Voltage Poetry Project

@voltagepoetry

Songs on synths, sometimes with geographical settings. #lofi production. Albums ‘Home Sounds’ and ‘Further Verses’ out via #MonochromeMotif

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Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Jul 5

“Honeyed stone, sets the tone…” In Bath yesterday, having finished the #synthbraska album, and so a break before picking up on my #fieldrecordings one - chalk #hillfigures are the theme of that and I’d had a fine view of the #UffingtonWhiteHorse en route to the city, by happy coincidence :-)

A wall of stone blockwork. The blocks are rectangular with the horizontals being the long sides. Each block is a slightly different hue of honey-coloured Bath stone (thanks in part due to the sunshine); a few are smooth but most have a degree of eroded roughness. The edges are remarkably straight and a little cream-coloured pointing is visible here and there. Part of a black painted metal disc, inserted into the wall, is visible at the left edge, as is the end post of a metal fence covered with the same paint.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Mar 27

Went to this yesterday. Good to see a photo of #HenryMoore working on the Underground HQ included - he’s referenced in one of the #synthbraska LP songs :-) #ArtDeco #LondonTransportMuseum

Entrance to the Art Deco exhibition at London Transport Museum. Reflective metal writing is set on blue background rectangles; one says ‘ART DECO’ and a longer one, set below, states ‘The golden age of poster design.’ Both texts are in sans serif type. The blue backgrounds are set on a wall of black, cream, white, brown and red irregular shapes and lines (some swirling, others more sharply curved or edged) with an almost neon purple semi-circular edge at the top-left of the image.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Mar 8

#FieldRecording on a Bunnymen Street, yesterday (IYKYK.) #Bath #LoFi #ToShareTheseSongsWithYou

Black and white image of Walcot Street, Bath. To the right a roadway heads towards the camera and three cars, with headlights on, are approaching. More cars are parked by the kerbside, further right. To
The left a high stone wall curves away alongside the road. Above this, on the same curve, is a terrace of grand (five storey) Georgian housing (possibly flats), akin to a sweep of tenements in a Scottish city or town. It is the rear of these buildings that is shown(their addresses are in another street.) The sky above, overcast on the day, looks grey.
Some foliage drapes over the high stone wall, as it curves away. In the distance is a tree-topped hill above more stone-built housing.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Feb 26

Started work, in earnest, on my first #FieldRecordings album this week (one of the locations is show here)… already, I would suggest, it is quite a different creative process to that of songwriting. Looking forward to seeing where the sounds take me :-)

A seashore image featuring chalk cliffs emerging from left to right (about two thirds across the picture); there is a hole/erosion-driven tunnel through the cliff near the right extremity of the landform. The cliffs are topped by grass. A pale brown sand beach is at the foot of the image whilst an incoming tide is washing (fairly serenely) from the right. A line of low, foaming, waves runs parallel to the edge of the sand. The skies above are blue with grey and white clouds interspersed between.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Dec 14

Just over four weeks since the release of #FurtherVerses and my copy of the vinyl edition has now arrived :-) It does feel like a luxury. Parts of the front cover and inner sleeve are shown (the flip side of the latter features buildings in, and a sky above, the city of #Bath.) #synthsky #lofi

Parts of the inner and outer sleeves of the vinyl edition of Voltage Poetry Project’s ‘Further Verses’ LP. The inner sleeve is angled slightly rightward, and features black sans serif text towards its middle over a mottled grey and white background (actually detail from a concrete structure.) Beneath, angled leftward, is the outer sleeve with pink edging at top and bottom left, plus detail of the roof of an Indy building in a monochrome photo filling the rest of the screen.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Nov 26

#FurtherVerses on tour. Venue 1 is The Light Auditorium at Friends House, #Euston, London. This would actually be a phenomenal space to perform in; it seats up to 1,000 (theatre-style), features a lot of wood and a stylish skylight. #synthsky #musicsky

Monochrome image involving CD sleeve of Voltage Poetry Project’s album ‘Further Verses’ (with a pale border around a photo of the underside of a sunlit industrial roof) resting on a black-painted metal railing (rectangular but with diagonal cross-beams which meet at an ornate metal diamond.) Behind the railing is wood panelling with a shadow cast by the cross-beams and metal diamond.)

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Jun 1

Live performance interpreting a field recording album, or one of these played back as an installation? It turned out to be closer to the latter - and there were tote bags with Banksy-esque images of Christopher Lloyd for sale at the shop. #GardenSky #fieldrecordings (of a sort)…

Image of a short (less than 1 metre high), wooden a-frame chalkboard, on a patch of rough grass, with a breeze block walled recess (four standard blocks in height and almost the size of a one-car domestic garage, with a concrete floor) behind. Some brown earth is piled up against the left breeze block wall, outside / to the left of the recess. Green bushes are visible beyond the recess.
The chalkboard has been handwritten on with the text “THIS WAY to listen to the sounds of Dixter!” There is a chalk arrow, pointing left, underneath the phrase “THIS WAY.”

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· May 24

“Art is about freedom of speech” - so says a sign, by the bothy, in the rather splendid Hospitalfield Art Garden (inspired by @hospitalfield.bsky.social) at #RHSChelsea today. I have some fond memories of #Arbroath; my song ‘Coast’ was partly inspired by a visit there :-)

Monochrome image of a corrugated metal “art bothy” - with large, almost floor to ceiling, windows - among some coastal plants (grasses and flowers, which mostly had white or pink-coloured heads) on a mound to the right. Outside the bothy are signs saying “art is about freedom of speech” and “all schools should be art schools.”

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· May 16

The cover shot for #walktowalkstation was taken in Margate (one of my #QY10 rail destinations) and I was back there today, to see @danthompson33.bsky.social. At Marine Studios he showed me these clocks. Ramsgate has its own meridian and there must be a song in that…

A white painted interior wall, with two clocks (also white, including the numbers, but with black hour & minute hands and blue second hands) placed one above the other. Underneath each clock is a place name, in black capital type on gold rectangular backgrounds. The upper place name is Ramsgate and the lower Margate. The Margate clock indicates a time of 12.59 whereas the Ramsgate one shows 13.04. The edge of a white-painted window frame is visible on the right edge of the image.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Apr 5

Vocals recorded for what, now, is a quartet of railway songs. #walkstationtostation

Dynamic microphone (with grey spherical head to the left and black body - long enough to be hand-held - extending to the right.) Top of the mic stand, blurred, is to the centre-right (the mic body is clasped by this) and a lead runs out and then downward beyond this. The back involves blurred boxes on shelves and two off-white painted walls.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Mar 30

A pleasure Kate. Here’s a photo of the Great Bustard I saw… apparently she is called Gertie by @englishheritage.bsky.social @nationaltrust.bsky.social folk at #Stonehenge…

A female Great Bustard poses on a matted walkway in front of a patch of green grass. The stones of Stonehenge stand in the centre of the horizon beyond, with higher land (south of the A303 road) to the left and some people on the right. A blue and grey sky, with clouds and hints of vertical sunlight beaming down are above this.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Mar 30

A great city on a grey day. Parts of #Bath from Alexandra Park, three days ago. I do have a previously-released song set here and will be doing something different with that later this year. Today (back east) I recorded the vocals for four new songs though :-)

A view over central Bath, looking north from Alexandra Park. The top half of the image shows a grey, cloudy, sky. Most of the lower section, from left to right, features grey roofing and honey-coloured stone (or other material designed to suggest this) of the city’s buildings. Some hills appear above this to the right, one of which is Solsbury Hill (as named in a Peter Gabriel song.)
The lower part of the image is dominated by trees with dark green and brown foliage typical of late winter / early spring.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Feb 27

Gulls on groynes, this afternoon. Not (currently) a new song title, but just a happening spotted early this afternoon.

A view towards the promontory including Cliffsend and Pett (Hastings would be beyond, but is out of sight) from the beach at Camber. Grey & white clouds fill the sky in the top part of the image. A thin grey, slightly lumpy, piece of land stretches from the right, making up much of the horizon - stopping about 15% from the end of the left edge with a sharp cliff. The sea forms the horizon thereafter.
In the foreground is a sea (the tide is going out and so there are dark ripples, between lighter grey and almost white waters) with 19 wooden posts, part of the groynes, standing vertically. From left to right these posts rise in height until the sixteenth post; the final three are much lower. Seagulls sit on top of posts 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 & 16. Another has just lifted-off from post 14. Brown & grey sands (with small stones interspersed) plus withdrawing tidal waters (low enough to paddle in) form the foot of the picture:

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Feb 15

Patch 82 (a self-programmed one, created in the past few days) on the #BassStation responding nicely to a trigger from the #qy10 this evening. May make it to a #walkstationtostation song about an Essex itinerary or another referencing Alexander “Greek” Thomson…

Part of a Novation BassStation II control panel. Black backing with pale blue lines delineating various sections (arpeggiator, Porta, LFOs identified in this image) and white text. Some small circular red lights show whilst a digital display panel features a red-illuminated number 82 (in “calculator style” text.) At the bottom of the image, starting a third of the way along, the top of the low end of the musical keyboard is seen. The run of these keys - starting with a white “C” note - is white/black/white/black/white/white/black/white (thus a “G” note is at the edge of the image.)
A headphone lead trails across the image, from three-quarters of the way along at the top to the bottom left corner.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Feb 2

Tapping ideas into this #QY10 en route to places such as Rotherhithe, Margate, Bristol, Colchester and Keswick in the past six months has been a fun way to make music. Now some songs are taking shape. Welcome to a new #walkstationtostation thread… the paths and rails to a single, EP or album?

Yamaha QY10 walkstation (a VHS cassette-sized sequencer and sound module formed of a black plastic box, with one octave keyboard of rubber keys, plus tiny black and yellow buttons for an assortment of functions and a green backlit electronic display screen) on a black & white striped stair carpet. The stripes run vertically in this image, at right angles to the rise of the stairs.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Jan 22

#VoltagePoetryProjectAtoZ (Q): #QY10. Given my current writing project is #walkstationtostation this is a very obvious inclusion! The photo shows mine outside the #Brunel museum in Rotherhithe. One riff and a bassline idea from the train ride there are part of two “underway” songs as of today :-)

Most of the front panel of a Yamaha QY10 Walkstation. Black plastic with a single octave piano-type keyboard (made of black & white rubber buttons.) 12 further black buttons above these and four yellow to the left. A clear plastic display strip above partly reflects some nearby trees.
Behind are a blue and white painted wall, pale brown brick shed and base of a chimney stack.
There is a grey sky and trees that are in full (green) leaf, beyond and above the wall, shed and chimney.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Jan 19

#VoltagePoetryProjectAtoZ (N): Novation BassStation II. The fanciest synth I own; it is monophonic but nice to create patches on and really quite expressive. It’ll almost certainly by triggered from the #QY10 as part of #walkstationtostation.

Detail shot of part of a BassStation II synth. Black & white plastic keyboard fills much of the image, with a small part of the control section towards the top - this is black with pale blue vertical and horizontal lines separating different sets of controls on the synth. The Porta, LFOs and Envelopes sets are seen in part.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Jan 5

This is the #VoltagePoetryProjectAtoZ thread. Songs, synths, places, labels, collaborators, podcasters et al. Plenty of shameless tagging and thank-yous along the way. Starts on 6th January… #synthsky

Monochrome image of a Casio VL-Tone synth/calculator on a white table top.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Dec 31

2024 is almost through. From 6th January I will be posting a #VoltagePoetryProjectAtoZ which will tag various folk, albums, places, instruments etc. that I’ve found to be helpful or inspiring (including this year.) Happy New Year in the meantime! #synthsky

Grey concrete slipway, running from the foot of the picture to its middle (where it plunges into very low waves of the Thames Estuary) and with painted stencilled letters saying “never stop dancing” (albeit the “o” has been rubbed out!) There is mid-brown sand to either side of the slipway. The waters of the Thames are largely grey and rippled, whilst there are three container ships on the horizon. The sky is a pale blue with a band of white cloud above.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Oct 18

#HomeSounds was released a fortnight ago. Reviews so far include “reminiscent of confiding in a close friend while lounging under starlit skies” & “went remarkably well with my butternut squash risotto.” Over the coming days I will introduce each song here, with a #BlueSky slant…

Part of the sleeve and compact disc version of Voltage Poetry Project’s ‘Home Sounds’ album, with a road atlas page showing roads around De Panne in Belgium. The album sleeve shows a black and white photo of a hand on part of a piano, forming an 7th chord, surrounded by a pink border.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Oct 10

Northern Lights (and a telegraph pole) in Wye this evening.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Oct 3

Album out tomorrow; hence easing pre-release day tensions at The Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel this afternoon (okay, after a 10-mile walk.) I should point out that there are no fell-walking songs on the album, even though it’s a lyrical travelogue (with some synths and a definite #portastudio feel)…

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Sep 17

A final #walkstationtostation post for a little while. I’ll still be working on it (also keeping a diary of what I put into the #QY10 and where (so Rotherhithe & Margate will be added to)) but shall report back a few weeks after my debut album is released via #monochromemotif :-)

Yamaha QY10 walkstation (almost exclusively a black plastic box, size of a VHS tape (!), with some white buttons, a single orange one and four tiny yellow ones… plus a green LCD screen) placed on the black & white striped stair carpet at Marine Studios, Margate.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Sep 17

Given some of the posts I’ve seen today it seems like I was a little late to the party - but it’s a good party! Thanks to everyone who helped get me here :-) Cheers!

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Aug 24

In my non-Voltage Poetry Project life I won a Mute Records “mystery bundle” last week :-) All arrived yesterday and I’m trying to resist playing any of it (LPs, CDs & 4 test-pressings) until submitting my own album to #monochromemotif in the next week or so…

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Aug 19

Day 1 of #walkstationtostation. The station traveled to was Rotherhithe and here’s my #QY10 outside the Brunel Museum, nearby. Limited time so I only came up with two bassline patterns, a rhythm (not drums) part and a piano motif. It’s a start though :-)

Yamaha QY10 Walkstation in front of the engine house at the Brunel Museum. The base of the latter’s chimney - largely in light brown brick - rises to the right.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Aug 18

The ‘compilations that shaped you’ posts here have been intriguing. Mine is a little disingenuous as I already had records by some of its contributors by the time I bought it (a few years after its release)… but, until the coronavirus pandemic this remained the only compilation that I owned!

Part of the inner and outer sleeves of the ‘Some Bizzare’ compilation album.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Aug 6

Yesterday, on another platform, I announced a new (for me) songwriting project called #walkstationtostation - six months of writing music on a Yamaha QY10, in various locations. This might mean composing on trains; I’d be surprised if any had a restaurant car but I can daydream…

Drawing for an OO gauge model of a Southern Railway restaurant car (3rd class apparently, and including wine storage in its kitchen) on the window of a shelter at Ashford International Station.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Jul 27

Have written and recorded a new song for (all being well) a “podcast exclusive.” Hopefully seeing the light of day in the next couple of weeks, it contains a few lyrical references to this band…

Cover of the CD reissue of ‘Sulk’ by Associates.

Voltage Poetry Project@voltagepoetry· Jul 14

Nearby wander, this AM, having listened to an instrumental mix of my upcoming album (like BEF’s #MusicForStowaways I’m mixing it through headphones.) Vocals next; nine celebrations of human togetherness in various geographical locations (from Dundee to Berlin, via Newcastle, Cambridge & Oostende.)