Moogmemory

‘Moog’ is a regal breed of synthesisers that are slightly untameable, which is why we [musicians] love them. Always on the edge of boiling over; taming one’s Minimoog was like riding a wild mustang, and bringing it to heel. When the the polyphonic Moog Memorymoog first appeared in 1982, it was like having a team of six mustangs pulling a stage coach, its power was thrilling, and everybody had better get off the road to let it through...

moogmemory is Matt’s paean to this living, breathing machine. Its capabilities are drawn out by this extremely empathetic musician: beautiful, brooding landscapes of thick impasto to translucent sunbursts; Dr. Bob would be proud! Graham Massey (808 State)

With a reputation as a fearlessly unpredictable pianist and composer, Matthew Bourne is a passionate explorer of sound. He first came to national attention as one of the winners of the Perrier Jazz Awards in 2001 with numerous other awards to follow. Renowned for his intensely personal and sometimes confrontational solo work, Bourne’s uncanny ability to balance delicacy and virtuosity, while establishing a close affinity with his audience, have become hallmarks of his concert performances. Bourne’s first solo studio album, Montauk Variations (The Sunday Times’ Leftfield Album of the Year in 2012), marked an important musical turning point in his career and the beginning of a new creative direction. Pieces from Montauk Variations have appeared on compilations by Bonobo and Needwant. Very much in demand as a collaborator and co-conspirator, Bourne has his fingerprints on a huge number of projects, having worked with artists as diverse as John Zorn, Annette Peacock, Nils Frahm, Nostalgia 77, Broadway Project and Amon Tobin.

With a nod to the pioneering work of Annette Peacock and Paul Bley, Bourne has turned his considerable talents to the world of analogue synthesisers. moogmemory is the first album to be recorded using only the Lintronics Advanced Memorymoog. Another of Bourne’s current projects, Radioland: Radio-Activity Revisited, sees a visceral live audio/visual experience created to mark the 40th anniversary of Kraftwerk’s seminal Radio-Activity album in collaboration with electronic composer Franck Vigroux and installation artist Antoine Schmitt.

Michael England has worked extensively across film, graphic design, photography, animation, installations, sound and live performance. As with Bourne his work is not easily categorisable; exploiting a range of influences including sci-fi, baroque, horror, nature, the surreal and mythology. A collision between traditional craft and technology his work straddles the worlds of arts and commerce. He has won recognition for his work for clients such as Adidas, Sony, BBC and Microsoft alongside musicians such as Autechre, Bola, Leila Arab, Demdike Stare, Graham Massey and more. England has also created scale installations commissioned by the Maritime Museum, Imperial War Museum North and the Roundhouse.

After studying composition at Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Tom Rogerson gravitated towards performance. His interest in improvisation led him to New York where he recorded his debut album with Reid Anderson (Bad Plus) before returning to London. Here, he formed an electro-acoustic improv group which later led to the formation of Three Trapped Tigers whose first EP was released in 2009, produced by Gordon Raphael (The Strokes). Since then, the band has released two full length albums and collaborated with artists including Brian Eno, Karl Hyde, and Stale Storlokken (Supersilent), and toured with Deftones and Dillinger Escape Plan. Tom performs solo and has collaborated with Leo Abrahams, Aidan O’Rourke (Lau), Thomas Gould and more, as well as being a full member of iconic psychedelic band The Red Krayola. Tom also curates a semi-regular night in London called Proof Positive, which is dedicated to exploring forms of electronic improvisation.