One small synthesiser. One guitar pedal.
Recorded in a wooden fisherman’s hut in Captiva, Florida.
As simple as that, at heart.
That’s the essence of this tale, but in so many ways, it’s far more than that. Let me tell the origin story of The Phenol Tapes.
The Rauschenberg Residency programme
When I first received the invitation to take part in The Rauschenberg Residency programme, I was astonished. Opportunities like these are far too infrequent to pass by and I immediately and enthusiastically responded with a resounding YES!
Let me add some context to this. Robert Rauschenberg (1925 –2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. He worked in a wide range of mediums including painting, sculpture, prints, photography, and performance, over the span of six decades.
In fact, his work was the very first artwork I consciously made an effort to see when I was a teenager, when on show at the British Museum in London. I was especially struck by his Dante drawings (1958-60), which illustrate the thirty-four cantos of Dante’s Inferno. Here Rauschenberg combined his drawings with images transferred with a chemical solvent from glossy magazine reproductions, creating these densely populated layers of timely ghostly images.
And of course, once back home, I tried to copy this method by using soap from the sink, having read that this would offer the same effect, but failed miserably. And neither did it make my mum happy in the bathroom either!
What impressed me was that it was difficult to tag Rauschenberg’s work. Sometimes he was a painter, but also a sculptor, yet he also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking and performance. As an admirer of American composer John Cage from a very young age, Rauschenberg was also a figure whose presence connected the dots between music and the visual arts too.
Launching the programme
In 1968, Rauschenberg purchased this Beach House on Captiva Island, and moved there to live in 1970. Over the years he acquired more land, and in 1992 built a 8,000-square-foot studio. After he passed away, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation launched the residency programme for artists.
Quite remarkably, the residency is by invitation. There’s no form-filling, spending weeks filling out papers explaining the benefits of why you deserve this opportunity. Instead, selectors anonymously identify artists and creative thinkers from a diverse mix of disciplines, backgrounds, geographies, ages, and career levels, who are interested in working in an interdisciplinary environment and are open to the idea of collaboration.
Six Weeks in a creative paradise
And so, there I was, in March 2017, spending six weeks on Captiva Island, alongside a host of other creatives, living in Rauschenberg’s old house, creating work in his studio, reading his books, often with handwritten notes in them, even wearing one of his (hugely oversized for me) shirts whilst learning to weld one day.
One day, whilst swimming in the sea I turned back to land, to recognise that Rauschenberg’s old beachfront house was the very same cabin that can be seen in Michael Mann’s Manhunter (1986) movie! And taking a walk back to my room I passed ‘Bob’s chair,’ a lone metal seat sitting there pointing out to the water, where Rauschenberg would sit and contemplate and dream.
For the duration of my time there I chose to work in a former fisherman’s wooden hut, surrounded by wildlife. I would spend the morning writing each day, then, after lunch, return to creating music. Before I left for the trip, I quite consciously chose to limit my options by bringing just two pieces of music gear with me.
The Phenol Tapes Sessions
The first instrument was the Kilpatrick Phenol synthesiser. I had picked this up in 2014 via their Kickstarter campaign and immediately fell in love with its expansive rubbery sound, which reminded me a little of the classic Buchla synthesiser sound. With its flexible envelopes, very musical filters and two voices, it offered all manner of possibilities, and when connected to my laptop I could actually write melodies and trigger them in the synth.
The Phenol synth was then processed through a H9 Max Harmonizer effects pedal, which is a tiny guitar device packed with Eventide’s iconic reverb, chorus, delay, modulation, and pitch-shifting effects. It meant I could take often very simple melodies and transform them into shimmering clouds of sound.
Each day I would follow this routine, over the duration of the six weeks. Some musical pieces were abstract, some more rhythmic, but all were born from the same tools. At some points either wildlife or an intense shower would disturb the atmosphere. One particular baby woodpecker decided to set up home right outside the cabin and on some days, I would simply top recording, and just enjoy listening to his playfully rhythmic patterns hammered out on a nearby tree.
The Obligatory ‘Thanks, but no thanks’
As you might imagine, I accumulated quite an expanse of material and, once I returned to the UK, I edited my favourite selections and sent The Phenol Tapes to a variety of labels. On a couple of pieces, I even included the sounds around me, including one especially intense storm one day.
Rather dispiritingly, I was greeted by either silence, or the all too familiar supportive yet ‘thanks, but no thanks’ style responses, and so the music just sat on my hard drive for some years.
Every now I would return and listen to excerpts, and felt that even seven years later the music still held its own, and so decided to release it myself on my new label, Alltagsmusik.
It’s the second release, after Alchemeia, my tribute to electronic library music of the 1960s and 70s, and seems to have been received very positively so far.
The Ethos of Alltagsmusik
The label exists to share both my own work, but also that of collaborations, and future releases will feature a vast array of fellow sonic explorers. In some ways, what I’m aiming for with the label resonates with those of the Robert Rauschenberg Residency. To advance new work, to extend into different mediums, and to share my work within an artistic community.
The identity of the label has been defined by my good friend and designer Matthew Shaw, who developed a modular system for each of the different strands of the label, from the Post-It note style numbering system for my solo releases, to the playfully meta graphic designs for the first in the collaborative series, out in the summer 2024.
For me, creativity has always been about partnering and collaborating with others, whilst exploring my own vision too. I want to thank both the Rauschenberg Residency and everyone who has supported me over the years, and more recently with the label, from the very bottom of my heart. I echo Rauschenberg’s belief that art can change the world, nurture and facilitate experimentation, collaboration and innovation. Here’s to a more positive, colourful, dynamic and inspiring world for us all.
Buy The Phenol Tapes here
Read more about the Rauschenberg Residency here.
My fellow conspirators in six weeks of intense creativity.
Casually standing near the kitchen with one of Rauschenberg’s original artworks
