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Collaborations

The chance to interact with other creative life forms provides a never ending source of new ideas.

From session work to full scale productions, the 'Trouble Maker Design' crew at Sony through to the lovers rock style reggae of 'Ju Ju Masai', every encounter is a learning experience rich with angles and curves.

Here are a few examples of those collaborations which have led to album releases...

 

Hossam Ramzy
Hossam Ramzy

The 'Eternal Egypt' and 'Immortal Egypt' recordings made with Hossam Ramzy have been my most high profile collaboration to date.

Hossam is constantly working with the worlds best producers and bands and makes a point of keeping up to date with technological developments in the studio, his knowledge and expertise were invaluable in the recording and production of these albums.

As well as a great end result it was a chance to learn about another culture, stretch the capabilities of the equipment and work with many unique musicians in Cairo.

 

Steven Cragg
Steven Cragg

I first came across Steven when we appeared on the same bill at a gig in his home town Brighton around 1989, I had been looking for a good didgeridoo player for some time and he needed help finishing his 'Tales of the Eucalyptus Tree' album. The result was the album 'Initiation'. We were both being offered some interesting gigs at the time so it seemed natural to join forces, the resulting set was built around that album and led to a full scale studio collaboration which produced the album 'Tibetan Horn'. Steven went on to record a couple of solo albums for New World Music before returning to his travelling life style.

 

Asha
Asha

My involvement with Asha began with an invitation to 'guest' on his album 'Mystic Heart' recorded at ex-Genesis guitarist Anthony Phillips' studio back in 1989. This led to many more sessions and a series of albums produced in my own studio, most notably 'Wings of Fire' - 1990, 'Single as Love' - 1993, 'Concert of Angels' - 1993 (my favourite!), 'Field of Stars' - 1994 and 'The Marriage of the Sun and Moon' - 1995.

More recently I played guitar and recorder on 'Music for Love' recorded at James Asher's studio in 1999.

 

<Mandragora Group Shot
Mandragora
Over the years my association with Mandragora has led to some great collaborations, most notably the 'While the Green Man Sleeps' album and more recently 'Solstice' which featured most of the current line up.

In February of 2001 Mandragora organised the first 'Organic Audio' day at the Metway studio in Brighton. Inspired by Peter Gabriel's Real World recording sessions it was a chance for unusual and exotic musicians to work together and do a bit of networking. The day was such a great success it has now evolved in to our Earthdance production team which has already led to the Buddha Experience chill out collections, 2 DVD releases and 2 world Music albums. Earthdance continues to be our main creative focus.

 


The Astronauts
Way back in 1979 I was introduced to Mark Wilkins the singer/songwriter behind the Astronauts. Mark can only be described as 'unique', encompassing much of the 60's 'protest' song writing style along side punk attitudes and new wave sounds. His lyrics and ideas were a big influence on me when it came to forming 'Expandis' the following year.

This chance encounter led to my first chance to produce a record in 1980 with the 'Pranksters in Revolt' E.P. (featuring Alan and Ian Cowley from 'Johnny Curious and the Strangers') on the 'Bugle' label.

I ended up joining the Astronauts on tour and playing on the excellent album 'Peter Pan Hits the Suburbs' produced by Grant Showbiz, better known for his current band 'Mood Swings'.

As far as I know Mark and his Astronauts are still out there somewhere, gigging.

 

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