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SHOW REPORT 2008. It’s been a busy and very exciting year in many many different ways; and its still only 1st December!

Performing ‘…and the Shuffle of Things’ in Lisbon and London has been a great experience for me and was so enthusiastically received. I cant quite believe it! Next year I will be working with the SHAKTI management agency on presenting this and other live shows.

Making the record and setting up a new label has opened up new possibilities. Replacing Bit Twisting the new label is called FIELD RADIO; an attempt to be positive about communication in this war zone we seem to be listening in.

As well as 'The Shuffle' I’ve been busy writing concert works for some absolutely fantastic musicians. Recent premiers include 'Darwin’s Sin Draw' for solo violin and ensemble. Premiered in Dublin by the unstoppable Darragh Morgan and the wonderful Crash Ensemble conducted by Allan Pierson (of Alarm Will Sound.)

‘Hatch’ for the Smith String Quartet toured UK, Europe, Scandinavia and Korea. Jane Chapman premiered 'Hoarding Flap' for amplified Harpsichord in New York. Just sorry I couldn’t be there in one of my favourite cities. ‘Win Win Lose’ was premiered by the extraordinary Lunar saxophone quartet. ‘Playing the Pulse’ was performed by CoMA at The Cutting Edge Series and the Huddersfield Festival. And ‘Periscope’ for prepared piano played by Mary Dullea started life at the Corsham Festival. Detailed programme notes on the blog. Click ‘view all blogs’.

This year also my collaboration with Julia Bardsley (www.juliabardsley.net) 'Almost the Same', went to Portugal, Croatia and Slovenia, and we are making a new piece for the Spill festival in 2009. I also made a version of Lou Reed's 'Beginning to see the Light' for Simon Vincenzi’s notorious theatre work 'The Infinite Pleasures of the Great Unknown' which toured Italy, German and Belgium.

The invitation to DJ at Shunt Lounge and the Vinyl Art Gallery has been an unexpected pleasure. Playing Goreski, Glass, Underworld, Noto and Sparks and my own things to revellers. It’s a joy to notice how open most people are to hearing different things.

2009 looks interesting with performances at Kings Place in February, a special version of the ztt box set being released in Japan and perhap a chance to play '…and the Shuffle of Things' live in Japan as well. A new Brucken/Poppy track will emerge somehow, somewhere, sometime next year. And 'Shuffle' performances already planned for the Lewes Arts Lab at the end of January.

Thanks to everyone who came to the shows, bought CDs or was curious enough to be here in my space.

Love and kisses A

As a teenager Andrew Poppy experimented with musique concrete, played Beethoven on the piano and bass guitar in an improvising rock band. He went on to study music at Goldsmiths' College in the 1970s, developing a strong interest in contemporary American composers such as Riley, Glass and Reich and performing Glass and Feldman in 1979 his graduation year. He also played in an ensemble with Christian Wolff and attended summer school with John Cage.

In the early 1980s he was an accompanist at the Laban Centre for Dance and pianist and composer with The Lost Jockey, a large ensemble playing a pulse based music that became known as Minimalism.

Andrew Poppy's work moves between conventionally notated scores and studio production. Recording plays a central and creative role in his music. His first CD
The Beating of Wings includes performances of
32 Frames for Orchestra and
Cadenza for piano and electric piano and was released in 1985 on Trevor Horn's and Paul Morley's ZTT Records label, followed in 1987 by the more electronic and sample based CD
Alphabed with vocal performance by Annette Peacock on
Goodbye Mr G. A third CD for ZTT
Under the Son stayed unreleased until the commemorative box set in 2005
Andrew Poppy on Zang Tuum Tumb

In 1992 Andrew formed his own production company
BIT TWISTING RECORDS & PRODUCTIONS to co-ordinate his recording and collaborative projects.
Other CDs:
Recordings includes
14 Poems and Toccatas for violin and piano performed by Elisabeth Perry and Andrew Ball and premiered by them at the Huddersfield festival in 1992;
Rude Bloom contains two contemporary dance scores;
Time at Rest Devouring its Secret is a electro acoustic Installation (premiered at the National Review of Live Art) and
Ophelia/Ophelia a chamber opera which was selected by ISCM for the world music days in Denmark. Recent limited edition CDs:
Blood Sugar and
Running Naked Through the Garment District chart an increasingly diverse and post modern path.

Concert works include
Revolution No 8: Airport for Joseph Beuys for orchestra and electronic delays;
Horn Horn a double saxophone concerto in 6 movements for John Harle and Simon Haram commissioned by The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,
Last Light recorded by The Smith Quartet and
More Matter Less premiered by Noszferatu at the Cheltenham festival 2003.

Collaboration with other artists and art forms has been an important part of an unusual body of work. In the 80s he worked closely with Impact Theatre and on experimental theatre productions at the ICA in London. In the 90s he was part of Julia Bardsley's production team at the Leicster Haymarket and Young Vic Theatre's. There are three chamber operas and scores for film and contemporary dance. The list of choreographies provoked to make dances to Poppy's music include Ian Spink, Sally Owen, Michael Clark, Gaby Agis, Sue Davies, Linda Gaudreau, Michael Popper, David Massingham and most recently New Yorker and Bill T. Jones star Heidi Latsky. Arrangements for electro-pop and experimental musicians include Nittzer Ebb / Erasure / THE THE / Black / Strawberry Switchblade and not least his writing and arranging contribution to the first two Psychic TV albums.

Recent collaborative projects include
Another Language with singer Claudia Brucken and
August Rough with Bernardo Devlin.

Avalanche Thoughts, a multimedia piece with film, live music and sculpture developed in collaboration with Julia Bardsley premiered in New York in January 2002 and at the New Territories festival in Glasgow.

Andrew has written critical articles on composer Glyn Perrin, the nature of recording in contemporary culture and the role of the Music Supervisor in film. He was head of music at National Film & Television School, has lectured in contemporary music at Medway College of design, sound and music in the film department of Westminster University and currently teaches composition at Trinity College of Music.

January 2006 saw the premier in Tallinn of his oratorio
Something In The Air (Levitation And Fall) commissioned and performed by the Grammy award-winning Estonian National Male Choir, conducted by Kaspars Putnin. The 45 minute work features narrator, three soloists, percussion and electronics. The libretto is based on fragments from poems by Frank O'Hara, Fernando Pessoa and the composer's own texts.

Autumn 2006 the BBC Concert Orchestra played
32 Frames for Orchestra at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, Trinity CMG performed
The Object is a Hungry Wolf and Devlin & Poppy performed
August Rough at the Numero Festival in Lisbon.

In 2007 Andrew wrote a new keyboard suite
Swimming With The Stone Book

a collections of vocal based pieces for Frederick and the Fields
Shiny Floor Shiny Ceiling

Hatch for The Smiths String Quartet

How the Hammer Felt for Noszferatu

Hoarding Flap for harpsichordist Jane Campman.

In April 2008 he made a live preview in Lisbon of his new album
...and the Shuffle of Things