This is a cassette-only limited edition of 250 copies. From child actor to teenage pop idol, from self-confessed extreme sound freak" to acclaimed solo recording artist, the UK-based Simon Turner Fishers career has been nothing if not varied. His early acting credits included film and TV roles from Black Beauty to The Big Sleep (re-made with Robert Mitchum). At the same time, he was fronting various 70s pop acts, and at the age of 17, was signed to Jonathan Kings UK Records, releasing his first solo album in 1969. After that precocious start, Simon followed an often eccentric, sometimes outlandish musical path. He operated on the fringes of punk, performed briefly with The The, became "Musician In Residence" at the ICA in 1980, and released two albums as one-half of a fictional French female duo known as Deux Filles. But through all this, Simon was developing a deep and abiding interest in the stuff of sound, accumulating a vast library of collected sounds from daily life. It is this interest which now forms the basis of his improvisatory, eclectic approach to music-making, and is manifest on his solo albums on Mute (his discography comprises some 30 solo albums to date). From trite pop to extreme sound-freakery, the mature SFT (as he now styles himself) has arrived at a mesmeric originality. Simons life as a film composer stems from his association with Derek Jarman in the 1980s and 1990s. His scoring credits for Jarman include Caravaggio, The Last Of England, The Garden and Edward II. His final film for Jarman was the powerful, poignant Blue, where a soundscape recorded by Simon at Enos country house, together with Jarmans spoken words, stood in for visuals -- only a blue screen was projected. His work with films has continued unabated since Jarmans death, recent credits including the Anna Campion-directed Inertia and Bipolar, Don Boyds My Kingdom (on which he collaborated with Deirdre Gribbin), Paul McGuigans Ganster No. 1 and Mike Hodges Croupier and Ill Sleep When Im Dead. On this release, "Carboneras Saints Day, 16 July 2002" captures the sounds of the procession of the Virgen del Carmen, recorded at Carboneras in the provence of Almeröa, Spain. "Solo Piano Improvisation #54" is one of two improvisations recorded at Eastcote Studios, London in 2003, for the film Ill Sleep When Im Dead." -The Tapeworm
