Mark Edwards plays most of it (control freakery), but the viola is played by JAMES TOPHAM (formerly of Whistler and Piano Magic)
Influences
I spend my working life at The Sunday Times being told bands are influenced by The Clash only for them to sound like The Sweet, so I don’t know what any of this is worth but…
The key albums that influenced me are:
BRIAN ENO, NEROLI - a bit like the more famous Thursday Afternoon, only more so…or should that be “less so”. As ambient as ambient gets.
AERIAL M, AS PERFORMED BY... - mesmerising post-rock by David Pajo. One thing that I’ve definitely nicked for him is that he sets his guitar effects/distortion etc really high as if he’s going to blast power chords, but then plays very very gently, so you get a lot of different qualities from note to note as the slight differences in pressure trigger different amount of FX. Techy enough for you?
HAROLD BUDD, LUXA - I’ve probably listened to this more than any other album, certainly in recent years. Just unbelievably gorgeous music.
DAVID BOWIE, LOW - doesn’t need an introduction from me. Mind you, I hated it when it first came out. WHY ARE THE SONGS SO SHORT? WHY AREN’T THERE ANY WORDS ON SIDE TWO? WHY CAN’T HE JUST MAKE THE SAME ALBUM TWICE LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE? Then I got it.
also very influential...
LOU REED, SATELLITE OF LOVE – the structure, the way the fade-out is virtually a whole new song, the way the fade-out actually is a build. I’m always ripping that off.
Sounds Like
Obviously my music transcends genres with a careless abandon, and laughs in the face of pigeon-holes. But, here's what various reviewers reckon it sounds like...
“You Have Burnt A Bridge is reminiscent of Air with its fuzzy, light keyboard refrain while Look is much darker, a wordless Blade Runner soundscape” - The Sun
“80s era Pink Floyd can be heard in every pluck of Edwards’ guitar, Gilmour would be most impressed, and so am I…When The Space Unfolds strangely reminds me of The Pixies Where Is My Mind played through a fuzz and echo box a mile wide and twice filtered, for good measure, through Brian Eno’s circuit boards.” - Subba Culcha
“…elegantly meditative fare” – Q
“…minimalist mood music that nods it's head to Low era David Bowie, Music for Airports era Brian Eno and the entire Harold Budd oeuvre.” - The Devil Has The Best Tuna
“It’s sort of like having all your mates round and reverse engineering Radiohead and Jean Michel Jarre and coming up with something altogether different.” - Music Dash
“Soaked in the kind of emotive mystery that the likes of film-maker David Lynch will be lusting and salivating over.” -DJ
In a 4 star review, DJ magazine reckons Balance is “Soaked in the kind of emotive mystery that the likes of film-maker David Lynch will be lusting and salivating over.”
THE SUN LOVES BALANCE
The Sun's review of Balance concludes: "Edwards is making great music that will test people's perceptions." Read more - and other reviews - in the blog section.
BALANCE IS GOOD FOR YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE - IT’S OFFICIAL
Noted blog The Devil Has The Best Tuna reviews Balance thusly:
"...an album of minimalist mood music that nods it's head to Low era David Bowie, Music for Airports era Brian Eno and the entire Harold Budd oeuvre. This is music that wraps you in a safe and comforting glow and is better for your blood pressure than a strict vegetarian diet."
To download tracks from Balance at iTunes, click here
To download tracks from Balance at Napster, click here
To download tracks from Balance at 7 Digital, click here
Those are just some of the purchasing options available for you discerning listeners. Now for some facts...
BIOGRAPHY
The story behind Mark Edwards' exhilaratingly beautiful debut album, Balance, is as unusual as the record itself. Ten instrumental pieces, lovingly assembled in an almost beat-free style which aligns glassy guitar figures with minimalist keyboard elegance, Balance is a record born out of a private passion.
After a lifetime spent immersed in music, as a journalist, composer and multi instrumentalist, Edwards had pretty much decided against going public with his tunes. Having witnessed and reported the travails of bands and artists struggling to make sense of the music industry, he was perfectly happy beavering away on the sidelines. Occasionally working with the viola player James Topham – the former assistant to Brian Eno whom he met while helping out with the Warchild charity project - Edwards was having a whale of time in his home studio. “I regarded making music as fun,” he says. “ I felt that if it became work then it wouldn’t be fun any more.”
As is often the way with juicy secrets, news of what Edwards was getting up to on his 4 track recorder leaked out. Somebody played something to somebody else, and before Edwards knew it his track There Is No Hope In Perfection got aired on national radio. “That sense that people were listening was unexpectedly exciting,” he confesses. More conversations followed with various interested parties and in due course a deal was struck with a new label, Spokes.
The music on Balance was all written and recorded between 2003 and 2007 in Edwards’ north London home. Influence spotters may discern a touch of Eno at his most ambient, a sprinkling of Dave ‘Aerial M’ Pajo’s layered guitars and, in its more upbeat synth-y moments, an echo of Air. The ghost of the American minimalist composer Harold Budd is probably rattling around somewhere in there as well. And in case this is all starting to sound a bit arch and art, Oasis are a key reference point in the final track, Noel Gallagher Lives His Dream, a track Edwards describes as “featuring exactly the kind of chord sequence that Noel Gallagher likes to use for Oasis choruses. So it’s just like Oasis minus the singer…and the drums…and the bass…and the rock guitars.”
Everything you hear was actually played, on real instruments – and one drum machine - in real time. “I don’t like working with computers,” Edwards states firmly. “I can’t work with pro-Tools, sampling or sequencing, because once I go down that road all I ever do is add things and nothing gets finished.”
As this last observation implies, Edwards is very much a musician of the “less is more” persuasion. The opening track When The Space Unfolds alludes, via a Bob Dylan quote, to the importance Edwards attaches to the space between the notes. “For me, making and recording music is a reductive process. Quite a few of these tracks started out with a hip-hop beat which I later mixed out when I realised that it was only providing the scaffolding for the tune.”
And so to the final question, what to call this remarkable, unclassifiable stuff? Post-rock plus, or electronica with a big guitar heart may have to do for now. Edwards himself isn’t too fussed “as long as people don’t think that it’s difficult just because it doesn’t have words. This is friendly music. It wants to talk to you.”
Hi! I'm Marco from Italy and i'd like to introduce my electronic/ambient project to you: "Banshee Nova". I released my debut LP today and i'd be really happy if you would download it (absolutely for free, of course). It's some kind of a instrumental voyage through 2100 a.d Africa. Click here to reach download page or here to visit myspace page. As always, any comment, insult, praise, mail or salute is really appreciated.
Thanks for the add, I love your sounds btw, awesome!
If you get a chance, please take a listen to our first Chill out release "Beach Music, Cafe Music & Bar Music Collection" by ACO Ambient Chill Out. We'd love to know what you think of it!
Click Chill Out Music to visit our Chill out Music page
Cheers
ACO
Hey guys! After a year and a half we are back charging full steam ahead with the release of our latest album "Songs For The Road Towards The End Of The World" this past May 31, 2009. Unlike our two previous releases this was a long duration album (LP) featuring 12 all created by Pete Drown. Mike Mellow participated in the album by co-producing it and creating the art. The first single is called "Ciento Once Grados" (111 Degrees) and we have a brief video/slideshow teaser for it on our page.
We want to invite you to download our free album and share with us your feedback. All you have to do is click on the Cover art either on this message or by visiting our myspace page. There you can also download our previous two EP's if you don't have them already.
So, that being said, I hope you download it, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you let us know. Thanks again. Micro out...
A special DVD set of the February shows is now available to pre-order at the wire-sound shop
This strictly limited edition 2 disc, region free, PAL format DVD set will be shipped in June.
The ‘Real Life + Thereafter’ DVD contains the entire concert filmed at Manchester Academy …
PLUS … Extra features include ‘Feed The Enemy’ filmed at the rehearsals, an alternate take of ‘A Song From Under The Floorboards’ and exclusive images from the period …
PLUS … On the second CD disc, you get an audio recording straight from the desk of 11 songs from the show at The Forum, London …
PLUS … In the package, you get a free tour T-Shirt in any size you like ranging from Super Small to Mighty XL and all stops in between.
Hi Mark just to let you know that the new batch of bands are up on the player for May - some dance music, lots of guitars and a great track which reclaims the Uke from George Formby and turns it into a thing of beauty - Tony
Hey there;)2 new tracks up now "Northern Light" And "Underworld"I am looking for a female vocalist for "Northern Light" I also got my Scuba diving video up with Underworld as soundtrack;)Hope you enjoy my new stuff;)Have a splendid day. Greetings from AIRPOWDER
Happy New Year!, first of all and hope you had a great holiday. I'm just dropin' by to say hi and keep in touch. I have some new music on my page, It's my third album and it's all acoustic guitar. I also just uploaded a whole new dot com too, soo anyway, hope your havin' a good time.
Hey there;)New track up now "Northern Light"I am looking for a female vocallist for this track. Cool if you take your time to tell me your opinion about it;)Greetings from AIRPOWDER
I've uploaded a recent track to the Fame Games radio show, called 'Pine Forest'. It's a short library music composition - ambient electronica using cut up vocal samples, glitchy percussion and also a nice Mellotron sound.
I'll be most grateful if you can spare a moment to register your vote and help me get some radio play:
Hey there;)New track up now "Underworld" This song is ment to be the soundtrack for my uppcomming Scuba diving video.Cool if you take your time to tell me your opinion about it.Have a splendid day. Greetings from AIRPOWDER
I just finished this video, thought you might appreciate it if you've got a minute to enjoy, hope things are going well for you -Damian: Sacred Objects - B I R T H
Online Now!
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