Between the years 1996 and 2006 Paul Simpson (front-man and founder member of The Wild Swans) played live and released albums of instrumental music under the name Skyray.
Recorded and produced at the beautiful beach-front Gossamer Dome Studio on the island of Anglesey-North Wales by (another of Liverpool's Eric's punk club regulars) Henry Priestman, the recordings were further enhanced by contributions from Longstone, Alan Holmes of Ectogram, John Lawrence of Gorky Zygotic Mynci and Will Sergeant of Echo and The Bunnymen. Augmented live by the sonic wizardry of Mike Ward and Mike Cross of Longstone and on occasion by Kev Fox of 90 Degrees South, Henry Priestman and David Wrench, Skyray performances were occasional but memorable affairs.
“After suffering five years of depression following the implosion of the Wild Swans Mk.2, I was ready to begin making music again, but I still could not face singing. By experimenting at home on a bottom-of-the- range 4-track cassette machine I hit upon a sound that, for me, was simultaneously melodic, progressive, psychedelic and futuristic. I was still feeling vulnerable and psychically battered by my major label years so in keeping the new project instrumental and comparatively left-field I felt that I was not risking too much emotionally.
I wilfully made the pieces longer than was fashionable at the time, ranging from the 18 minute-long debut single ‘Invisible’ (a comment upon my low-profile in the music business) to the 72-minute long single-track endurance test (for Sonic Boom's Space Age Recordings) ‘Womb’. Although Skyray was essentially lo-fi, the recordings had high production values and I think that made the Skyray albums stand out from the crowd at the time.
The high-point for me was ‘Mind Lagoons’ the (currently-deleted) aquatic concept album that charted the exotic and erotic hallucinations of a scuba diver experiencing the rapture before dying brought about by nitrogen poisoning. The low-point was abandoning the Skyray Versus The Forces Of Evil and Deathray albums halfway through due a return of my melancholia.
I enjoyed Skyray, there was no politics and no compromise and I made some good friends in the Ochre Records crowd - Talbot, Longstone and 90 Degrees South. A Skyray 'Ground Crew' of web-masters and advisors consisting of Andrew Billington, Russ Sanders and Nick Halliwell made life a lot easier for me during these years.
Dressed in white and 'invisible' thanks to video projection (6 foot-high slo-mo Angel fish) I was able to play live without feeling too vulnerable. Skyray played gigs ranging from the miniscule - Upstairs at the Garage, to the immense - Royal Festival Hall as part of Julian Cope's wonderful Cornucopea event in 2000.
I eventually lost interest in Skyray because it felt like every week there was another echoey and metronomic Krautrock influenced ambient album being released with an abstract cover and a map-reference somewhere in the title. I knew it was over when I started to be included on those god-awful Chill-Out compilations. I wasn't part of that (or any other) scene and resented the connection.
Things have their time and the ten-year anniversary seemed like a nice place to stop. â€
Paul Simpson 2008
Album Discography:
Tranquilliser (Ochre Records) 1998
Womb (Space-Age Recordings) 1999
Mind Lagoons (Ochre Records) 1999
Slow Dissolve (sampler) 2001
Ice-Rink Music e.p. (Astral Girl) 2004
Liquid Crystal Display (Astral Girl) 2004
STOP PRESS: The long deleted albums Tranquilliser, Mind Lagoons and the Ice Rink Music e.p. are now available to download at the shop at http://www.paul-simpson.co.uk
