About ShedBand

ShedBand is misdirections in music by Tim Armstrong and Tristram Shepard. Playing together in Tim's shed in Canterbury they create what they call ‘Improvision’: the art of experimentally conceiving and exploring paradoxical forms of musicality.

Shedband aim to explore the relationships between ambience, soundscapes, electronica, poetics, and deep space psychedelia. Arising out of spontaneity, chance and uncertainty, each uniquely unrehearsed and improvised piece is subsequently subjected to just a little digital editing and enhancement, ensuring it remains ‘music of the moment’.

“Out of the green of the garden arise golden ideas given form by the white heat of technology and contained by the shed which glows red with creativity against the black backdrop of the everyday.”


Expect to hear:

  • harmonic dissonance and dissonant harmony
  • indolent transitions and jagged changes
  • contemplation, violence and the bizarre
  • malignant melodies, atonal add-ons, earworms, post-mannerist mash-ups and the nebulously lyrical. 


All recordings are made in genuine low-quality shed-fi. For the full shedaurial experience it is recommended you listen on headphones.


These improvisations are unsuitable for those of a musically nervous disposition.


Dancing undertaken strictly at one’s own risk.


What people are saying about ShedBand…


“I loved the music - It’s wonderful”

"Psychedelic experimental dingledanglejinglejangle”


“Junkyard Tom Waite-esque spatial chaos”


“An unusual and abstract adlib”


“I love this. Brian Eno meets Façade meets Takemitsu.”

SHEDBAND's SECOND ALBUM

Neptune's Horse

If possible please listen on headphones or a good stereo system

Track 1: Freda Derangel

Freda Derangel is best remembered for her unhealthy obsession with Nico of Velvet Underground fame not least her approach to the innermost workings of the harmonium used in recordings of Beyond the Frozen Borderline when this lamentable instrument turned out really to be a harmonically encoded annal of interstellar conflict between vast superhuman alien beings cosmic annals in fact Freda vowed to devote the rest of her life to the pursuit of utter normality which she achieved other than occasional visits to bizarre experimental music clubs in Canterbury UK her exquisite face now adorns certain stars




Track 2: Purple Shed Haze

In the late 1960s more powerful amplifiers, fuzz boxes, wah-wah pedals and feedback enabled electric guitarists to push their instruments to the limits in an an explosive blend of raw power. None achieved this more than Jimi Hendrix who pioneered a rich, thick and expressive guitar tone that was a mesmerizing blend of aggression, soulfulness and creativeness that resulted in a boundless sonic landscape His playing ranged from fiery, distorted riffs to soaring, melodic solos, fuelled by the combination of his skillful use of a Fender Stratocaster and array of effects pedals.


Every electric guitarist wants to play like Jimi Hendrix. We have long since transcended such aspirations, for which ample evidence is provided in this serene track.



Track 3: Oh Tell Me Wise Zen Master

A Zen master hovers over a Japanese lake, serene and fateful amidst the cherry-blossom, or more probably neither. As temple and foliage entwine, Profundities, he seems to chant, are only superficialities you never thought of before.


The journey is long. Time stands still. But the positions adopted by the Zen Master are inpenetrable. Be patient and persistent.

Equal Opportunities Statement: despite the use of the term ‘master', the use of a male voice and the graphic depiction of a man, ShedBand would like to make it clear that in the past there have been many acclaimed female Zen Masters, as discussed here.

Track 4: Improvisional

All Shedband’s tracks are intentionally experimental. They are never rehearsed or replayed again. In this improvisation (over pre-recorded drum and bass) the Aleatoric intertwines with the Cool to create a Jazz-Age shed experience of Cosmic Insignificance which is at once heart-warming and brain-soothing.

Track 5: Carrots

Here ‘Carrots’ refers not to the immanent (sic) vegetable but to the true transcendental ‘Carrotness’ of the Orders of Cosmic Vegetables whose karmic manifestations decrease in meaningfulness at each cyclic reoccurrence, not least when we attempt to attribute aesthetic value to their various and sundry linguistic manifestations.

I'll have 2 lbs worth please.

Track 6: Free Deranged

An incantation to free the cosmically cross-stricken angelic star-spirit of Freda Derangel from her frigid circling orbit in the outer reaches of the chill night sky. Hear the dialogue of the celestial energies as they negotiate yet another of her resurrections.

Any resemblance to a popular Thursday evening event in Canterbury is entirely coincedental.

Track 7: Noon Day Church Candle

Here ShedBand explores orphic trappings of first love, or rather the psychic eddies left behind from such perturbances after a century or two. Can pathos be gathered from such remnants? Or are the scattering auras no more than themselves, rootless?

Walrus, bunny rabbit dewdrop, mouldy leaf, unwilling ecstacy, mascara smudgeon, amongst others.

Track 8: Skating Into The Bewilderness

In the icy nevermore of New York Jazzland ghosts swirl in forgotten parks, dreaming of clothes once cherished, pointed lapels and heroic muffs once worn in defence against the arrows of futility, not hopelessly shot though.

Skate Hire: £3 a session, or bring your own.

Track 9: Temptations On The Beach

Sitting in a deckchair on the beach of the Vencie Lido, one or both of the Gustav twins grips the arms of the chair promising annihilation. Don't let go! What is the tempting heavenly vision? Not a celestial oyster, surely? No just a synthesised strawberry in an old-fashoined bathing suit.

Adagietto played in F Major.

Track 10: Bemildewment

Flower-bells of uncertain ecological provenance reminisce in the glinting dark about cosmic festivals that once took place on lands where they now grow. Indifferent to incursions from fairy-tale pine-forests, they tinkle on.

Feel free to change.

SHEDBAND: THE FIRST ALBUM

Welcome to Versailles

If possible please listen on headphones or a good stereo system

Track 1: The Imperial Cosmic Oyster (Opening)

The Imperial Cosmic Oyster is a mysterious and enigmatic creature that can be found floating in the vastness of deep space. It has a shimmering, iridescent shell that glows with the light of a thousand stars, and within that shell lies a pearl of unimaginable value.

The oyster is said to possess the power to grant wishes and unlock the secrets of the universe, but only to those who are pure of heart and truly deserving.

It is a rare and precious creature, much sought after by cosmic travellers and intergalactic adventurers alike who seduce it to open with an ample supply of Transcendental carrots and Translunar vegetables.




Track 2: Lullaby for Shedland

Birdland was a New York Jazz Club that opened in late 1949. The name was as a reference to Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker, although he did not perform there very often. George Shearing wrote 'Lullaby For Birdland' in 1952 as a theme to be played at the club every hour, on the hour. Shearing stated that he had composed "the whole thing [...] within ten minutes.” The chord changes were from Walter Donaldson's 'Love me or Leave Me.'


By a strange coincidence ShedBand’s improvised version of the tune was also created within about ten minutes.

Shedband often use the idea of subverting a 'standard' as a starting point for their improvisations.



Track 3: No Trace

The text for this improvisation was created with the help of Wordle. Each day playing Wordle generates a short list of five letter words. On one occasion the words were:

TRACE

CIGAR


SMOKE

RURAL

SCRAP

These words were then used to create a short text, with each word appearing in the same order as they were on Wordle - 'There was no trace of cigar smoke in the rural scrap merchant’s yard'.


Meanwhile the image on the right was created entirely by AI responding to the words of the text.


In

Track 4: Trans Saturnian Rings

Join ShedBand as it embarks on a psychedelic, sci-fi adventure in sound and music travelling over, under and though Saturn’s seven rings that circle the planet at high speeds.

It's a difficult and dangerous journey through a cosmic swirl of diamond and pearl particles of rock, dust and ice - a labyrinth of light, colours, shapes and textures.


In

Track 5: Hello Time!

In this track ShedBand attempts to grasp the essence of time through a series of futile greetings summarised in this four-dimensional representation:


geometric plane hello time curved looping flatness hello time exquisite twisting fractals hello time fullness of number creating this dimension hello time you caught up with us we to you with by from ablative absolute grammar time each word the point the shifting geometry hello time point point point word vanishing-point delete delete hello time hello time promised accessible infinity really imagine ‘imagine’ imagine are we not we less than the dots on the ‘i’s in ‘imagine infinity’ or the inverted commas or love unfolding hello time


In

Track 6: 3-IN-ONE

3in1 started life as three different improvisations. Unfortunately the recording equipment was not working well that day with the result that there was one fully recorded piece and two shorter segments from two other improvisations. While editing the complete track, instead of fading from one piece to the next, as was with the original intention, by chance the two segments pasted themselves over the first creating a composition that rises to a chaotic climax before calming down again and ending peacefully.

And all at the same time as it lubricates, cleans and prevents rust.


In

Track 7: Imperial Cosmic Oyster (Closing)

Meanwhile the album's closing track reveals that The Imperial Cosmic Oyster is in fact a skittish illusion perpetrated by the Bronze Age tribe who really believed that the spirit of the Dead transmigrated to those of ground-nesting bees, which were copious in the meadow-lands nearby.


These Bee-Whisperers knew of the palaces and temples below the ground and how to access messages from departed loved ones. They also understood the correspondences between the stars and the apparently random locations of bee-stings on the human anatomy, by means of which the future could be accurately foretold.


In order to keep such knowledge and skills secret from the neighbouring so-called Bewildered Oyster Catchers of Wibbly, they spun yarns about the Imperial Cosmic Oyster. The Bewildered Oyster Catchers were thus fooled into thinking it was the Cosmic Oyster that imparted great knowledge and skills rather than the Bee-Whisperers, and supplied them with copious amounts of Transcendental carrots and Translunar vegetables in exchange for carefully selected non-threatening pearls of wisdom.

In

There are many more ShedBand compositions to come, all recorded over the past twelve months.

New tracks that present ShedBand's wide range of approaches to improvistion

will be released on this website every two or three weeks.

If you would like to be alerted to their availability please complete the

Get In Touch form below to be added to the mailing list.

To help ShedBand reach a wider audience, please feel free to share these tracks with friends via social media or by forwarding them a link to the Shedband website.

Shedband Is...

Tim Armstrong

Tim Armstrong is a prize-winning novelist who plays in the Kamikaze Reunion Blues Band. He has also worked as an educator and translator. Currently cultivating a high level of bewilderment, he improvises on synthesisers and voice.

Tristram Shepard

Tristram Shepard originally played in Death Kit, a Liverpool based multimedia progressive jazz-rock band. In ShedBand he uses a guitar and a range of electronic and digital devices to create unusual sounds and spaces. He also edits and mixes the tracks.

Merchandise

If you are interested in purchasing a CD of any of ShedBand's recordings or a ShedBand T-shirt, please contact us using the Get In Touch form below.

Get in Touch


CONTACT

shedbandinfo@gmail.com

Shedband is based in Canterbury UK - home of The Canterbury Sound



Acknowledgements

Image credits:



All other photos, website and ShedBand logo design by Tristram Shepard.

Thanks to Tristram Ariss for his essential technical support with the website.



Free Range

ShedBand would like to thank and recommend Free Range for establishing Canterbury as a centre for adventurous music, poetry, film and dance events in the City. Check their programme of events here and listen to recordings of many of their previous events here on Soundcloud.





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