A Field of Scarecrows

Dedicated to the memory of one of my closest friends, composer Paul Keenan (1956 - 2001) this album is entirely of new music for trombone & piano specially commissioned to compliment the title track A Field of Scarecrows by Paul Keenan: a beautiful and intricate masterpiece, it was one of the last pieces he composed. George Nicholson's gargantuan Muybridge Frames is one of the most demanding and virtuoso pieces ever composed for trombone & piano, whilst his Umbra-Penumbra and my own Bleaklow Fragment are both pensive in memoriam works. John Purser's beautiful Trombone Sonata opens the album.

Amaterasu

An album entirely of my own music, including my Fanfare performed in an 18th century Ice House, my unaccompanied sonatas for both alto and tenor trombone, the song cycle Songs from a Book of Hearne, settings of poems by Eric Mottram , performed by soprano Irene Drummond and the Chamber Group of Scotland, with myself on alto trombone. The title track Amaterasu is a double concerto for trombone, percussion, and Balinese Gamelan Orchestra, with percussionist Richard Benjafield. The wild card on the album is Just One Word, a free improvisation for voice, bass guitar, and synthesiser & live sound transformation, recorded live in Bordeaux with Erik Baron:bass, Gyorgy Kurtag: synthesiser, Bertrand Amable: sound control, and myself on voice.

Embracing the Unknown

Forest ~ River ~ Ocean

This album is a collection of major works for the carnyx in adventurous instrumental combinations, featuring John Purser's Throat for carnyx with soprano voice & percussion, and Nigel Osborne's Forest~River~Ocean for carnyx with string quartet, as well as my own carnyx solo The Cry of The Wolf. If you didn't laugh is an improvised duo with sound magician John Whiting in which I use alphorn, trombone & voice. There is also a spontaneous improvisation for carnyx & string quartet, Flight, with the wonderful Swedish Ygdrassil Quartet, soprano Frances Lynch, and percussionist Bassam Abdul-Salam.

Locking Horns

The French/American composer and saxophonist Etienne Rolin has now written more music for me than any other composer, both for trombone and the carnyx. We have also been performing together in both composed and improvised music since 1984. This album features his Beastly Brothers for carnyx with trombone quartet, as well as duos for carnyx and saxophone, trios with saxophone and percussion, and of course carnyx solo.

Nomad

Recorded live in Freiburg, thislimited edition CD records a concert featuring the carnyx and trombone with giant sound sculptures by the German artist Klaus Gundschen, the Polarity Percussion Trio lead by Bassam Abdul-Salam, and legendary American jazz singer David Moss. Improvised and composed music in a one hour continuous extravaganza!

The Marshall Plan

The Voice of the Carnyx

This is the first of my series of albums on BML. My title track is the first piece ever composed for the carnyx - scored for 4 carnyces multi-tracked; it is an attempt to reveal the wild, primal voice of this 2,000 year old Celtic war horn. Other tracks are by leading Scottish composers, all of whom are have made a valuable contribution to trombone repertoire in various combinations: John Purser with organ, John Maxwell-Geddes with electronics, Tom Bancroft with jazz drum set, Edward McGuire with string quartet, and David Dorward and David Horne with piano.