Just me for the moment, tho I enjoy collaborating with other people.
Influences
Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, Nitin Sawhney, Steve Reich, UNKLE, Nick Drake, Fatboy Slim, Breakbeat, Smashing Pumpkins, Suede, Beethoven, Thomas Tallis, Vaughan-Williams, Satie, Poulenc, Bill Hicks, Richard Dawkins, Ghandi, The Buddha.
Sounds Like
Instrumentals in the region of Michael Nyman/Ludovico Einaudi/Keith Jarrett and songs influenced by Brian Wilson/Paul Simon/Nick Drake.
"his music displays amazing beauty in repetition and minimalism. Definitely a performer to keep your eyes on." Evening Mail
"Each piece brimmed with an inherent sense of poignancy ... Batsford created a spectral ambience which made him stand out from other composers. Utterly spell-binding." Birmingham Post
I'm also available for hire as a pianist playing mellow contemporary, classical and neo-classical music for corporate events, restaurants and the like.
I'm also available for session work and I teach piano in a contemporary, but structured style.
As co-founder and core member of the creative network Project X Presents, joining with up to 100 other creative individuals, I co-design and produce our unique "omnimedia experiences" in which I also coordinate the music and perform a solo piano spot collaborating with other forces as diverse as Einstellung (post-rock instrumental guitar band), a string quartet, solo cello, live drums and bass, triggered electonic sounds and samples (specially recorded by Howard Marks), dancers and visual artists.
Im heavily involved in the world of stand up comedy, booking acts for the Comedy Central comedy club in Liverpool, corporate events and other venues across the country.
In the past Ive played and sung with Indie guitar bands, professional Beach Boys covers bands, the National Youth Choir and the CBSO Chorus.
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our fourth LP release...
LEILA ADU has been described as 'A Nina Simone for the Noughties', and her two acclaimed albums infuse a broadly 'art-rock' approach with elements of torch song, speakeasy blues, avant garde jazz, gamelan, post-rock textures, and a David Lynch style dreamlike b-movie melodrama. As her website has it, exploring the "dissonant edges of familiar forms", but with that kind of 'dissonance' that they once accused Thelonious Monk or Debussy of, the kind that soon betrays it's own compelling melodic and harmonic logic to the attentive listener...
'Dark Joan', Leila's third album as a solo artist, was recorded in Chicago with the legendary Steve Albini (PJ Harvey, Joanna Newsome, Nirvana, Pixies), and Albini's genius has been to strip her sound back to it's essence, and hold it's most distinctive qualities up to the light. It doesn't hurt that this is by far Leila's most powerful set of songs to date, and if anything we are lead even deeper into her world by the pictures painted with just piano (or in some cases harpsichord or a grime-encrusted electric piano) and that voice...
Capable of anything from delicate heartbreaking purity to a fearsome dramatic power, her powers are seemingly limitless, yet unlike most other singers of her calibre, never does she resort to melodrama or show-boating, or any kind of pastiche, instead she employs her resources fully in the expression of her distinctive musical vision and the deep well-spring of her imagination. Nothing ever sounds as though it could have not been sung...
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our third LP release...
"Anutha Kinda Brotha" is the debut LP from underground legend ART TERRY. Since moving to the UK from his native Los Angeles in the early 90s, Mr Terry has established himself as one of London's characters.
Describing Art's sound to the uninitiated usually involves debunking some of the stereotypes of what the 'typical' black Californian might play. Despite his jazz training, and coming of age to the sounds of classic soul and funk, these styles are only a part of his musical vision. His fascination with folk styles, classical music, punk rock, pure pop, easy listening, musical theatre and the European avant garde have taken him on different paths from most...
The result is an orchestral pop record full of sonic inventiveness, whether it's the blend of Shuggie Otis's 60s California and Sun Ra's ancient Egypt on 'Bible', Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons leading a mariachi band on 'Escort', or the Walt Disney music box orchestra of 'Miss Dominatrix', but whilst this is very much a sonic feast, we shouldn't overlook Art's extraordinary lyrical adeptness, and the distinctive character this brings to the proceedings, with a knack for unique and colourful imagery, and how like a great short story writer he is able to paint an engaging picture whilst keeping back from casting judgement on his characters, always leaving open ends for the listener to tie; giving us the feeling that however far astray someone might have gone, there is always sympathy and human feeling for them in Art's mind...
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our second official LP release...
"Modern Mediaeval" is the third LP from singer-songwriter DAVID GARSIDE, and the first to receive the full Frizz Records vinyl treatment. It’s also clearly the most fully-realised statement of his distinctive vision so far…
It’s an easy route to locate David in the tradition of his ‘classic’ influences (McCartney, Nick Drake, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, Love, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Dexy’s…), but there are few songwriters working today that have absorbed these influences so fully, and arrived at a mature style as David has…
This is ’singer-songwriter’ music in the sense that it’s focus is on song-craft and the unfolding of the lyrical vision of a single individual, but if so then it’s definitely at the sophisticated end of the scale (’progressive’ if that term isn’t too loaded…), filed alongside ‘Bryter Layter’, ‘The Hissing Of Summer Lawns’, ‘Pretzel Logic’ or ‘Surf’s Up’...another FRIZZ RECORDS instant classic!
"Modern Mediaeval" can be downloaded from the iTunes Store
The album is also available on heavyweight vinyl LP, or on Digipack CD from www.FrizzRecords.com & all good retailers
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our first official LP release...
"It's Not The Wand, It's The Magic" is the debut release from AUGUST, the London based band centred around the songwriting partnership between vocalist VEDINA MOSE and multi-instrumentalist / producer RAPHAEL MANN (MR HUDSON / JOY JOSEPH / ART TERRY), with master drummer CLEAN CUT MARK and clarinetist / vocalist MAREE CHOIE completing the core line-up, and a supporting cast including ART TERRY (keyboards), SHOHEI KAWAMOTO (AKA Japanese producer Baraki, Bass clarinet, soprano sax and flute), and KAI HOFFMAN (French horn)
Always an act that juggled a diverse set of influences, the album has been compared to artists as diverse as KATE BUSH, PRINCE, DE LA SOUL, SLY STONE, MADLIB, SERGE GAINSBOURG and THE DELFONICS, for its concoction of wild experimentation and traditional song craft, organic production and futuristic electronic touches, funk bass & drums and jazz & orchestral references, infectious melodies and lyrical flights of fancy...with nods towards classic soul, JB funk, Studio One, 60s pop, psychedelia, left field hip hop, new wave, doo wop, tropicalia, high life, & avant garde jazz, without any song ever fitting squarely into any of those categories...new music, basically...and an instant classic!
"It's Not The Wand, It's The Magic" can be downloaded now from the iTunes Store
The album is also available on heavyweight vinyl LP in a sumptuous gatefold sleeve, or on Digipack CD from www.FrizzRecords.com & all good retailers
POORDREAM - 'Immaterial Monarch' CD [33CD001 + SLQ007]
Immaterial Monarch is John Valasis' aka Poordream's own adaptation of a truly exceptional experimental music conception, the absolute experience of an internal trip. Drawing influences mainly from the Zeitgeist movie series, Immaterial Monarch features 3 tracks by Poordream, which carefully blend genres such as IDM, ambient, electronica and experimental world music, as well as the same-titled track remixed by no less than 7 different artists.
Now, with the help of gimmesound.com, you can download all tracks from the debut album “Mountains in the Sun” for FREE! Not only does Seti Alpha 5 get paid for each download, but each download also generates a donation to a charity of YOUR CHOICE! I’m thrilled that this revolutionary concept will allow the music of Seti Alpha 5 to reach the masses for free and help to change the world at the same time. Please give 5 minutes of your time to do this, if not only to show your support for Seti Alpha 5, but also to help support one of the great charities benefited by your download. Visit gimmesound.com to learn more and download the album now!
Hey thanks, you were awesome, I'm surprised that's the first time I've seen you play!
Thanks for the nice blog post too, I think if I seemed nervous it was probably because my dad was there and he's never been to one of my gigs before! xx
Hi Rich, Thanks for inviting us to be part of Project X last night. We really enjoyed ourselves; from our end it seemed to go really well. Cheers, The Lazy Lizards
Hello Rich, thanks for being a friend of Tantrika, and I'm glad you enjoyed the gig last night - hope to see you again some time, if you're around these parts!
Online Now!
..
