During my career as a musician, I have had the good fortune to collaborate on some very interesting projects with musicians and artists I admire. Some have been purely musical, and others have been as a result of working with film-makers and artists. Sadly, none of them are currently available to purchase, but many of the recordings are available on sites such as Soundcloud. Below is a short list of these collaborations with links to the recordings that are available.
The Fraudulent Gurus
This was a project with the great accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman. Michael is an astonishing musician and I would recommended checking out his work by going to his website. We created a number of instrumental compositions and an adaption of a jazz classic. We also created a fake religion called Fraudulism! There are a number of video clips of The Fraudulent Gurus on Vimeo and Youtube and I have posted a number of audio pieces on Soundcloud. Here is a piece called Hi-Bye.
Another project with Michael was called Swimming Pool. We recorded one session at Pat Colliers studio. Here is one of the recordings with Tansay Ibrahim on percussion. This piece is Swimming Pool 5.
Luke Pretzlik
Luke Pretzlik was a very talented British film maker. I met Luke when my not-for-profit organisation, The Luma Group, was working with Kensington and Chelsea Mind. Luke was making a documentary about the remarkable work done at the Meanwhile Gardens near Kensal Green and he asked me if I would be interested in providing a soundtrack. The film was eventually made and might still be available through Meanwhile Gardens. Here is one of the tracks I provided.
I recorded people working in the garden and used the samples for percussion across the soundtrack.
I created a second soundtrack for a film Luke made about psychosis. I’m not sure that the film was ever completed but I have made the full soundtrack available on Soundcloud. Click here for the Psychosis soundtrack.
S.K.I.T.Z Beatz
S.K.I.T.Z Beatz is an early pioneer of the East London grime scene and has worked on a number of amazing projects with various artists. Here is the S.K.I.T.Z Beatz Wikipedia entry. Skitz and I worked on a few tracks together and I provided him with some songs for artists he was producing at the time of our collaboration. Here is one of our pieces called ‘Heard What I Said’.
G.P.Hall
Graham Peter Hall is one of the great hidden jewels of British guitar based composition. He has his own Wikipedia entry which is a good starting point to investigate his extensive catalogue of work. You can buy his albums from his website, www.gphall.com.
Pete and I did several recordings at various locations and here is one of them called Voice in The Wave.
Dream Detectives
I first met the great German multi-media artist Moishe Moser, a.k.a The Real Moi, when he interviewed me for a magazine he was editing called Interview (the German version). It was back in 1976 when he had come to England to check out the punk scene. We became very close friends and have been ever since. Moishe was the first person to bring The Vibrators into Germany and it was through him that we ended up living in Berlin while we were writing the second album that became V2. After I left the band He asked me if I would be interested in providing some soundscapes for his first solo exhibition of paintings. I ended up writing music for 4 of his exhibitions. The music is available as downloads and there are a limited number of CDs available.
My favourite work for Moishe was the film soundtrack improvisations I created for his film work. Here is a youtube video from one of the improv sessions.
And here is the website for The Dream Detectives.
There is a further collaboration with Moishe Moser. In the early part of the 1980’s he formed a duo with producer/composer/guitarist Hobbi Siewert. They called themselves Islo Mob. They were signed to Phonogram in Germany. I added guitar and mandolin to several tracks on the first album, Wir Sind Das Abendland. There is a second, unreleased Islo Mob album, on which I not only add guitar but supply all of the lead vocals.
Graham Wood
Shortly after leaving the Stranglers I was introduced to a very interesting dance music producer called Graham Wood. I don’t know if he is still involved in making music. We recorded several pieces in his amazing little studio that was located in the siren testing house at Trinity Buoy Wharf in Bow. So we called ourselves the Siren Testing House Project. This is the instrumental version of a piece called ‘Bump and Grind’.