"Write a song using found sounds" was the challenge, so I set to work building a simple, percussive backing made from items found in my kitchen: a wok, a pot of table salt, a couple of cardboard boxes, a 1979 analogue monophonic synthesizer...

Words grew around feelings of unease about the pandemic, the environment, politics, and what may lie ahead for all of us, but ended with a note of hope for what changes we might make and the world we rebuild after the waves have receded.

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Website: www.jonnislater.com
Store: https://jonnislater.bandcamp.com 
Youtube: www.youtube.com/jonnislater
Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonnislater 
Instagram: www.instagram.com/jonnislater 
Soundcloud: @jonnislater 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jonnislatermusic

Into the Unknown

138 bpm / D minor

A fusion of electric guitar riffs to an uplifting trance driving bassline.  Breakdown features British philosopher Alan Watts over my piano solo.

Drop is at 2:20.

The Journey - Radio Mix

From the moment Sabrina Gülden, who runs the Ian Charleson Legacy website and blog, showed me this poem last year, I have wanted to set it to music. And when I approached The BBC Singers' manager, Rob Johnston, an old friend and fellow alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music in London about it, he was immediately enthusiastic. The BBC Singers was where my professional carer as a singer began after I left college, and I was delighted to be able to come back to them with this very special setting.

I've been a patient at the Ian Charleson Day Centre, the HIV clinic at the Royal Free Hospital in London, for 12 years now. The ICDC (as it's known) is a special place with wonderful staff, and they have saved me from myself on more than one occasion.  So it's inevitable for me to resonate with Ian's poem. I understand where he was emotionally, how he felt when he wrote these lines, during the last months of his life, because I've been there myself. 

I've lived with HIV in my life since 2002. By the Grace of God, and the good fortune of medical advancement, I've been spared the all-too early grave that took Ian, and I still struggle with that twist of fortune. 

I wish I'd known you, Ian. I wish you'd had access to the treatment I do, that you might still be here. I wish the whole HIV/AIDS catastrophe had never happened. But alas, it did, and the ICDC and its staff are a fitting tribute to your legacy and memory.

"Time" - by Ian Charleson

I have wasted so much time
Time that was not mine to waste
And now I cry for that wasted
time and pull up my soul from
the dark cave in which I have
Kept it all this while
and I say … you are free

Setting of Ian Charleson's poem, "Time" for Treble and Chorus (Pre-vocal demo)

Cue for the opening scene of Passengers, composed by Rasmus Zwicki as part of a Sundance Film Music and Sound Design Lab at Skywalker Sound. Assignment and advice given by mentor Thomas Newman.

Rasmus Zwicki - Passengers Cue at Sundance Film Music and Sound Design Lab

Featured in the JTBC Korean Drama 'Hello Dracula', starring Girls’ Generation’s Seohyun, Lee Ji Hyun and Lee Joo-Bin.

Listen to the full track on Spotify:
spotify:track:1yOWij8tou53Xunf4VJV22

'Something' is available to download on iTunes:
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/something-feat-aalia/1499586593?i=1499586596

Full track on Spotify

Something (Ft. Aalia) (Sample)

Eternal Eclipse - Dawn of Faith
Appeared on the Netflix show The OA (Part 2)

Eternal Eclipse - Dawn Of Faith (The OA Part II Soundtrack)

BBC News Theme | DrJkl Remix

Moment

XAIME- Moment

Lyrics:

It’s time to break it down 
Come on and break it down
All you need to do my dear 
Is catch your starry crown 
I send my spirit to you
Across the rivers and the sea
 
In times of darkness
Hope is at your side 
When people fighting you 
Let courage be your guide 
Sticks and stones
Skulls and bones 
We are standing strong 
 
Hold on tonight
Keep your loving fire burning bright 
Hold on tonight 
Rage against the dying of the light

Rage Against The Dying Of The Light

Whitewater

Whitewater - Driven Mix

SOLON - Inside Out is out now!

Get it here: https://doornrecords.release.link/inside-out!SC

Inside Out

Download / Stream

SOLON - Inside Out [OUT NOW]

https://about.me/classicalbanksy (photo by Ki Price)

2020 marked Simon Roberts’ mainstream debut as Media Music Composer, with a nomination from ITV, for a Royal Television Society Crafts and Design Award for his score for “Return to Belsen,” directed by Simon Broughton, and written and presented by Jonathan Dimbleby. Simon teams up with MultiStory again in 2021, for the follow-up, “The Cellist of Auschwitz,” featuring Anita Lasker-Wallfisch.

"Return to Belsen" - broadcast 7th April, 2020, ITV1:

https://youtu.be/UKzQm-eeSRw

An early successful Opera career, which saw him managed by Luciano Pavarotti and living in Italy, Simon was forced to prematurely retire from the opera stage for health reasons, and the enforced convalescence that followed, gave him time to consider new professional directions. 

Having worked as an opera agent for a while, he decided to pursue a career as composer, inspired by Gian-Carlo Menotti, for whom he worked as PA between 2003-2005. 

Following a year of study under Hans Zimmer, a string of media music credits followed, including film scores for Will Rogers' "Bloodline,' Rachel Kelly’s “The Colour of Torment,” alongside scores for the small-screen documentary "Tyranny and Absolute Power - How Magna Carta Happened," for the Manorial Society of Great Britain, and most recently the award-nominated "Return to Belsen” for ITV/MultiStory. 

With 5 singles so far commercially released as “Classicalbanksy,” all eyes are now on the debut album, "Transgenre." The release date has been put back to early 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and boasts a stellar line-up of guest artists. 


Simon Roberts’ Audio Showreel:
https://rcrft.co/reel/Classicalbanksy/audioshowreel
Simon Roberts’ Audio/Visual Showreel:
https://vimeo.com/291702413/45d9502ac3
________________________________________________________________________
The American Dream? features on the following compilation:
Mattrix Mixtape Vol 30 download:
https://www.slacker.com/album/various-artists/mattrix-mixtape-volume-30
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy website:
https://classicalbanksy.com
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy iTunes Page:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-american-dream-single/id1205870917 
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy at CD Baby:
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/classicalbanksy
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy on SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/classicalbanksy
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy on Vimeo:
www.vimeo.com/classicalbanksy
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWJi_qgZ8FY4NLT4wTrL3Lw?view_as=subscriber
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/classicalbanksy
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Classicalbanksy
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/instaclassicalbanksy/
Simon Roberts / Classicalbanksy on Google+:
https://plus.google.com/109399724123763346878

Setting of Ian Charleson's poem, "Time" for Treble and Chorus (Pre-vocal demo)

Classicalbanksy

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