Some of you will know that I am an occasional member of the Intercontinental Philharmonic Orchestra which is led by my good friend and occasional collaborator Jasun Martz. He has just released a monumental piece of work. 

A group of musicians put together a tribute album for Mark Shreeve- a well known British electronic musician who sadly, recently passed away. Mark was a long time member of The Intercontinental Philharmonic Orchestra. Jasun's  contribution is a 12 minute prelude for the ballet.

So please have a listen. I suggest you first have a glass of wine (or two), wait till you're relaxed, wear headphones (if you have them) and be ready for something quite different. 

It's not Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake"- pretty ballet music. More like Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"- intense ballet music. This will not be everyone's cup of tea- but will take you on a mind-bending journey (well, that's Jasun's intent). 

In Transience (orchestral & electronic music for contemporary ballet)
     "Shadows and Shards" (Act 1, scene 1) 5:30
     "The Waltz of Fire" (Act 1, scene 2) 6:30
Composer: Jasun Martz. The Intercontinental Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Choir

Pete and I were amazed at how quickly our recent double album "We're Not On The Moon Yet" came together. Even more surprising that it involved a collaboration and our track record with collaborative projects are that they have been painfullt slow. Additional stakeholders in the space that we occupy is a complex beast that has been a struggle over many years and seen good work that we have done consigned to archives that we have not been able to then do anything with. The world of music can be a harsh mistress at times. 

Alessandro was a breath of fresh air in his enthusiasm to get the project done and done quickly and right off the back of that, Pete and I were energised to dip into something more akin to our post punk years and the world of Frenzid Melon and the insane picnic recalling the spontaneity and vitality of the creative process. We have always operated slightly outside of generic boundaries even when we first began in the late 1970's, such is the diversity of our influences and points of inspiration. 

This is as close as we will ever be to being a four piece band (even though there are only two of us). It's fairly minimalist in it's instrumentation, the music is immediate and feels very live. 

So an EP will be released next week and an LP will follow soon after in the early autumn. The EP is titled "Hit Parade" and features four tracks, none of which will be on the LP. 

1. 100 Poets (The Buzzard)
2. Walls
3. Cosmic Dead Stars 
4.  Hit Parade 

These four tracks were the first four recorded in these sessions and we felt they were  naturally cohesive with each other and the remainder of the session seemed to also be cohesive as it's own group of recordings hence the two separate releases.