Three minute sampler of "The Year That Wasn't", Gary Bamford's eighth album.

OUT NOW!

Available on CD and download from
https://garybamford.bandcamp.com/album/the-year-that-wasnt
and all the other usual places.

DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW!

Composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Gary Bamford. 
Mastered by Stu Rowe.
Artwork by Gary Bamford.
Produced by Gary Bamford.

http://garybamford.co.uk
facebook.com/garybamfordmusic
twitter.com/bamford_music
instagram.com/garybamfordmusician
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https://www.sturowe.com

The Year That Wasn't - album sampler

Sampler track for Gary Bamford's forthcoming 9th album, "SYMBIOSIS", a collaboration with abstract artist Harrie Dearing (www.harriedearingart.com).
Pre-order at garybamford.bandcamp.com from August 19th 2022.

Symbiosis

SYMBIOSIS - album teaser (24bit)

Subtitled "Four improvisations on a harmonic structure", this piano-focused EP is both a snapshot of, and a catharsis for, an ongoing battle with depression. Through its intimacy, reflection and occasional moments of light, it is hoped that others who live with mental illness or neurodiversity might find some connection, comfort or relief.

Brooklyn magazine The Big Takeover's review of 'Sinking'. May 2023 -
"Gary Bamford is probably the first to admit that music is an outlet for the mental challenges that he faces in life. But then, isn’t that, though to a lesser degree for most, thankfully, the same for all of us? And hasn’t art and creativity always served such a purpose, as much about the act of creation as a catharsis as it is about the audience’s experience upon receiving it?
And so, Sinking, a suite of four tracks, has such struggles, thoughts, ideas and experiences woven around its sonic core. But unlike lyrical music, which uses words to take us by the hand and lead us to the creator’s desired conclusion, instrumental pieces such as this are less direct and more open to emotive interpretation. However the piece of music makes you feel, then that is the desired effect, even if the experience is different for each individual listener – especially if the experience is different for every individual listener. Any response is the proper response.
“Sinking – I” does the required groundwork, introducing us to the styles and sonic themes of the ep where space is as vital an element as the purposeful and poignant notes that break it, where restraint and understatement build atmosphere and anticipation, where less is, for want of a cliche, more. So much more.
And it is through these gentle elements and meditative ideas that Gary steers his piano compositions, occasionally embellished by additional tones and textures but, if done so, always sparingly. The second piece is built of slightly bolder playing, cocooned in a hazy hum of harmony but again as happy to allow additional sounds to pool and percolate in the spaces between fading notes and dying chords.
“Sinking – III” is so fragile in parts that it feels as if you are listening to sounds being carried to you on the wind, notes perhaps scattered in all directions on the breeze, where you are only experiencing a chance and random take on the music. A delicate piece indeed.
The fourth and final piece is also built more of air than artifice, a series of gossamer light notes and delicate chords, each a statement in their own right as much as they are stepping stones through a collective piece of music.
Meditative music indeed, music to muse on. And like a Buddhist Koan, asking questions that have no logical or direct answer, music as rhetoric, music aimed at bypassing the head and even the heart but which talks to the very soul of the listener." (Dave Franklin)

Sinking

SINKING [complete EP]

A spontaneous arrangement of Happy Birthday for my partner, played on a Roland SH 101 with some Kontakt embellishments.

HB SB 2019

Instrumental alt rock; part laden with heavy guitar/synth bass riffs, Bonhamesque drums and mellotron strings; part Stewart Copeland joins Radiohead.

Dedicated to any person that is suffering, or has suffered, as a result of doing the right thing, be it in their private, professional, creative, or political life. Keep fighting the good fight, as it's you who will sleep soundest at the end of the journey.

How's Your Conscience?

Hows Your Conscience?

Instrumental jazz electronica.

Originally composed on December 25th 2019, it had to take a backseat for various reasons, but has finally reached completion and is ready for your aural delectation, dear listener. The title now seems strangely appropriate for the current global state of affairs.

If you download this track, I'll be able to buy food during the lockdown...

What Remains Of Us

A snapshot of Gary Bamford's seventh album, the soundtrack to Wrong Shoes Theatre Company's immersive piece "Janus". 

Due for release June 2020.

Available on CD and download from garybamford.bandcamp.com/album/janus
and all the other usual places.


Composed, recorded, edited and mixed by Gary Bamford. 
Mastered by Stu Rowe.
Produced by Gary Bamford.
Image by Elmar Rubio.

garybamford.co.uk
shoeboxtheatre.org.uk
elmarrubiophotography.weebly.com

Janus

JANUS - album sampler

Instrumental version of 'LISL (Life In Sloth Lane)", a guided meditation track for children, by Gary Bamford and Tabitha Bevington.
An hour in length, LISL consists of slowly shifting harmonies, played with carefully selected synth patches, to induce a calm, relaxed state of mind. Ideal for meditation, yoga, general relaxation or a sleep aid.

LISL (Instrumental)

The elder of my two nephews was somehow 21 this year, so I wrote him this piece.
It's scored for the instruments he plays (electric and acoustic guitar, tenor and bass trombone, bass guitar, piano and trumpet), plus a couple he doesn't (but could, I'm sure, if he turned his hand to it).
The piece is structured around the number 21 and incorporates melodic and harmonic motifs from other pieces I've written for him and other members of his family over the years, including one of the family cats.

These rehearsal sessions were originally recorded by Merv Carswell at NC Studios, Swindon, UK, between April and July 2004.
He then mixed and mastered them, out of the kindness of his heart.
The original files were then lost sometime during the next year or two and the masters lay dormant on a dusty shelf.

Five years later, Gary performed some minor surgery on one of the tracks and remastered all five, but still they didn't see the light of day.

Now, however, thanks to Gary getting his shit together and the mastering skills of audio magician Stu Rowe, The Beat Monkeys Demos are finally deemed fit for human consumption and offered here, for you, dear listener.

The Beat Monkeys Demos

The Beat Monkeys Demos - EP sampler

Gary Bamford is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from the UK who produces music in a variety of genres.
He has worked with numerous artists, including members of XTC, Jethro Tull, Kasabian, ABC, Portishead, Siouxsie Sioux Band, Robert Plant Band, Jacob Collier Band, Radiohead, and jazz artists including Gilad Atzmon, Bobby Wellins, Derek Nash and Paul Dunmall.
He far prefers animals to humans.

Gary Bamford

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