Kickstarter :: Peace Odyssey
January 21st 2015
It’s been quite some time since I’ve released on 12″ vinyl; the last time would’ve been around 2009 when I had a 12″ out on Sound of Speed, the rather tasty ’16 Below’.
I’ve rediscovered a love of vinyl over the past couple of years; in actual fact, the passion never really went away, but after a prolonged period purchasing music on compact disc, I now tend to seek out the vinyl, if available.
Either way, to coincide with the relaunch of my website, I’ve decided to try and fund a vinyl release on my own label, which will contain some of the more ambient and meditative pieces from my catalogue via pledgemusic. I guess in some respects, I’m simply asking you to pre-order an LP from my label which will make the investment in such a project a little less eye-wateringly expensive.
The plans is to press strictly 300 copies of ‘More Sounds to Sleep to’ [working title] and it’ll be beautifully packaged in full colour card outers and inners. If this is something that you think you might be interested in, then please head over to my pledgemusic campaign site and get involved.
February 2nd
Wow!
5 days into the campaign and we’ve already hit over a third of the total amount.
I’m chuffed to bits at the support I’ve been receiving, both in terms of the physical pledges and the supportive mails I’ve been reading.
What’s interesting is that a lot of you appear to be more interested in purchasing the CD version – a lot of folks seem to have ditched their turntables just as the popularity of vinyl seems to be on the up.
Either way, in view of this, I’m going to tailor the campaign accordingly, pressing up less of the vinyl and more copies of the CD.
April 29th
Apologies for the slackness of my reportage, but I’ve been pretty busy with other things, life tends to get in the way of updating websites and general creativity, but hey, I can’t let the bastards grind me down!
Any road, I am pleased and genuinely moved to tell you that I hit 100% of target within 30 days of the campaign launch. I opted to run the scheme for 90 days, so to cover so much ground in a comparatively short period of time is amazing.
Thanks so much for all of your support – needless to say, I hope you’ll all be happy with the end result. I’m presently sorting through the material that I hope to include on the album. The tracklistings will be different for the vinyl and the CD versions, mainly because of the amount of time that one has available when pressing a 33rpm record.
I’ve also had a change of heart regarding the audio content – OK, it’ll still be a primarily ambient release, but I think that a fluctuation of styles throughout a listen make an album more of an interesting prospect. There are some proper gems that I’ve been working on over the past 20 months which I’m looking forward to sharing on this, my first proper release on Lucid Recordings. I’m very excited!
Also, I’ve had a rethink regarding the title and cover art – ‘More Sounds to Sleep to’ doesn’t really represent what I plan to put on this.
If you’ve not pledged your support as yet, there’s still time – the campaign finishes around the 15th August.
June 22nd
So, here we are. As of today, I’ve hit 151% of target. This means that not only will I be able to pay for all the manufacturing costs, but the packaging and postage and packing which, rather hap-haphazardly, I’d kind of forgotten to factor into my original cost estimates.. phew!
Thanks to all of you who’ve got on board with this. I’m properly proud of this achievement. It’s kind of life-affirming.
I’m waiting on the TPs [test pressings] from the plant, if those sound good on my turntable here, then I’ll give the green light and then it’s all systems go.
The new record is called ‘Peace Odyssey’. I was toying with other titles, but that one stuck.
Chris Bagust did all the mastering over at his studio in Spain, and also gave valuable feedback as to the content and sequencing of the CD and vinyl versions. The format differs slightly – obviously I had less time to play with on the record, there’s only around 20 minutes per side to play around with, and there’s a vinyl-only exclusive in the shape of a new track, ‘Sudetenland’.
Artwork was good fun to put together – I had a variety of ideas but used some pictures I took whilst on a walk in the Chilterns. The rather abstract imagery on the cover is in actual fact looking up through a skylight – quite tripped out and effective.
I hope you’ll agree that the audio content is a good representation of what you’ve come to expect from me. As you know, the original plan had been to produce a purely ambient set, but rather fortunately I had a wealth of new material which didn’t quite fit the brief, hence the more varied set.
The next album will be a piano-driven set as I have a lot of extemporized work that, once finished, will see the light of day.
And finally, you can still get involved with this project – the campaign finishes around the 15th August, I think..!
July 13th
As you’ve probably already read in the home page updates, the project is now closed. I raised 155% of target!
The CDs arrived via UPS last week and they look and sound great. I will be mailing these out in the next couple of weeks to those of you who supported the project. Once all of these are honoured, I will be making the remaining stock available in my shop towards the end of the year.
The vinyl test pressings also arrived last week and whilst side 1 sounded fine, side 2 was pressed off centre, resulting in some wow and flutter when listening on my reference deck. I’m now waiting for the second batch of TPs to come back from the plant which I’ll hopefully be able to give the green light to. Then it’ll be all systems go – I cannot wait to see the finished article!
If you haven’t received your download link for the FLAC and MP3 downloads yet, then please check your spam box. If you’re still having trouble, please mail me and I’ll send you a download code.
October 2015
As I write this, I’m sat out on the Greek Island of Paros, which is our annual vacation destination – Nina and I try and get out here at least once a year to unwind and reset the clocks.
I’m reflecting on the kickstarter and the positive nature of the whole experience. I can heartily recommend it to anyone who’s got something they deem worthy of getting out to the general public. The whole thing went smoothly, although it ended up costing significantly more than I’d envisaged, to the point where I just about broke even. I didn’t take into account the shipping and packaging costs. Still, you learn from your experiences; as a first attempt this was great!
The CDs looked and sounded the real deal. It was exhilarating to see my own label’s logo on the sleeve, kind of a dream come true, really.
But the main focus of the campaign was the vinyl edition, and, barring a dodgy first test pressing, came out beautifully too. To receive a finished copy of your own compositions on the plastic fantastic on your own record label is rewarding, to say the least, especially to a vinyl freak such as myself.
Like most plans I have, I have a vague one to repeat the process and release a retrospective double gatefold vinyl in the next 16-18 months on Lucid Recordings. I’ll fill it with some of the tracks that have never had a ‘proper’ release and there’ll also be a complement of some of the stuff I’m better known for.
Again, I’d like to thank everyone that came on board to make this happen. You’re all great!
