Phosphene & The Asterism play Stirling's Le Weekend festival on Sunday 31st May... More details here!
New Phosphene release available now... The King Who Would See Paradise is story piece originally released in 2004 by Nidnod Records and now re-issued by Reverb Worship with three new tracks included.
An update of this page has been long overdue.
Much of 2008 has involved producing music by other artists. The third album by Nalle, the second by Family Elan and new releases by Pefkin, Lol Coxhill & raymond MacDonald, Mount Vernon Arts Lab and Ben Reynolds are in the pipeline; a splendid debut by Trembling Bells is complete and awaiting release. 2008 saw some of my recordings becoming available including The Siren's Wave by Nalle and an album by double bass player Una MacGlone, which also features Neil Davidson and Aileen Campbell.
I'm currently working on the fourth full-length Phosphene album, which will hopefully be ready early in 2009. There's also a collaborative release on the way with Finland's Sonic Temple Assassins.
Meanwhile, the single on Pickled Egg records is available which goes by the name of Phosphene and Friends - and what friends! Here's the sleevenote to this double A side 7".....
"When I started making music as Phosphene in 2000, there was me, an odd assortment of instruments, and a multi-track possibility of making it sound like a band. However, my aim was towards collaborations, with the idea that these would lead the music down unexpected avenues. Even with that in mind, I could never have envisaged quite how much adventure and fun would be involved in making this single. Bridget St John's voice has long held a special place in my life, so it was a great thrill when she said she wanted to sing one of my songs. Having been in touch by letter and e-mail for some time, we eventually met and recorded when I visited the US in 2004. Her voice has lost none of the quality it possessed when her first LP appeared on John Peel's Dandelion label in 1969, and working with her was a joy. Fellow Bridget fans Isobel Campbell and Bill Wells added cello and Farfisa Compact Duo organ parts, respectively, to 'See a Sign Defined'. 'Ask Me No Questions' is the title track of Bridget St John's debut album, and the version which you find here
features three of my favourite people - Hanna Tuulikki, Chris Hladowski and Aby Vulliamy - who unite to form one of my favourite bands, Nalle. I suggested that this side would be more accurately billed as 'Nalle and Friend', but they generously said it should appear as another 'Phosphene and Friends' release... and so it does!" [John Cavanagh,
Phosphene]
This is available now from the Melodybar: http://www.apexonline.com/melodybar/ and direct from Pickled Egg:
http://www.pickled-egg.co.uk The beautiful artwork for the sleeve is by Hanna Tuulikki.Phosphene began in 1999 as John Cavanagh's solo project, following four years as half of the duo Electroscope. Since then there have been 3 full length albums and various shorter releases. Although the first album, Long Meadow Felt Company, was entirely solo, since then there have been some special collaborations.... with John McKeown (1990s/Yummy Fur) and saxophonists Lol Coxhill and Raymond MacDonald. Another recent release is the Phoenix Trees e.p. on Rusted Rail Records of Galway, featuring guest appearances from George Burt and John's fellow Electroscopian Gayle Brogan.
Long Meadow Felt Company has now been made available for download from CD Baby. http://cdbaby.com/cd/phosphene is where you'll find it and you can also listen to sound samples there.
On Wednesday 20th June 2007, there were two live Phosphene shows with Nalle and Colleen at Glasgow's Britannia Panopticon music hall. You can see some photos here and this is the poster for the event, designed by Iker Spozio.
I still have a couple of these left for sale in high quality A3 size... if you'd like to buy one for £5 inc. p&p, please get in touch.In addition to my own music, I also make the occasional live appearance with friends, like Age of Wire and String (guitarist Neil Davidson & 'cellist Peter Nicholson) and Black Noise (Drew Mulholland and friends). I've also appeared in Aberdeen, performing material by Ivor Cutler and Syd Barrett at a weekend of special shows at the Lemon Tree, assisted by Alan Davidson (Kitchen Cynics) & Jo Foster.I also present radio shows and I've written a book for Continuum's series on classic albums. Mine is about Syd Barrett & pink Floyd's debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and is currently available in English and Italian.
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
