#radical light

Happy Holidays.

Thanks to everyone for their support in this most difficult and tumultuous year. I am grateful for my health, a roof over my head and for music. I am grateful for you all. My time in lockdown was actually busier than ever - I completed work on scoring Archer Season 11. Dicktown, another animated show which I scored, premiered on FX. I completed Oscillospira, an epic collaboration with Simon Steensland, which was released on Ipecac Records. I launched Ectopic Ents in Bandcamp. In the “serious” music realm of my work, I completed a graphic score commission for Decibel New Music Ensemble. I created an arrangement of William Basinski’s “Disintegration Loops IV” for chamber orchestra. I got about halfway through a major commission for Alarm Will Sound, which will premiere in 2021. And I worked on two new compositions for string quartet. I created the soundscape for Anne Senstad’s immense Radical Light installation in Tallinn, and worked as audio consultant on several of her short films. I also worked on several symphonic arrangements of Foetus compositions with Simon Hanes, working long distance via Skype. We also worked up some new arrangements of material for JG Thirlwell + Ensemble. I completed work on the second Xordox album, which is now in production and will be released on Editions Mego in 2021. I wrote a bunch of material for Melvins, which I hope crystallizes one day. I collaborated on a track with Rabit. I contributed to the new Matmos album, Freq_out returned with an ambitious new model. I was asked to mix some songs for a highly regarded group which will be revealed at a later date. 2020 saw the release of the Hal Willner-produced Marc Bolan tribute album, on which I made arrangements of songs for Marc Almond and Emily Haines. Tragically, we lost Hal to the Covid 19 pandemic, along with over a million worldwide and counting.

On the performance front. the JG Thirlwell & Ensemble London show was postponed (twice). Some big career retrospective concerts for the Melbourne Festival were postponed.

And for the future? I just began work on Archer Season 12. I hope to release the first Archer soundtrack in 2021. I’ll be recording an album of my string quartets with Mivos Quartet as soon as it’s safe (we were originally scheduled to make this recording in September 2020). Also in 2021, look for the reissue of the Foetus album ACHE in white vinyl. The new Tredici Bacci album should drop in 2021, which contains two songs I co-wrote with Simon Hanes, and a Foetus cover (!). Simon and I also have a whole album of songs written for the female voice, which we are slowly recording. I’ll be releasing the final installment of my first art print series. And I am also itching to finally release the "Cholera Nocebo" album. I have started on a third Xordox album. I have also started work on new Foetus material, some of which I hope to record with orchestra, with a view to a 2025 release.