The musical seed that went on to become The Simonsound is now available to download. Previously only available as a limited edition CD with orders of the book of the same name written by Ken Hollings, the Welcome to Mars music is now up on The Simonsound Bandcamp page.
Heavily influenced by the early electronic music that Ken was introducing me to at the time, and featuring my first modular synthesizer explorations (with a Synthesizer Dot Com system), the music was created for a 12 part radio series broadcast on Resonance FM in 2006. Each episode was performed live, with some musical cues prepared in advance on the day of each transmission. I did my best to weave my music around Ken's deep exploration of mid 20th century science fact and fantasy.
Original radio series blurb..
1947-1959
Ken Hollings presents a live twelve-part series of unscripted reflections on the fantasy of science in the early years of the American Century
With electronic sound production by Simon James
Between 1947 and 1959, the future was written about, discussed and analysed with such confidence that it became a tangible presence. This is a story of weird science, strange events and even stranger beliefs, set in an age when the possibilities for human development seemed almost limitless.