All those who pre-ordered the album will already have a download link sitting in their inbox, but for everyone else, National Ignition is released today! It's available on Bandcamp for full streaming in its entirety, as well as offering a 24-bit lossless FLAC option for the download. Of course, if you'd prefer to download elsewhere, it's also online at iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Xbox Music etc.
Three-odd years and one PhD later, I'm pleased to say that I have another Ochre album due for imminent release. National Ignition will be available for download on the 21st of January 2013, from all the usual download stores (I'll put up direct store links when I get them).
It's available to pre-order on Bandcamp now, which will allow you to download the first track immediately (the rest of the album being unlocked on release; you'll receive email notification as soon as it's available). The Bandcamp edition also features a 24-bit lossless FLAC option.
Like Early Learning before it, National Ignition received exquisite design treatment by nkurence. The album will remain download-only for the time being, but I'd like to release a vinyl version once funds permit, at the very least to do the artwork justice.
At the start of the year I completed a project with composer David Sheppard, collaborating on his Snow Palms album, 'Intervals' (Village Green). David's a composer of beautiful minimal, idiophone-based music in a similar vein to Reich, Glass et al, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to add my own production flourishes to some of the tracks he'd laid down, working on six of the eleven album tracks in the end. I also got to score for a string quartet, which isn't something I regularly get to do, so that was quite the welcome challenge.
A review of the album surfaced today on Fluid Radio -- check it out to read a take on what we've done (though for whatever reason, I'm not mentioned there -- I'm involved, I promise!).
It's due for release on 19th of November. For more info/press copy and audio excerpts, please visit the release page on Village Green.
The animated documentary I scored at the start of the year, Centrefold, has now been publicly released, so you can either watch the Vimeo embed below, or head over to www.thecentrefoldproject.org to watch and comment.
It's officially an award-winner too, winning 'Best Animation' at the 2012 SCINEMA Film Awards!
Centrefold has been busy sparking debate in the media, getting a mention on BBC Radio 4, a feature in The Huff Post, Rude Magazine, plus plenty of local media coverage around the North East. It's wonderful to see it making waves. If you're interested in following updates to the project, keep an eye on their Facebook page.
Oh, and I hope you like the music/sound design, too!
There's a nice little interview with me currently running at Real Eyes [direct link]. As well as featuring excerpts from our dialogue, the article also includes quotes from previous interviews I've done (it's always odd reading old interviews; "did I really say that?"). Anyway, it makes for a nice primer on what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and where I've come from.
While you're there, you may as well catch the interview with Hecq, too!
I recently completed composing the soundtrack and sound design for Centrefold, a short animated documentary about labiaplasty. The film illustrates the personal accounts, hopes and fears, of three women following their decisions to undergo surgery. Here's the trailer:
During the project I familiarised myself with Camel Audio's excellent Alchemy synth, so you can expect to hear some evolving synth drones and sample-mangling pads in the score. Imperfect Samples' warm Braunschweig piano sample library also came in very handy, affording me the kind of warm, intimate piano chords that I can't seem to get enough of lately.
It was also superb fun being able to get my hands dirty handling the sound design for the film. Plenty of fabric-rustling, cutlery-clinking, field recording shenanigans involved, including the implementation of sophisticated GLOVEBIRD™ technology.
The full film's due for launch this summer, following its tour of film festivals.
You can visit the official Centrefold site over at: www.thecentrefoldproject.org and take a peek behind the scenes on the official Facebook page.
Just a quick post to let you know that I'm down to the last copy of A Midsummer Nice Dream on double vinyl (plus a single copy over at CD Baby). As you can see in the picture, one of the copies had split its shrink wrap (but has not been played); the rest are still wrapped. Head over to Bandcamp to secure yourself a copy (download and bonus track included).
Following tepid on the heels of 'Early Learning', I've recently updated the Bandcamp editions of my remaining three albums with 24-bit masters. Like Dust of the Balance has undergone a straightforward update to 24-bit, re-dithered from the original track montage. Lemodie and A Midsummer Nice Dream, meanwhile, have been remastered to 24-bit from the original mixdowns, and so sound a bit more polished and refined. All albums continue to be offered for a price you deem fair.
Over in the shop, the Ochre Spreadshirt stores have been updated with a new shirt option -- an ultra-soft vintage fit, tri-blend, adjective-laden American Apparel Track tee. I recently discovered this comfy garment after receiving it in Bandcamp-print guise; it's the softest tee I own.
Meanwhile, I'm excited to be working on the soundtrack for the animated documentary, The Centrefold Project, due for release during Spring 2012.
I'd been planning to re-release these tracks properly for a while now, to give them the conclusive send-off they deserve. Thanks to the help of some friends, plus some professional mastering, I can happily announce that Early Learning is now available for a name-your-price download on Bandcamp! (iTunes etc. will follow over the forthcoming weeks.)
Although all the tracks have been previously released online in one form or another in the past, to collate and properly sequence them, give them a polish and adorn with some great nkurence-penned artwork, has breathed new life into them.
Early Learning constitutes most of my pre-'Midsummer' output from between 2001 and 2003, and in some cases required revisiting the Cubase VST 5 song files, to be remixed and re-rendered for a cohesive release (i.e. tracks 1, 3 & 9). Being a download-only album, it seemed like a good opportunity to encode the FLACs in 24-bit, exceeding the 16-bit sound quality typical of a CD-borne album. (Which reminds me, I can also upgrade the FLAC editions of 'Like Dust', Lemodie and 'Midsummer' with 24-bit FLACs too. Shall arrange this when I get the chance.)
I've also taken full advantage of Bandcamp's bonus-bundling capabilities, uploading a couple of extra tracks (a remastered 'Bipolar Bears', plus my Zelda remix), in addition to Chris Larkee's video for 'Esign'. The Esign video has been updated with the remastered audio, and rendered to a 720p H.264/MPEG-4 video file.
Enjoy!
Please remember to hit those like/tweet buttons on Bandcamp and help spread the word. Much appreciated, thanks.
London-based producer Lifecycle recently commissioned me for a remix for his 'Correcting Fluid' EP. Released today, the four-track EP is available for purchase from Juno, iTunes, Amazon mp3 etc., and can be streamed in full on SoundCloud.