Dave Bessell Chromatic Lightning Cage DiN84

Release date 15th March 2024
Limited to 250 copies Digipak CD

This new release from synthesist Dave Bessell sees him completing a quartet of albums loosely based on the Greek philosophy of the Four Elements, namely Fire, Water, Earth and Air. There’s certainly no doubting that “Chromatic Lightning Cage” with its vivid cover is referencing Fire but this personal odyssey started with the concept of Water on his inaugural solo album, “Analogue” released in 2010. This was followed by “Black Horses Of The Sun” (DiN47) - Air, and “Reality Engine” (DiN62) - Earth.

Bessell has also released three collaborations with Parallel Worlds on the DiN imprint as well as being part of the synth supergroup Node. It is interesting that whilst the Berlin School inspired sequencer riffs of the latter dominate the soundstage Bessell largely eschews this approach on his own albums. Rather on this and his other DiN solo releases he explores interesting harmonic progressions with a series of interlocking delicate arpeggios. This is most evident on the opening track “After Hours” as well as the beautiful closing piece “Elegy”. Elsewhere Bessell blurs the line between guitar and synth using his stringed instruments as controllers for his modular systems. His music has always had an element of the soundtrack to it and this is certainly highlighted in the track “Ariel” which has a mystical, unearthly quality to its soundscapes. Bessell has noted that the ghosts of Amon Tobin and Nils Frahm wander through this album at times which is certainly an intriguing thought.

Always one to push the boundaries Bessell has included a QR code in the Bandcamp download version of the album that opens up an augmented reality vista from the cover image. Lovers of Electronica, Downtempo, Ambient and Soundtracks will find much to admire in “Chromatic Lightning Cage” and this new album once again showcases the unique talent of this highly individual musician.

 
 01 After Hours   05:43
02 Forest Under The Sea   03:41
03 Darkening Air   07:17
04 Dream Of The Red Chamber   07:10
05 Ariel   05:01
06 Unheimlich   08:36
07 Nightshade   08:55
08 Moths   09:34
09 Elegy   06:31

Total Time :  62:46

Chromatic Lightning Cage

Buy CD / Download

Chromatic Lightning Cage by Dave Bessell (DiN84) Demo Mix

Ian Boddy has been at the forefront of the UK electronic music scene since 1983 when he both performed at the very first UK Electronica Festival in Milton Keynes and released his first vinyl album The Climb.

In the 4 years preceding this event he had been experimenting at an Arts Council funded studio in Newcastle whilst at University. His early work resulted in 3 cassette only releases on the Mirage label as well as several local concerts. These early tapes showed Boddy gradually forming his own style through a long self teaching process in the techniques of analogue synthesis and tape manipulation.

After the success of 1983 he went on to release another 2 vinyl albums, Spirits and Phoenix, as well as performing several concerts throughout the UK. However it wasn't until 1989 that his first CD release, Odyssey, came out on the EM label Surreal to Real. After Drive, his second release on the Surreal label Boddy formed his own record label, Something Else Records , through which he released a further 4 solo albums as well as reissuing his 3 early vinyl albums and the cassette only release Jade on CD. Furthermore he released three collaborative CD releases with some of Europes finest exponents of EM, namely Andy Pickford, Ron Boots and Mark Shreeve.

He continued to expand his concert appearences which have now surpassed over 100 events with concerts in the UK ( including several more UK Electronica appearances, two shows at the Jodrell Bank Planetarium & two at the National Space Centre), Holland ( five festival appearances ), Germany and three shows in Philadelphia, USA.

Alongside these mainstream EM activities Boddy has also built for himself a formidable reputuation as a sound designer having produced a series of sample CD's & virtual instruments for sampling specialists Time & Space. In late 2008 Boddy set up his own downloadable sample CD company with the Waveforms series of sample packs. Furthermore he is also involved in library music having composed 11 such CD's for the publishing company deWolfe as well as producing some music for a computer games company.

Thus we come up to the present with the formation of his DiN label in 1999. Unlike his private Something Else Records the DiN label was set up to allow Boddy to actively form different collaborations with a wide variety of musicians as well as release other artists music. DiN has achieved widespread critical acclaim for it's adventurous outlook at the world of EM and has seen 39 releases with Boddy being involved in 21 of these ( five solo and sixteen collaborative projects ). 

In 2008 DiN expanded it's catalogue with a series of download only releases featuring Boddy in concert both as a solo performer and with other DiN artists. 

Chromatic Lightning Cage by Dave Bessell (DiN84) Demo Mix

ianboddy