11/03/12

A seven minute promotional video has been produced for Muted Fnord for the song SCN9A by onefiftyonefilms.  Filmed in a single February late-evening at Leicester's hub bar, this was the second in what will be an ongoing series of "hub sessions" videos featuring a diversity of local talent.  Viewable here.

19/01/12

Memory Wire's third album Plus One is released today.  Featuring cover photography by Jim's partner Mo Taylor, the album features a different guest musician on each piece.  The improvisations are diverse yet a common atmospheric thread runs throughout.  Includes members of Muted Fnord, Endgame, Bridge and more.

24/11/11

In the wake of a clutch of successful local gigs with enthusiastic audiences Muted Fnord are currently recording a four track EP.  We have recorded two tracks so far; the first, Tumbling, can be heard here on the recently released download compilation We Are Mud (Volume 2) by The Mud Collective.  We aim to release the as-yet-untitled EP in the new year.

After having worked in traditional media since his early teens, Jim Tetlow was introduced to digital artwork via Photoshop in January 1994 while at Loughborough College of Art & Design. In 2000 a personal style began to emerge which he developed and refined over the coming years. Increasingly his focus has been on distortion of the human form, which for some has brought to mind the works of Francis Bacon.

Between 2004 and 2006 he contributed to a number of group exhibitions overseas, was featured in Contour magazine and was commissioned to provide artwork for the covers of a series of fictional "political sci-fi" books entitled Hikishio No Toki  (Time of the Ebb Tide) for Japanese publishing company Kurodahan Press.

While living in Australia between 2005 and 2007 he returned to traditional media for a series of experimental canvases, sometimes making use of found natural objects to create bas-relief sculptural works, totally different to his digital pieces but with a similar interest in abstraction. He is now beginning to pursue this direction again.

Jim has been recording music in some form or other since 1990, currently focusing on a hybrid music encompassing instrumental and acousmatic elements. He has involved myself in Leicester's thriving music scene since 1997, playing in the following bands/duos/projects covering a wide variety of musical territory:

Muted Fnord (2011-)
People With Manners (2011-)
Anti War and Uncle Peace (2011)
Bridge (2010-)
Harper Bourne (2010)
Memory Wire (2009-)
Focal Gaol (2009-)
Multimorph (2009-)
Tetlow & Broadhurst (2007-)
Extremities (2002-)
Endgame (1999-)
Hemamorphite (1999-2000)
Shapeshifter (1998-1999)
Djembelei (1997-1998)
Bluish, Ochra-H (1997-1998)

In recent years he has become involved in Chris Conway's monthly Quadelectronic improvisation events at Leicester's Quad Studios, becoming the project's archivist as well as a regular performer.
This has opened more doors to new friends and new musical encounters/experiences, inspiring the formation of Muted Fnord, Memory Wire, Bridge and People With Manners.

He has also begun to work in experimental video in an attempt to merge together his interests in visuals and music, most successfully to date in his piece Inkdance.

Releases for download:
(links are clickable for online content)

Bandcamp launchpad of online solo albums and collaborations

Solo:
Synapse (1998) debut album of dark atmospheric electronics; for fans of Coil, Sylvian/Czukay etc
The Fair Gardener (1998/2007) fourteen diverse musical realisations of the art of surrealist Max Ernst
Ascension (1998/2006) cosmic soundscapes from ambient to celestial
Substance (1999/2006) uniquely shifting soundscapes with a balance of melody and texture, anticipating the work of Endgame
Guitar EP (2000/2011) three pieces made entirely with guitar and delay/echo devices; for fans of Manuel Göttsching and Günter Schickert
Oneiromancer (2000-2001) an album of electroacoustic pieces made entirely without conventional instruments, using objects, voice, controlled feedback and lots of processing
Heart of Glass (2001) a dark yet fragile album bringing together electronic and electroacoustic elements for a unique hybrid sound
Sloth (2003/2004) five 15-minute dark ambient soundscapes
Quicksilver (2004/2005) focusing on a particular sonic aesthetic through sublime atmosphere, rhythm and even oddball melody (to be remixed for online download)
Scattering (2007) ambient experiments in harmonic displacement
Kraken's Lair (2004-2010) an electroacoustic work - this will eventually become part of a future album project as more pieces are completed

With Chris Conway as Memory Wire:
Ascend (2009-2010) first musical meetings as a duo both in the studio and live at Quadelectronic, encompassing electronic mood pieces, Rileyesque minimal organ and an awesome cosmic excursion
Pattern Recognition (2009-2010) a collection of live improvisations, with focus on minimalist keyboard duets
Plus One (2009-2011) a diversity of deep space live improvisations, each featuring a different guest musician

With Bridge:
Sun Ship (2010) an expansion of Memory Wire, incorporating bassist Christina Wigmore and Kaoss Pad wizard Kafka Wilde for an album of laid-back loungey electronica

With Dylan Menzies as People With Manners:
PWM-01 (2011) from the first recording session in February 2011, a three track album of austere electronic soundscaping

With Focal Gaol:
Rockscape 14/05/2010 (2010) semi-improvised live performance at Liverpool's Rockscape with David Dhonau and Glenn Boulter of Aurelie

With Nigel Harris as 2/3:
Cadavre Exquis (2004-2006) a bewilderingly diverse patchwork of collaborative pieces, from the melodic to the abstract to the absurd
Birdbrainsuite (2007-2009) by way of contrast to Cadavre Exquis this is a single hour-long work in seven movements

With julian Broadhurst as Tetlow & Broadhurst:
Live at Bambu (2007) the very first musical encounter, a live performance at Leicester's former Bambu bar on 18th July 2007
Qua (2007) "a landmark of fluidity and elegance... cycling with manifold intersecting lines of detail in fractalinial unfolding, as if approaching"
Orn (2007) "perhaps more structural in a classical sense than Qua it has much of the same aesthetic, one of hectic revelation, this time beneath a glorious calm; like an open sky suffused with light"
Under Normandy Bridges (2007) a set of percussive manipulations recorded in a Leicestershire underpass
Bridges Above Us (2008) "live, under those Normandy Bridges on a second occasion. Two percussionists and a bridge."
Live in a Drum Group (2008) third in the trilogy of drumming albums, recorded with fellow percussionists in a Leicester pub
Koncertat (2008) the darkest album, "a 'concert' of a solo instrument in a vast space of resonance and primordial accompaniment, in a metallic parody of a concerto, the soloist against a legion of opposition"
Sonata for Solo Violin & Electronics (2008) a vast sprawling 2CD length album of "music for installations"
Better Than Even (2008) two huge and powerful pieces derived from improvisation with strings
The Measure of Autumn (2008) three intensive improvisations for djembe, violin and bass
Celestation Live (2008) shimmering cosmic improvisation with strings
Promise To Return (2009) two mesmerising studio pieces crafted from fragments of instrumental improvisations - featuring Victoria Bourne on flute and David Dhonau on cello
Terdecadent Voices (2011) simultaneous vocalising through live multilayered processing; by turns angelic and infernal

With Hemamorphite:
Awaiting Lewin (1999) pre-Endgame threepiece improvisation with Steve Bell and Jane Hodgson, a paradoxically delicate yet powerful album recorded in a single summer night session

With Alto Stratus as Endgame: (selected discography)
(online content listed below - complete discography can be seen here)
Obvious (2002) "a point of irony, in that nothing is really obvious in this strange potpourri of sound environments, vignettes and reconstructed improvisations"
Spaced (2002) a starter for fans of the more "cosmic" end of Endgame
Ocular (2003) "deliberately spaced-out, sometimes very subdued, but with great dynamics, at other times it threatens to engulf the listener... the general feel is pretty avant-garde, electroacoustic (betwixt Stockhausen, Pierre Henry and Nurse With Wound)"
Kontakte (2003) "in some ways a precursor to Memento in its contemporary avant-garde feel, largely reminding of pioneering works from the Cologne studios in the 1960s, but intuitively re-adapted, developed and re-invented in a music that could only be Endgame"
Under Construction (2006) "a pretty bizarre one even by Endgame standards, with a lot of sound manipulation and live musique-concrete... weird, with twists and turns galore, sizzling noises, perplexing sound fabrics, and much more"
Memento (2008) an avant-classical release with pieces dedicated to Fricke, Ferrari, Bayle and Stockhausen
Live Collection (2001-2006) a compilation showcasing the evolution of Endgame in live performance

With Polymorph:
Shaman (2001) Endgame improvised one night with Maureen Anderson of Shapeshifter and a potently psychedelic album was created

With Shapeshifter:
25/3/98 (1998) Jim's very first rehearsal with Shapeshifter, a heady brew of psychedelic jamming
Live at The Physio & Firkin (1998) after a previous slot supporting Daevid Allen of Gong this was Jim's first "proper" gig with the then 8-piece Shapeshifter, live and on the edge!
Easier To Feel (1999) Shapeshifter at its creative peak, luxuriating in blissed-out cosmic ecstacy
Looking Glass Ties (1999) recorded at the same time as Easier To Feel and arguably the best Shapeshifter album, notably the epic "Children of the Sun" (mixed and completed 2008)

With Multimorph:
Alice (2010) a kind of reconvened Shapeshifter, finding its feet after the death of guitarist Dave Johnson - recorded by Neil Segrott at his studio
Morphion (2010) a snapshot of Multimorph's blistering live set recorded live by Ollie Petch one cold winter's night in December at The Pavilion, Victoria Park, Leicester
Morphorsica (2011) the second Multimorph live album, recorded by Ollie Petch at The Old Horse on London Road, Leicester (coming soon!)
Meditation Chamber (2012) the second album to be recorded by Neil Segrott at Tiny's Studio; the definitive line-up with two bassists as well as two guitarists, augmented by additional female vocals

CD-only releases:

With Harper Bourne:
Riddle of the Guitar (2010) EP of flamenco-influenced songs by Victoria Bourne and Chris Harper, for which Jim played cajón

With Eruption:
Lava (1999) not to be confused with Conrad Schnitzler's early 70s improvising collective of the same name and yet this is similarly spaced out: in fact a one-off session of Endgame with Nick Mott (aka El Monte) of Volcano The Bear on violin

With Extremities: (selected discography)
Intrigue (2006) a side-project of Endgame with Dave Powell on processed hurdy-gurdy, flute etc
Fracture (2007) expanding the Extremities palette with a fascinatingly diverse yet cohesive collection
X-Ray (2009) 2CD tapestry of fragments of picture music, from the beautifully sublime to the totally bizarre

With The Scanner Game:
Musici (2004) an impromptu "supergroup" of Chris Conway's Planet Scanners with Endgame, improvising live: these gigs were the very roots of Quadelectronic and in turn Memory Wire
Courteous (2005) one single long improvisation covering a variety of atmospheric, minimalist and avant-garde styles, live in concert

With The Zircon Game:
Fire Lane (2004) a "supergroup" of Endgame with Nigel Harris - or perhaps Alto Stratus with 2/3?  A wonderfully strange album of live musique-concrete and sound processing