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Spoombung

kevin.hopper1@ntlworld.com
www.spoombung.co.uk

Interview with Spoombung

Kev with Connie Hopper, star of "I had some Shoulders," Deptford, South London 2004

I started out playing bass guitar in the post-Beefheartian, Anglo/Irish band, Stump, in the mid eighties. Since then, I’ve made several albums and worked with many artists, among them, Stereolab, The High Llamas, Charles Hayward, Derek Bailey, David Toop. I’ve also appeared on UK television shows (such as the Des O’Connor show) as a musical saw player. I have been a member of the electronic trio, Ticklish, for nearly ten years, along with Phil Durrant and video artist, Rob Flint. We have performed extensively in Europe. Our second (90% Reaktor generated) album ‘Here Are Your New New Instructions’ is due out in summer 2004 on the French Textile Records label. I’ve always been facinated with electronic sound making and bought my first sampler in 1988. Nowadays, I work with the Reaktor programme and have posted up several ensembles to the user library. I am very attracted to the ‘sharing’ culture - the exchange of ensembles. It’s also proved an enduring interest because of its flexibility … although I occasionally find my lack of technical knowledge deeply frustrating at times.

I Had Some Shoulders  (5.7 mb) - This track was built around an old recording of my daughter, Connie, singing in the bath. I took one or two moments from that and combined them with a more recent recording of her singing a little song called ‘I’ve got a body’ which she learnt at school. The track came together over a month. It was arranged and re-arranged several ways round in Logic before I settled on the final form. The recordings vocal recordings were either left untouched or pitchformed and re-synthesized in the samplers. There are also elements from the following ensembles: Ouzo, CrissCross, and Hopper Chopper, by Didier Leboz, the Green vocoder, Vox Humana, and several ensembles made by myself.

Kev Hopper Knows  (5 mb) - If you sprinkle with your hose, Kev Hopper knows. Something there between your toes? Kev Hopper knows. Feeding herrings to the crows? Kev Hopper knows. Wearing someone else’s clothes? Kev Hopper knows. Yes … he knows! This track is all about my admiration for the experimental/traditional musician, Kev Hopper … whose career I have followed along the years. The glitchy rhythm track was made of samples sliced up in an old Brinkmann ensemble called ‘ VSR01’. You can also hear his ChaOsc synth playing the chords along with Joe Musician’s ‘Vox Humana’. The vocals were all processed in the ‘Green Vocoder’. There is also a slight touch of John Nowak’s Instrument I (pitching macro removed and harmonized with a resonator) at the end of the track. This was also arranged in Logic.