Glacial Traveller  - (Dreamphase 2) is now in the final stages of preparation. Following on from the first album, and again inspired by Edgar Froese and Tangerine Dream. The title track evolved following a walk I took on a snowdrift- bound road in the Cotswolds during which I came across a skier, gliding effortlessly across the tops of the snowdrifts. Just me and him in a blizzard. We acknowledged one another. He went one way and I went the other. Quite surreal at the time. The artwork on the album sleeve is interesting. I set my wife, Debbie, the task of producing something slightly 'Froese-ian',  in Photoshop. The finished item came from a photo of a glacier floating in the sea. We learned a lot about the art of Zoom O Graphics during this latest adventure.

Cheers folks

Prophet 5

Dreamphase can trace it's roots back to the heady days of 'analogue' synthesizers, and, particularly the '70's albums of the legendary Tangerine Dream. In 1977, inspired by 'Phaedra' and Rubycon,  I purchased a Korg MS 10 Monosynth. and set about learning the basics of sound synthesis. This little instrument was 'cool' because it had a small patch panel to one side, a bit like TD's monstrous Moog Modular system. This was quite versatile, but, completely unconnectable to any instrument other than another Korg MS series synth. By 1979/80 I'd graduated to a Roland Juno 60, one of Roland's all time classics, with digital oscillators. Then I had a small(ish) Digisound Modular system built, and the learning curve suddenly became much bigger. The entire instrument had to be patched together, before it would utter a sound! The Digisound had one drawback. It was designed first and foremost as a scientific project. Therefore the oscillator waveforms were very 'clean'  and produced a rather sterile sound. However, on the plus side, it had Curtis Music Chips, aka Prophet Series Keyboards, which were very stable tunewise. Then along came two Roland CSQ Sequencers, an Amdek drum machine (kit), which had to be soldered together, an Amdek Hand Clapper (ditto) which I played with two Biro pens, and another classic Synth, the Synton Syrinx (red version). Also in the mix occasionally were a Roland Jupiter 6,  a Sequential Circuits Pro One and a Roland Bassline. All good fun and a host of happy memories. Now to extract the music off cassette tape. The nightmare begins!!