Noble Truth

A break in my fallow blogging period to let you know about my latest project - a new EP under my Jonesidying pseudonym entitled: Noble Truth.

The EP is released as a digital download through the new label of my great friend Simon Hopkins: DGMFS Media. Below is the press release.

jonesisdying is the performance name of Christopher Jones, a South London resident who specialises in making guitars sound as little like guitars as possible and who takes inspiration from space rock, psych, krautrock, Norwegian jazz, classic country and much else besides. Using electronic processing, found sounds and post-production, Chris seeks to express concepts rooted in Buddhist meditation and other more esoteric traditions, as well as primal emotional states.

noble truth contains four ambient pieces originally commissioned for an abandoned project. The initial recordings were then rescued, overdubbed, remixed and re-mastered when Chris realised that the work contained a core that existed entirely free of any external motivations. 

Track list:

• truth 1 - suffering
• truth 2 - causes
• truth 3 - cessation
• truth 4 - path

 Credits:

• Electric & acoustic guitars, synthesizer and left wing musical box: Christopher Jones
• Produced by Christopher Jones
• Mastered by Simon Hopkins
• Cover image: Hans Dieter Beetroot & Mukmuk
• Cover design: Vera Brüggemann
•  For further information about jonesisdying, contact garuda.chris@gmail.com

The EP is available on iTunes and Amazon (it's a bargain!) and is also streaming on Spotify (link below).



Many thanks to Simon, Sarah, Vera, and everyone else who said nice things.
Enjoy!

Boom Logistics - Fifth (An Interim Offering) - work in progress

A short note on the latest work from my good friend Simon Hopkins who manages the uncanny act of alchemy (or more accurately spinning gold from of the straw of my own playing) in his ongoing Boom Logistics/Abyssal Labs projects. The latest instalment under construction of Boom Logistics - Fifth (An Interim Offering) - work in progress - is the second full-length album and, as usual, is constructed from disparate sessions recorded at Simon’s Brighton home. As well as my noodling, there’s the usual suspects, Nick Reynolds and Peter Marsh and - making a huge difference to the end results imho - the piano of mutual pal, Steve Morgan. This gives a lot of the sturm und drang of Simon’s dark ambient modus operandi a very German vibe, in places approaching the condition of Cluster. High praise indeed…

Anyway - he’s put the new work into a handy Youtube playlist which you can enjoy here.

It was an honour to take part, as always…

Abyssal Labs 3: Cissbury Ring, 05​.​05​.​13

Some new music from Simon Hopkins.

It features me in the mix on guitar. Taken from the same sessions that produced this AND this.

In keeping with Simon's ongoing project to produce meditative music (essentially Dark Ambient), this addresses notions of mindfulness in post-industrial society and looks at evolved solutions to deal with paradoxes inherent in any search for stillness within the noise.

It comes in varying lengths between 15 and 30 minutes to suit your needs.

Thanks and love to Simon for considering my efforts worthy enough to be used.

Boom Logistics - Fourth (2013)

Being such a Jack of all trades I'm still occasionally prone to making music with others, especially when asked nicely. At the end of last year I was proud to be asked to contribute to a couple of the projects currently underway by Simon Hopkins.

One of these - the Abyssal Labs project, which concentrates on industrial ambient drone work for urban meditational purposes, has already been mentioned on this blog. Soon to be released on his Bandcamp site, Fourth is, erm... the fourth Boom Logistics album which features contributions from Pete Marsh on double bass, Matt Walton on acoustic guitar and myself on electric guitar.

My parts were all laid down in Simon's front room in one very productive day last year (see pic above). A testament to the power of mindfulness! I was reasonably proud of my contributions, but Simon's worked long and hard on recontextualising them in a series of dark drifting pieces.

Several previews have been placed on Youtube in advance of the actual release, and here they are. Many thanks to Simon for making me sound like a proper musician.

Beachy Head

Good friend Simon Hopkins has a rather splendid project going at the moment: it's called Abyssal Labs and can be found here.

A bit like myself, Simon's found both yoga and meditation to be indispensable tools and has (also like me) struggled with the conundrum of how to produce practical music which addresses the paradox of mindfulness in an busy, urban environment.

Abyssal Labs provides both soundtracks of Dark Ambient music suitable for such purposes via Spotify playlists but also provides bespoke pieces available to download in differing lengths depending on your needs/meditational regime.

I recently went down to Brighton to play with Mr H, and some of the results featuring myself on guitar and The Estimable Bass Player can be heard/purchased here:

Enjoy!

Note: The title of the piece denotes the fact that Simon just ran the Beachy Head marathon. Mindful AND insane. Way to go Simon...