Soundbites

• Began musical life playing in bands such as Tribal Laughter with Max Pashm and Danni Speekman. Formed Bardic Folk band Silver on the Tree in 1988 contributing material to Eye of the Aeon, Mystic Spiral and Morning Glory. Founded the Avalonian Free State Choir in 1992, principally with the intention of performing "Pagan Carols". Also joined Invisible Opera in the same year, originally intended to be a Gong tribute band that wasn't a tribute band, recording Jewel in the Lotus and Open for Isness. Became involved with Tribal Voices, a collective of acoustic musicians, eco-buskers and protest singers in 1998.
• Collaborated with other artists including Joie Hinton, Daevid Allen, Brian Gulland, Dave Goodman, Dragonsfly, ici maintenants, Brian Abbott, Altered Native, Space Pirates and Mother Gong. More recently concentrating on solo work - Charm, The Isle of the Dead, and Flutter and held the Bardic Chair of Ynys Witrin (Glastonbury) from 2005 to 2007.
• Currently ::: Working on a new solo show. I've put loads of music up on Last.fm for you to listen to. Check it out!
• How to listen to OGGs ::: Much of the music is encoded in Ogg Vorbis format. I don't have the means currently to produce MP3s, but I could upload other formats if required. If you left click on the links, your browser should load them into some appropriate media player, if not, you can right-click and you should get a context menu which will offer you the choice to Save as..., save the file somewhere sensible and then open it in your chosen media player. There are guides available on how to listen to OGGs using Windows, OSX, linux and other platforms from the Vorbis.com site. Let me know how you get on, which solution works best for you and email me with any problems you encounter. I will probably write this up into a useful FAQ at some point. Enjoy!
• Free Music Software ::: All my own music is recorded using Open Source software from 64 Studio. I've been providing support and documentation for the distro for the last few months. As I have never become reliant on proprietary audio apps like Logic or Cubase, I have been able to say goodbye to Windows forever. Yay!
• big tea for tim ::: There is an excerpt from big tea for tim on Daevid Allen's performance website. The film was made by Andrea Heinrichs with a voice-over from Ruz Hibbs of the Australian Invisible Opera Co.
• Flutter ::: is a MIDI Tone Poem realised entirely using Open Source software and recycled hardware. This is a testcard piece designed to demonstrate the capabilities of Rosegarden and Ardour using standard soundfonts and a couple of custom voices on my external D10. It is a structured instrumental piece based on the seed theme of f+f--f+f.
• In the studio ::: I now have the technology to master up some of my older stuff and put it onto CD. Included in this is the projected re-issue of Silver on the Tree's first two albums on one CD. Currently in the mastering shed is The Isle of the Dead, being the official soundtrack to The Avalonian Book of the Dead. It was recorded in 1991 as part of a community co-creation celebrating all aspects of death.
• Bardic Chair ::: On June 17th 2005 - St. Hervé's day, I was honoured with being chaired as the first Bard of Gorseth Ynys Witrin. So now I've been officially bard which also makes me the holder of the Avalonian Silver Branch. There is a Video of me singing "Patapan" at Stonehenge on Winter Solstice 2005, thanks to Kev and Fee.
• Samsara ::: The first fruits of my endeavours can be heard in Samsara, my first song recorded entirely using linux.

See you at Gigs & Festivals over the Summer!

Discography