BELERION [modular analogue remediation]
BACKGROUND Tangerine Dream's Rubicon is a highly influential work of experimental electronic music. With it's strong immersive atmospheres and driving electronic grooves it not only predates much of the ambient music of today but also the birth of electronic dance music. The story goes that Tangerine Dream acquired a huge Moog Modular system from the Rolling Stones, who had bought it for an astronomical amount because they thought they needed one (and they had the money). They didn't need it, but TD did, and got it at a massive knock down price. Chris Franke, who was a drummer by training took to the machine instantly and started doing what he knew best, using the machines sequencer to create rhythms and synthesiser grooves. When I first heard this music, it changed my life completely: I found its hypnotic grooves and moods took me to a very exciting place and fired my imagination to such an extent that I not only, at the age of 16, started exploring electronic music composition for myself, but also started making films that matched these moods. This I am still doing today, and this LP still has qualities that move me with an undiminished power. Belerion could in one way be seen as a homage to Rubicon and it's creators, and since Edgar Froese, the founding member of TD died recently, this is probably not a bad idea. But more than this it is a compositional experiment, remediating Rubicon into a distinct set of rules, then applying these to a new musical form for dissemination in 2015. PERSONNEL/GEAR David Bickley, electronic musician/intermedial artist and founder of seminal fusion outfit Hyper[borea]. I have been working with electronics in music since the mid '70's and own a variety of analogue devices. Tom Green, founder of ambient group Another Fine Day and ex-member of The Orb. Tom is an avid collector of analogue music technology and was himself similarly influenced by Rubicon. Dare Mason runs the VIP Lounge (where the project was recorded) in Penzance Cornwall and has a long history as a producer and engineer. He also makes his own music with The Church's Marty Piper under the moniker Noctorum. His studio abounds with analogue devices, from the Toft ATB 32 channel pure analogue mixing desk to a Yamaha E1010 analogue delay to a Roland Vocoder Plus and a rare Roland Chorus Echo. At 63, Steve Bayfield is the veteran of the group with a musical heritage founded in the free festival scene of the '70's. A brilliant guitarist with perfect control he channels the ambient blues that was beloved of Edgar Froese.
