Robin The Fog

Over the past couple of months I’ve been lucky enough to receive an awful lot of what I’m almost tempted to call ‘fan mail’ (but won’t for the sake of modesty); as well as quite a number of messages from people interested in reviewing or discussing the ‘Ghosts Of Bush’ album for their magazine, blog, radio show, knitting circle et cetera. This included an email from one Etienne Noiseau, a French journalist who writes for the Syntone blog as well as LE BLOG DE LA CRÉATION SONORE, part of the online section of the magazine Télérama. Both of these websites look so interesting that I’m almost certainly going to brush up on my language skills in order to explore them further!

Unfortunately the aforementioned correspondence co-incided with what I think we might as well refer to as ‘Herbertgate‘, and as a result got rather buried at the back of my inbox. Despite my failing to properly answer any questions (for which I must apologise), he’s written a really nice feature on the album which the french-speaking quotient of my readership will find here.

For the rest of us who find our language skills to be sadly lacking, I’ve taken the liberty of running the article through that perennially unreliable engine of confusion and unintentional hilarity that is Google Translate. I expect you’re already familiar with this intriguing piece of online software, which at the merest touch of a button can transform a writer’s reasoned and thoughtful prose into absolute gibberish in almost any language in the world. Isn’t modern technology wonderful? I think it’s fair to say have Etienne’s words have not survived the process wholly intact, though I did find it most amusing to be described as ‘wispy’. Here is the bleeding corpse:

Sound design: the ghosts of the BBC
RADIO | Do you know Robin the Fog? This sound artist working at the BBC, where he hunts sounds at night. He released an album, The Ghosts of Bush. A document.

Pulsation organic, singing haunting, dark atmosphere, threadbare and sweet at the same time. Staining sound difficult to date. The Ghosts of Bush, however, is an album produced in 2012 by an artist under the pseudonym wispy sound: Robin The Fog.

Night, Robin The Fog works as director antenna “Bush House”, the headquarters of BBC World Service. In the morning, it saves the atmosphere of the workplace, offices deserts, caulked studios, halls gigantic acoustic reverberation. Then invests the reserves, made his bed on his antique machines, handles bands in all directions … and heritage work done on 12 July, the international radio has definitely left Bush House to other premises in central London .

British collective memory, this move does not without nostalgia. The World Service was a historical relay dissent Third World, as well as a cultural platform of multi-ethnic London. George Orwell was employed there (it was inspired by Bush House for the Ministry of Truth in 1984), General De Gaulle spoke to the French there, Paul McCartney young Soviets. Bush House is a mythical place that has sometimes haunted said. Robin The Fog architecture resonates like an old abandoned body. Reconnecting with creativity house, it also pays tribute to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the legendary studio in the ’60s, a generation nourished and futuristic sounds fantastic.

September 13, information on the antenna launched the BBC had the effect of a small bomb: the rebirth of the Workshop is announced, with the amazing Matthew Herbert its controllers. Known for its concept albums musiquettes electro, Herbert made from samples of atmospheres nightclub or noises pigs. This exciting news is however tinged with a shadow: the first order is entitled to Herbert Bush House and is based on an approach similar to Robin The Fog: a tribute to the sound of the BBC building. Shameless plagiarism or unpleasant coincidence? Reassured by the sales of its fan vinyl and Matthew Herbert, Robin opted for fair play. As he looks forward to the next stirrings of New Radiophonic Workshop. For now, his Ghosts of Bush continues to haunt us.

The 26/10/2012 at 19:59
Etienne Noiseau

Many thanks to Etienne for writing such a complimentary article (and for predicting that my attempts to translate it using dodgy online software would ‘surely rock’!), I urge you to go and check out Syntone and Télérama if you haven’t already done so. Thanks also to Mr. Rob Allanson for taking the above instagram picture of the second, green edition of the album, which as mentioned before, sold out in about five days. There will almost certainly be a third pressing, but those of you who haven’t  yet picked up a copy might have to be extra patient this time. Stick with me, though, I won’t let you down…

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It is with great pleasure that I hereby present the podcast of last Saturday’s edition of OST on Resonance FM, a two-hour special devoted to the many faces of BBC Records, compiled and presented by myself in my capacity as the corporation’s ‘Resident Hauntologist’. In response to your demands I’ve included a full tracklist too.

(Or carry it with you by choosing a download here.)

I’ve tried to steer clear of anything instantly recognisable, but there’s some truly fabulous stuff buried in this mix – songs, voices, sound effects, girl guides, home movie musics, steam trains in stereo, church bells (not an entire LP’s worth, though I could have easily managed it!), hi-fi maintenance tips, how to offer someone fruit in German, and of course a generous portion of Radiophonic nuggets, some of which will hopefully come as a surprise. It’s sometimes hard to believe just what a wide variety of weird and wonderful things BBC Records were putting out in its 60s and 70s heyday; and harder still to believe that any label could be responsible for both Keith Harris and Orville and ‘Sounds Of Death and Horror’. Then again, perhaps it’s not so hard after all…

As there was so much to get in, I’ve done quite a bit of mixing and the occasional gentle edit here and there; but nonetheless the vast majority of what you’re hearing is fresh off the vinyl and unmolested. Although I’m sure many of you will automatically assume I was trying to be wacky by juxtaposing a choir of monks with the sound of a missile exploding, in actual fact that’s exactly how it appeared on Sailor: A Portrait in Sound of the British Navy, a 1978 LP which must be one of the most quietly bizarre records the BBC ever released. I’ve used three cuts, including the rather lovely ‘Sea Fog’ and ‘Reqium’, which once again finds another settling for Dick Mills eternally haunting ‘Adagio’. There’s an awful lot of Dick amongst these tracks, which surely proves just how much of a Radiophonic cornerstone he really was.  He also turns up during Robert Dougall’s attempt to explain the dangers of loud-speaker phasing (the track used is ‘Thomas the Rhymer’) and if that isn’t his voice announcing ‘bubbling, musical, sound one’ on the Off-Beat Sound Effects LP, then I shall record the sound of eating my own hat and donate it to the BBC Grams Library.

Personally, I find a number of the most affecting moments here come courtesy of the Some British Accents and Dialects LP from 1971. It consists of thirty-odd recordings of voices from different parts of the UK speaking on various topics. Some reminisce over childhood, some describe local traditions, others tell stories and one chap recites a poem in Geordie. Often funny, curious and even strangely moving (particularly the ‘Welsh Ugly Duckling’), it’s a perfect time capsule of Britain in the 1970s, although there is frustratingly no biographical information about these people at all on the strictly functional cover. My favourite is the genial prayer of elderly man who talks to God simply ‘as an old Cotswold’ likes to talk’. He expresses gratitude for the old tree in his back garden (‘a living sermon’, he says) and the apple turnovers baked by missus, while the only thing he would ask of his creator is that it doesn’t rain too hard on his allotment. ‘Thanks to you, I don’t do so badly for an 80 year-old’ he says and you can hear the smile on his face throughout this short recording, perhaps now his only legacy – so simple and yet so deeply affecting. I find myself coming back to this track a lot – it’s something all of us in our restless, temporary, quick-fix world could do with hearing once in a while.

Naturally I’ve book-ended the programme with extracts from The Ghosts Of Bush, partly to maintain the BBC connection and partly to celebrate the second edition selling out in five days flat! I’ve also included the soundtrack to my recent ‘Haunted Homes Under The Hammer’ video, which was made entirely using processed recordings from an old 1950s BBC transcription disc, just to prove I’m not resting on my resident hauntologist laurels.

So, there you have it. There are a few honourable mentions I must make for records not included in the programme, including Lyn Marshall’s ‘Everyday Yoga’, at least twenty different LPs devoted to various types of bird fowl (including an entire album’s worth of Coastal Waders) and a cover version of ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’ performed by Edd The Duck which frankly deserves to be sealed in concrete and dumped in the North Sea. Despite their splendid and comprehensive catalogue of wildlife recordings, the BBC really does have very poor form when it comes to pond life releasing pop records.

Track Listing:

1. Howlround – Cold Space and Peeling Oxide (from ‘The Ghosts Of Bush’)
2. Paddy Kingsland – Scene and Heard
3. Play Away Cast – Superstition
4. Pete Winslow & The King Size Brass – Los Reyes del Bronse
5. Paddy Kingsland – Flashback
6. Malcolm Clarke – Arcadea
7. Lionel & Toni – If I Had a Hammer
8. John Baker – Milky Way
9. Pete Winslow & The King Size Brass – Waiting in the Rain
10. Paddy Kingsland – Vespucci
11. Delia Derbyshire – Mattachin
12. Jonathan, Spike, Al & Jeff – Stops and Starts
BBC Sound Effects – Sounds of Death and Horror
Bob Symes-Schutzmann – BR. No. 92220 ‘Evening Star’ (Extract)
John Priest -Lichfield, Staffs, Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary
13. Sylvia & Bernard Broere – N.Africa (vase drum, cup bells, tambourine, flute)
14. Pete Winslow & The King Size Brass – Saturday Sounds
15. Lionel – The Hippo Song
16. Pete Winslow & The King Size Brass – Girl on the Test Card
17. The Girl Guides – Timber Yell
18. The Girl Guides – Tyrolean Tramping Song
19. Off-Beat Sound Effects – Bubbling, Musical
20. Dick Mills – Computer Waltz
21. Off-Beat Sound Effects – Big Steam Engine
22. Dick Mills – “43”
Accents and Dialects – Geordie (Durham)
23. Geoff and Derek – The Fox and the Goose
24. Geoff and Derek – The Big Rock Candy Mountain
25. The Girl Guides – Cheelo-Cheelo
26. Sylvia and Bernard Broere – Italy (Fountain)
27. Sylvia and Bernard Broere – France or Belgium
28. Dick Mills – Ascending Asteroids
29. George Martin and his Orchestra – Theme One (aka Gale Warning)
30. Hi-Tech FX – Space Intruders
31. Simon Hancock – Computer Rant
32. Dick Mills – Invaders Rock
33. Robert Dougall – Loudspeaker Phasing
34. Roger Limb – Aerial Currents (from ‘Relaxing Sounds’)
Accents and Dialects – Cotswolds
Movement, Mime & Music – Dawn Chorus
35. Wie Bitte? – Programme 7, Band 1: Like and Dislike
Movement, Mime & Music – Fairground Music
Off-Beat Sound Effects – Objects Crashing
36. Simon Hancock – Singularly Simon
37. Robert Dougall – Wow and Flutter
38. Dick Mills(?) – JDC Background (Duke Diamond, Radio 4, 1973)
39. The Brownies – Mr. Banjo
40. Dick Mills – Ascending Asteroids
Accents and Dialects –  Cornwall / Isle of Man
41. The New Philharmonia & Chorus – Neptune, The Mystic (Sea Fog)
42. The Girl Guides – Images and Reflections
43. Sailor: A Picture in Sound of the Royal Navy – Requiem (inc. Dick Mills‘ Adagio)
44. Bernard Broere – General Use: Piano Music
45. Spaceship Landing (Hi-Fi Weekly’s Demo Disc)
46. John Baker – Structures
Accents and Dialects – London (Cockney)
47. Delia Derbyshire – Towards Tomorrow
48. Dick Mills – Force of the Universe
Accents and Dialects – Birmingham
49. Monastic Choir of Hauterive Abbey – Veni Creator Spiritus (aka ‘Missile’)
50. Dick Mills – Purple Space and White Coronas
Accents and Dialects – Welsh (North)
51. Robin The Fog – Haunted Homes Under The Hammer
52. BBC Sound Effects – Combat: Karate
53. Howlround – Shortwave Fishtank
54. Howlround – The Haunted Handle / Stairwell Reprise

Thanks for listening! Time for bed…

Earlier this year I reported very excitedly that ‘Notes On Cow Life’, my collaborative cassette with Guy J. Jackson has gained a mention in that month’s issue of The Wire. And I maintain that my reporting of this incident on these pages was merely a case of moderate over-exaggeration rather than the grotesque fraud that some branded it. But now I suddenly find myself with absolutely no need to exaggerate at all! This helpfully coincides with the fact that the second pressing on delightfully green vinyl (with white marbling – tasty!) is now available here – you’re advised not to sleep on it!

**Hasty update. The vinyl is indeed all gone. In fact, the 100x copies that Boomkat took possession of appear to have been snapped up in a single afternoon! But just to let you know I’ve ordered a second pressing, this time on even-more tempting green and white vinyl! If you DEMAND to know when this occurs (as many of you have been), then please send an email labelled ‘Repress please!’ to robinthefog @ gmail.com and I’ll let you know as soon as they’re available (hopefully no longer than a couple of weeks). Apologies if you were dissappointed this time around, I really wasn’t expecting this kind of response. But thank you so much for all of your kind words and support! Hugely appreciated! Now I’m off for a lie-down. While I’m away, check out this mixtape I’ve just made in support of the The Ghosts Of Bush for Joseph Stannard’s splendid blog, The Outer Church. You’ll find it here.**

The vinyl is finally here! I was going to make a big fuss about it on these pages, but had already let it slip on various social networking sites a few days ago with the release of this semi-official press shot, and through word-of-mouth alone have sold a quarter of the stock already!

However, I thought it might be an idea to cook up something a little more formal in case anyone out there thought that photographing the record amongst the contents of my shelving (including Cookie Monster, a mid-ninetines cast of my teeth and several ‘Hardcore ‘Til I Die’ box sets) somehow compromised the solemn momentousness of the occasion. So, in the spirit of solemn momentousness I proudly present ‘The Ghosts Of Bush’on vinyl:

One day I will figure out how to photograph a record without my big geeky reflection staring out. Until then, we must all suffer.

Looks great, doesn’t it? Thanks to Curved Pressings for doing a splendid job and to Lisa and Hannah for the amazing photographs. Buy it here and look sharp about it – they’re selling fast!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and cause a lot of upset at the Post Office…

Well, yesterday certainly proved interesting. I came within sniffing distance of meeting Justin Bieber (allegedly), was very excited to discover my first ever 14″ record (though I’ve absolutely no idea what I’m going to play it on) and had a discussion about how to make bones sound more Scottish (long story).

But I think perhaps the strangest occurrence was this little bombshell at 7.45 in the morning:

Yes, it was the news that the Radiophonic Workshop is being relaunched, with celebrated composer, producer and found-sound artist Matthew Herbert at the helm. To commemorate this occasion he’s been commissioned by Radio 4 to create a ‘sonic memorial’ to the recently abandoned World Service building, Bush House.  To commemorate this occasion he’s been commissioned by Radio 4 to create a ‘sonic memorial’ to the recently…  No, I’m not repeating myself and you haven’t read that bit twice. I just wanted you, the reader, to experience the distinct tang of deja-vu that’s been hanging in the air above Fog Mansions over the last twenty-four hours. Does the phrase ‘a sonic portrait to Bush House’ remind you of anything?

In the parlance of early-80s Hip-Hop, Matthew Herbert has ‘bitten my style’. There are now two sonic eulogies to the old World Serivce HQ, mine and his. I must confess to having had mixed feelings about this at first. It wasn’t totally out of the blue, I had a tip-off from a Today insider a week ago regarding the commissioning of Mr. Herbert, a step I like to think they were subtlety influenced into taking by all the ‘Ghosts Of Bush’ material I was emailing them, which at the time received a number of interested replies and the promise of further action. Or perhaps it was the airplay I received on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House or indeed Stuart Maconie and Gideon Coe on 6 Music? Either way, further action has indeed been taken. Unfortunately my presence was not deemed necessary.

What does his tribute sound like? Well, apparently Matthew spent a recent hour in the now-abandoned Bush House and had a chance to ‘play with the equipment we’ve used to make programmes’ (perhaps the very same equipment I was playing with six months earlier). Naturally, the results are a stirring and evocative listen, just like pretty much everything else he’s made over his distinguished musical career. I’m also grateful to presenter Nicola Stanbridge who, upon realising a sonic portrait of the building already existed, made sure that Matthew got to hear ‘Ghosts Of Bush’ for himself and recorded his thoughts about it over an extract from ‘The Resonating Stairwell’. It’s clear that an oversight had been made and the fact that steps that were taken to make things right certainly helped to cheer me a little.  Mind you, quite a few others were really unexpectedly cross about it all. Here’s one of the more strongly-worded comments I came across this afternoon on a well-known networking site:

I was so sad and outraged to hear about this new commission. [This] is a rip off of Robin The Fog’s wonderful, unique and original idea. I don’t understand why BBC has to spend money on recreating something that has already been done by someone who didn’t do it for money or to further his career. So instead of appreciating his efforts, they pay someone else to copy his work. Well done Beeb. You’ve done us all proud.

I’m not saying I concur with this statement. But the fact that someone inside Bush House was working on a special project to commemorate that much-loved building (whilst working there during it’s closing months) and then putting it at the disposal of the BBC (sending promotional material to producers and editors all over the coroporation, including several prominent members of the Today team), while being featured on the website, the BBC magazine Ariel, and a number of broadcasts (all of this at the actual time of the building’s closing); only for them to wait a couple of months and then draft in someone from outside to create a near-identical project seems, well, rather sloppy.

As for the new incarnation of the Radiophonic Workshop (which will be largely online, according to the promotional bumph that I’ve been linked to twenty times already by various well-wishers), Matthew has some interesting ideas about the direction it will take. You can read his thoughts in more detail here, but there’s one paragraph in particular that caught my eye:

The closure of Bush House also draws a line under what one aspect of the BBC used to be about: warrens of small rooms and big lumps of equipment hidden from the public. The new HQ on Portland Place is the opposite of Bush House, open and visible with technology taking up a much smaller footprint. In its original incarnation the Radiophonic Workshop was certainly highly representative of this first description. In its new location, as part of the virtual resource of The Space, the current iteration of the Radiophonic Workshop is seeking to acknowledge and document this shift in broadcasting from an impervious, imperious presence to a more democratic, fluid and open system.

Hmm. Will having the traditional workshop image of secret dark rooms and tinkering boffins superseded by a new and completely democratic approach where everything is visible to everyone else at all times produce better or more interesting results? Does it even matter if in the past the ‘lumps of equipment’ were ‘hidden from the public’? It never seemed to before. And there are those who have described the ‘new and open’ Broadcasting House as ‘The Panopticon furnished by Habitat’.

Plus we seem to be forgetting that the Radiophonic Workshop was very much a production line, who’s remit was producing purely functional sound that was intended to fit a set of exact specifications. Part of it’s magic for me was just what they managed to achieve while working within such a strict set of parameters. And with most of us now carrying more technology in our pockets than the workshop would have had access to, certainly in it’s earliest (and to my mind most interesting) years; how will the new workshop distinguish itself in a world where anyone can conjour their own soundworlds just by tapping a few keys on their smartphone?  Interesting times ahead, no doubt about it.

Lastly, and most importantly, I do NOT want you for one minute to think that any of this is a snipe at Matthew Herbert, who I am reliably informed is a thoroughly decent chap and whose work I have been a huge fan of for years – this piece is no exception. I haven’t heard from him or anyone else at the BBC as of yet, they’re more than welcome to get in touch. I promise I’m not going to challenge him to a sonic duel or anything. Mind you, I bet it would make good radio. Perhaps the Today programme would like to commission it? Or just take the idea and give it to someone else? Either works.

Vinyl out next week, after long and rather unacceptable delays. Sorry for the wait.

Oh, and one last thing, tonight (Thurs 13th) I’ll be playing and talking about some of my favourite Radiophonic works at The Invisible Picture Palace in Wapping as part of their regular series of ‘Listening Events’. I’ll be appearing in my capacity as ‘The BBC’s Resident Hauntologist’, a title bestowed upon me yesterday by one Daniel Hamilton that I shall do my utmost to live up to!

A spin-off project of the magnificent In The Dark and based in a greenhouse in the grounds of the old Pumping Station, I’ll be kicking off around 19.30 by playing one of the eeriest sounds I personally have ever heard. You’re most welcome to join me although it is a greenhouse, so space will be limited. Further details here. And I promise I won’t be going on about any of the above, provided no-one mentions it. I’ll keep mum if you will. Agreed?

Exciting developments today. Here’s what came in the mail:

And here’s what I did to celebrate:

To the small number of you unfamiliar with the to-ing and fro-ing involved in releasing short runs of vinyl, the pressing plant always send a few test copies of any forthcoming release (five in this case) to whoever is ‘responsible’ (love that word) for producing it, before ploughing ahead with the order. This is so you can listen carefully to their work so far and ensure that there are no errors or faults with the record and that your own high standards have been maintained. A kind of Man-From-Del-Monte sort-of scenario (if you’re old enough to remember that – which I’m not), which means it’s extremely important to listen to each copy very carefully on as many different turntables as possible. This would explain why I’ve just returned from barging into Hannah Brown’s house and commandeering her hi-fi. You remember her? She took all the amazing photographs for the Ghosts Of Bush promotional video. Here it is again:

I know, I know, you’ve already seen it. But it’s almost at 1,000 views now and I’m really hoping it will tip over the edge sometime soon, as these days having a thousand of anything is something to shout about. Thanks again, Hannah. Sorry for spoiling your dinner.

Returning to the subject of vinyl, thanks also go out to all of you who have reserved your copy by email, it will be put aside for you (along with a pretty reasonable discount) once the stock arrives and I’ll send further instruction. For those of you still wishing to reserve a copy, please send an email to robinthefog at gmail dot com with the subject ‘Vinyl Please!’ I’m giving you until the end of this week to do so. After that you’ll have to pay full-whack like everyone else!

Cheers!

“Here’s a weird thing. This is weird. This is just weird…” So begins another exciting chapter in the snowballing tale of hauntological tribute album The Ghosts Of Bush.

In an attempt to clarify, let me first pose a conundrum: What’s the connection between Cliff Richard‘s ‘The Young Ones’ and Christina Perri‘s ‘Jar Of Hearts’?

The answer, I’m incredibly proud to report, is FOG! But how is this possible? Have I been named-checked by David Letterman? Have I ruined Wimbledon for everyone again? The actual answer is far more exciting:

Last week I received an email from one Mr. Alan Clifford of BBC Radio Nottingham. Alan is BBC Radio Nottingham’s drivetime presenter, announces his biog, but once upon a time he did farmyard impressions for a living. ‘Well, that’s good enough for me’, I thought, and read on to discover that listening to the album had apparently re-awakened some long-dormant ghost of his own days in Bush House; and that he had been kind enough to talk about the release and play a couple of extracts on a recent edition of his show. Needless to say I’m hugely grateful, especially as my list of things I thought would never happen almost certainly includes becoming a staple of drive-time FM radio or indeed the filling in a Cliff Richard and Christina Perri sandwich. Alan, I salute you! Listen to him weekdays at 16.00 on BBC Radio Nottingham, via FM, DAB or the internet!

Then, in a development possibly even more exciting than sharing a playlist with the man who brought us ‘Wired For Sound’, I was interviewed by one Laurie Tuffrey of award-winning magazine The Quietus as part of a very complimentary feature on the album, which you can read in full here, but of which a short extract follows, just in case you’re in a hurry:

[A]tmospheric noises are slowed down and looped, with the help of some of the World Service’s ancient reel-to-reels, to form a piece of beautiful, warm spatial exploration. Chords swell and harmonic patterns emerge out of the building’s crepuscular creaking or Robin’s whistling, using the labyrinthine Portland stone corridors of the building, at one time the most expensive in the world, as a giant reverb tank.

With one of the predominant trends in British experimental music over the past decade frequently tapping into the BBC’s sonic history – both in terms of its broadcast content and the pioneering work of the Radiophonic Workshop – The Ghosts Of Bush House feels like an unusually direct take on the ‘hauntological’ spaces mapped by the likes of Ghost Box, Mordant Music and Demdike Stare. That it’s specifically linked to the World Service, a hugely important aspect of the BBC’s broadcasting remit for the past eight decades, lends it an unusually forceful emotional resonance.

You hear that? ULTIMATE!

Thank you, Laurie! Thank you Simon! And speaking of Ghost Box….

I’m quite sure many of my regular visitors will already have accumulated a decent wedge of the Ghost Box back catalogue, having been drawn in by their distinctive aesthetic, both musical and visual that recalls clunky public information films about the dangers of throwing frisbees into substations; or those slightly surreal programmes for schools with titles such as ‘Science in Action’ that I’m just about old enough to remember. Suffice to say that their reputation in the hauntological field proceeds them (though I believe they shy away from the term) and that if you’re going to put out a record that falls somewhere near their remit, you’re going to want them in your corner.

So you can imagine just how excited I was to discover the Very Rev Jim Jupp, label co-founder and creative force behind Belbury Poly has featured the album in his much admired Belbury Parish Magazine! He writes:

“The Ghosts of Bush” is a beautiful monument to the work of the World Service during its 70 year tenure here and more importantly perhaps to this awe inspiring building. Declared the most expensive building in the world when it was built in 1929 and said to be the inspiration for Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.  The soundscape is more mournful than ghostly to my ears, really capturing a sense of loss – with beautiful moments when mechanical and ambient sounds swell out with an almost choral or orchestral feel. All the more impressive when you consider no artificial reverbs or other digital effects were used. I get the sense that this love letter to a building has been recorded and presented with great humility by Robin – light on concepts, ego,  mission statements and artifice (unlike a GB project )  and topped off with a pleasingly daft tip of the hat to Eno and Byrne in the title”.

‘Although not an official BBC recording, I think its fair to say that this may be the very last piece of true Radiophonics that will ever be produced’.

Did you hear that as well? TRUE RADIOPHONICS!

These are by far some of the nicest things anyone has ever said about my work.  It really is enough to make a chap’s head swell. Even in the time it’s taken to write this I’ve just discovered DJ Food has also been blogging about the project too. Good grief!

I’m going to have to send out a lot of thank-you letters, including one to Estonia, where Tiit Kusnets added two tracks from the album to a recent edition of Fantaasia, a nightly live show on top Estonian Radio (E.R.R)’s Klassikaraadio channel that ‘ventures out into the realms of World Music, jazz, creative pop and rock, electronics and beyond’; and is available Mondays through Fridays, 2200 EEST. A broadcaster himself of some twenty year’s standing, Tiit very kindly emailed to share some fond memories of listening to the World Service back in the 80s and 90s, including jazz and pop/rock in both Russian and English, particularly the  late John Peel: ‘Just 30 minutes every week of him’, he writes, ‘but even that was something really extraordinary back then…’ Would he still find such a wealth of eclectic programming on The World Service today? Hmm, I wonder.

I’d like to doff my cap in gratitude to all of the above and to everyone else who’s listened to the album, ordered a download, pre-ordered a vinyl copy or just got in touch and said hello. We’ve raised quite a bit for chosen charity BBC Media Action so far, so please keep spreading the word. As for me, I’m off for a cigar and a lie-down. All this excitement has gone straight to my head….

Hello. It’s been rather a long time since I last wrote, and to the small-but-vocal minority who demand regular updates on my waking moments, I can only apologise.

But the fact is, everything’s been a bit of a blur, almost entirely as a result of the closure of Bush House on July 12th, and the corresponding release of my tribute album ‘The Ghosts Of Bush’. Tracks from the album  have received airplay on Resonance FM (always first on the list!!), Radio 4‘s Broadcasting House and my two favourite 6Music programmes, Gideon Coe and Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone. It turned out that Gideon was himself a staffer at Bush House not so long ago and on the building’s historic final day opted to close his show and the day’s programming with an extract from ‘London Ta Ke Kira’.

In addition there were plugs for the album on the Today Programme and The World Today, as well as a slide show on the BBC World Service website featuring the photography of Bogdan Frymorgen and a re-adapted version of Emma Crowe’s ‘Bush House Nights’ with an extract from my stairwell recordings floating away in the background like a sort of ghostly undertow. Provided they haven’t taken it down yet, it should be available by clicking here.

Moving on, for those of you not already well-versed in Arabic, have you ever wondered what your voice would sound like translated into that noble language?  Well, thanks to BBC Arabic cultural programme ‘XTRA’ running a feature on ‘The Ghosts Of Bush’, I finally got to find out. This could well be the proudest single moment of my career to date, and huge thanks to super-producer Rihab Khatab for making it happen. I’m thinking of starting some sort of campaign to have my voice translated into as many languages as possible, what do you reckon?

And still there’s more! In addition to all this very welcome exposure, positive feedback has been pouring in by the sack-load. Here are just a select few of my favourites:

“..Just listened to your thing on 6music and it went well with breastfeeding, in case you need to know.” – Ein Petit Gibbon

“Proper authentic Radiophonic Workshop vibes, what’s not to like?” – Datassette, Ai Records etc.

“By making this album, […] you went from being a bloke who works at the BBC to being part of its creative legacy.” –  Qntm Ntvs, Mantile Records etc.

“Evocative”  – Peter Horrocks, Director of Global News, BBC

“Robin The Frog? I’m going to write that down” – The Kronos Quartet – ALLEGEDLY  

“Some tracks, particularly the first one, have quite large DC offsets on them. […] Best regards and good luck”  –  STEVE

So, with all this excitement I’ve decided that what’s really required here is a limited run on VINYL. Indeed I’m delighted to announce that The Fog Signals will shortly release a very limited run of 200 LPs with full colour sleeves and deep, dark, haunting grooves in which to place your needle.  As we speak the lacquers have been cut and I’m awaiting the arrival of test pressings.  And just in case that wasn’t excitement enough, here’s a sneak preview of the sleeve, using the beautiful photography of Lisa Hack:

More news to follow soon, much more hopefully.  In the meantime, is it too much to hope that all of this activity might result in some sort of trophy? I need something for the mantlepiece…