Invisible Ariel singing to Gonzalo with a warning to WAKE UP!!!
Vocals by Cathryn Short

While You here do Snoring Lie

Ariel's Theme reworked for the sleeping Act 2 scene 1.

Sleepy Ariel

Ariel singing to Ferdinand of his father's drowning in the shipwreck. It all builds to something strange.
Vocals by Cathryn Short

Full Fathom Five

Invisible Ariel is singing a dancing rhythm and bewitching Ferdinand who is touring his father.
Vocals by Cathryn Short.

Come Unto These Yellow Sands

Phil wanted Ariel to possess a feline strength so the theme has a blended lioness panting in with the synth theme.

Ariel's theme

The 'Overture' for want of a better word. This was designed to represent the rolling seas and storm that shipwrecks the characters on Ilyria. The synths at the end are a hint at what lies on the island.

The Tempest Theme tune

Riverside Players, Eynsford performed Agatha Christie's Murder Mystery Play 'The Hollow' in 2007. The Director, Lorraine Slipper, asked me to compose some incidental music for the play. The files here represent a few reworkings of the main theme tune for different settings and some short incidental pieces.

The Hollow Theme Tune V1

A song I wrote in the year 2001 after losing Caroline. It was first performed on 9th October 2001 at Dartford Folk Club. Guitar is my Fender electroacoustic. Fiddle is from cash converters, and it sounds like it, sorry about that...

The Dark End of the Day

Giles Wolf asked me to write some music for an early promotional video that he was making for the MAD team. The brief was to 'sound a bit like Madness' I hope I managed to achieve that.
Instruments are Fender Mex Strat, Fender short scale Bass, Yamaha Sax, GEM Keyboard for piano and drum sounds all played by IJS. I have cut it down a little for this mix.

Mad Mad

This is a 2015 remix of a piece that I did for Giles MAD video project. That was itself taken from original short from Popcorn called Wayne & Scout Theme. The version has an extended guitar part. My first experiments with tapping. Fender mex Strat and Fender short scale bass, GEM keyboard for the drum track.

Berserker 2015

I recently purchased a handmade bouzouki from Paul Hathway. I started noodling and these are some of the sketches that came out. They are not finished pieces but maybe one day I'll work them up. This was composed and recorded the day before I was diagnosed with cancer.

The Last Day of Simplicity

I learnt this tune yesterday and recorded it to see what it sounds like with Grafton tenor banjo, Button mandolin and Hathway bouzouki. 

The Blarney Pilgrim

Two jigs back to back, part of a repertoire I am learning to play. I have not really played much traditional Irish music before, so it's all a bit of an adventure. This one has tenor banjo taking the lead with bouzouki backing and then mandolin doubles on the second jig.

The Coleraine and The Swallowtail - Jigs

This is a cut down version of an expanded version of a sketch which is on my Popcorn Playlist as 'American Pulp'. This one has some more synth, a breakdown, guitar solo section and a better ending.

Mad Americans 2015

Bouzouki Idea 3 - 30th June 2015

Bouzouki idea 4 - 30th June 2015

Bouzouki 5 3rd July 2015

Bouzouki 6 3rd July 2015

I'm a bit of an all rounder, which probably means that I'm no good at anything. I started playing guitar at about 13, mostly finger style folk songs, then moved to classical guitar to build up a bit of repertoire. I then worked on more advanced fingerpicking styles, ragtime, country blues and so on. Then bought my first electric guitar in 1987, a red Fender Squier Strat and played in college bands. 

I met Caroline Frost in 1988 and started working in Folk Clubs and Pubs in NW Kent, particularly Dartford Folk Club, where we became resident musicians in 1989. I bought a Rod Button mandolin and used that a lot in our folk music. We started providing music for local theatre groups such as Riverside Players and Geoffrey Whitworth Theatre. I played Bass Guitar in a few shows. 

Tragically Caroline died suddenly in 2000 while we were performing Canterbury Tales. A tough time.

I inherited her saxophone, and couldn't let it sit in its case so learnt to play it. I had a goal to play it in Return to the Forbidden Planet, which I managed. Aged 42 I inherited a cello so I took myself off to Kent Music School for 4 years of lessons and managed to get to the stage where I could play some of the Bach solo suites. Back and shoulder problems however prevented me from going much further.

I formed a medieval quartet called Offalog with my wife Lorraine and two talented musical friends Rob Mitchell and Karen Friett. This gave me the opportunity to learn bass recorder to fit in with consort playing.

When Riverside Players wanted pre-show music for Fiddler on the Roof I decided this would be a good time to learn violin, so a £50 cash converter model didn't leave my hand until I could play it. I went on to perform with it in the GWT and at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. 

Next came a Banjo when I needed to form a Kansas country band for Wizard of Oz. This has also now been incorporated in to the folk sets. 

My one area where I am still bashing away trying to learn is jazz guitar. I love it but am pretty dreadful. Anyway that's a few words of introduction about my music life. In order to support that life I work full time at University of Greenwich.

Ian J Slipper

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