Category Archives: Musings

October 24

The return of chaos theory.

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Continuing the thread of non-linear, non-Euclidian, non-Newtonian thinking here.  It looks like chaos theory is making a comeback after 20 years.  And about time too.  It’s time to put an end to the concept of data-driven certainty. via Chaos Theory in Ecology Predicts Future Populations | Quanta Magazine.

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June 22

Just What Exactly is Apple Up To?

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Published earlier today on Medium There are a lot of articles analysing Apple’s new music service. (James Cridland’s got a good list of them here.) The majority of them are coming from tech journalists, and unfortunately, they suffer from a major lack of knowledge of how the music business actually works. They are worth reading, but […]

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Why has TV storytelling become so complex?: A journalistic take

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Originally posted on Just TV:
I was recently invited by The Conversation to write something for their site exploring some of the arguments of my new book for a general audience. I like reading The Conversation to see academics writing in a journalistic voice (something that some are better at than others) and support their…

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May 29

And the beat goes on . . .

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It seems clear now that the headphones and the streaming music service are secondary acquisitions for Apple – with the Beats deal, they’ve just acquired the head of Interscope records. I would expect an announcement of an Apple record label fairly soon.

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November 24

Live Music from Cinema Volta

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My friends Jackie and Stephen have started a series of salons in Dennistoun called, “House Music.” I had the privilege of performing last night along with the artist Sue Tompkins. The feeling in the room was great and it resulted in some very nice performances.   I’ve mixed the recordings of the performance and released […]

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September 28

Cinema Volta back catalogue now on Bandcamp

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Free music just in time for a celebration of the equinox. Have an ambient weekend with the full Cinema Volta back catalogue, now available on the pay what you want music site Bandcamp. You can find the albums, “Space Exploration,” “Tube,” “Stuff,” and “Music from The Kitchen‘ there. And as an added bonus, “Stuff” now […]

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September 03

Another influence

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I’ve added another person to the Influences playlist – Syd Barrett, the founder of Pink Floyd. Toward the end of his time with Pink Floyd, there were stories of him simply playing one chord throughout an entire performance. I used to think that was odd, but now I think he might have been onto something. […]

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September 01

Waiting for the Sergeant Pepper Moment

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I’ll be chairing one of the featured panels at IBC this year called, “Waiting for the Sergeant Pepper Moment,” looking at the potential technology has to change the way we make television. You can read about the panel at the IBC website. In 1967, The Beatles released their album “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” […]

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August 25

Free download of new album, “Music Chamber”

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I’ve released the “Angels” pieces as an album called, “Music Chamber.”  These are the high quality masters of the tracks, which I highly recommend listening to.  Because of the nature of the music, a lot of the overtones and “phantom” voices are lost with the compressed streaming versions. I’ve put these up on the “name […]

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August 21

Spotify and Pandora artist payments: Not as exploitative as they’re made out to be. – Slate Magazine

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And yet another take on the Spotify/streaming payment story. Because of the complexities of musical ownership and royalties, as well as the myriad ways of listening to and buying music, this story will always be like the story of the blind men trying to describe an elephant through the sense of touch.  Except in this […]

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