Robert Hampson

This is Robert Hampson’s 2nd solo album under his own name. Released as a special Stereo CD and 5.1 Surround DVD. Répercussions : An Acousmatic multi channel piece commissioned by the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in Paris for a performance the Akousma festival, diffused on the Acousmonium speaker system in 2011. Recordings of percussive intruments of all kinds - Piano, Drum skins, Gamelan, Metal grates etc are treated and manipulated to form a dense nonlinear or non rhythmical narrative. Each instrument has been ‘remixed’ repeatedly, to change it’s sonic shape or timbre, to try and form new textures from normally recognisable ones. A more direct 2 channel Stereo version is available and a 5.1 surround version, mixed at the GRM, gives an idication of how the piece was originally conceived as a diffusion.

De la Terre à la Lune : An Acousmatic multi channel piece commissioned by Espace Mendes France for a performance at The Planetarium in Poitiers, France, diffused on a 8 channel system. The second piece, following Ahead - Only The Stars (released on ‘Vectors’ - Touch 2009) which takes it influence from the early Nasa missions into space, but more directly from films such as Kubrick’s 2001, Tarkovsky’s Solaris and even earlier films such as Pal’s Conquest Of Space. Of course, there is also a serious debt to Jules Verne’s novel of the same name. Again, a straight Stereo version and 5.1 diffusion mix are available.

Antarctic Ends Here : Originally released as part of a split 10” vinyl only issue with Cindytalk on Edtions Mego, this piece has it’s first digital format release in Stereo and also 5.1 surround. 3 Textural drones, derived from single piano notes, stretched and looped blend with a field recording of large Bamboos rustling on a breezy Autumn day. Overlayed is a simple and repetitive piano motif which gradually disintegrates into a spectral blur. It’s title is in homage to John Cale’s final song on the album Paris 1919 ‘Antarctica Starts Here’ and the piece is dedicated to him.