities with Punk Rock's do-it-yourself ethic. Rather than employing the very latest technology, I use whatever equipment I can obtain with my limited resources, this gives my work something of a "rough-edge" that I think I prefer to the highly polished work of other artists.
My methods of creating electronic music are a blending of avant garde & more traditional techniques. I reject the current academic philosophy of seeking to control every aspect of timbre, instead I'm more of a "synthesiser hacker", allowing sounds to grow organically by a process of improvised adjustment of parameters. I tend to employ conventional scales, chords, keys, & modes but my work tends to be devoid of rhythm & melody, focusing instead on evolving, dark-ambient textures. It's almost as though I'm painting pictures with sound: each piece is a window into an imagined landscape, hanging frozen in time. Originally, Edge Effect grew out of my involvement with Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, & as such it seeks to act as a gateway from the limits of everyday experience into a magical inner world where dreams can be made real.
I find myself rather disappointed by a great deal of the digital art that I encounter. To me, it tends to concentrate far too much on the idea of championing the medium without enough concern for any message, content or feeling. Its always been an aim of mine to produce work that reverses this trend. To create, perhaps, a digital-romanticism.
Commercially, I work as a web designer, a producer of audiovisual material, and a consultant to other artists and groups.
In chaos theory, an Edge Effect is an area between other large, boring areas where "really interesting stuff" happens.
Edge Effect is intended to do the same thing; standing between the banalities of much of today's popular electronic music, and the bizzare and unlistenable output of academic electronic music; it's an attempt to create NEW sonic vistas that at least try to be interpretable as music.
For many years I was limited to working in my own home studio. But in recent years I've come to believe that the only way I can truly touch an audience is to play live.
I've played at various venues in London, Bristol, Burton on Trent, & my native Swindon since 2003.
Before, distributing your music to new listeners was a great headache. With the internet, it's so much easier for them to search for new music, and to try it out virtually risk-free.
A Major-major label - no. But if I had a chance to get onto one of the "nicer" independent labels, I'd be very happy.
Formed way back in 1986. Worked for many years developing ideas (being completely self taught - this took a very long time.
Began releasing CD-Rs in 2002, and playing live since 2003.
No major landmarks as yet, still working hard.
BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Brian Eno, Eliane Radigue, Vidna Obmana, Karina ESP, Dual, Lustmord, Early Tangerine Dream, Chris Carter.
Awakenings in Burton on Trent was amazing, people actually understood what I was doing.
microKORG, KORG wavestation, Novation KS-Rack, Alesis Microverb II, Zoom multi-effects, Boss Digital Delay, Spiral Synth Modular, Audacity, LADSPA, Guitar, Recorder, various bits and bobs.