Real Name:  Pete Kelly

Lives:  Near the North York Moors, North Yorkshire, England

Influences:  The Natural World, Beauty, Mystery, Dreams, Silence

Musical Influences:  Brian Eno, Harold Budd, David Sylvian, Killing Joke, Pixies, Todd Rundgren

 

Education / Background:

MSc in Music Technology from York University

Worked in the Electronics industry

Exhibited as a ‘sound artist’ and created soundtracks for installations, short film and theatre productions. 

Currently full-time musician (and dog walker)

 

Discography:

Igneous Flame Solo Releases

TOLMON (2003) Ethereal Ambience

INTOX (2003) Dark Ambience

OXANA (2004) Ethereal Ambience

SATU (2005) Guitar Soundscapes / Ethereal Ambience

ASTRA (2006) Guitar Soundscapes / Ethereal Ambience

HYDRA (2007) Ethereal / Dark Ambience 

Collaborative Releases

Oculla (2004) Chillfactor10 surround sound DTS EP – Igneous Flame / Darkness within Darkness

8 Shades of Sound (2004) - Formaria

HALO (2008) on AtmoWorks - Igneous Flame / Achromus

Flicker (2008) on LuminaSounds - Igneous Flame / Achromus 

Formbank

Formbank (2003)

Formbank2 (2005)

Orca (2007 – Download only release) 

Unless stated otherwise, all on the now defunct Chillfactor10 records, 2003 -2008

Interview:

The following are extracts taken from an interview with myself by Dene Bebbington for his ‘Melliflua site: (cheers Dene!) http://www.melliflua.com 

Q: What's your musical background, and what led you to composing ambient works?

I’m primarily a guitarist, I’ve played for 28 years. I was originally into heavy rock and played in that style for a number of years, but my tastes have diversified significantly over time. Whilst studying Music Technology, I became aware of the potential of using computers for ambient music creation, prior to that I’d been using 4-track recorders and the like. The visual representation of sound and being able to place sounds ‘in time’ in multi-tracking programs was quite a revelation to me. I started my ambient work in earnest in 1998, releasing my first album Tolmon five years later in 2003. My earlier albums were somewhat ‘purist’ in terms of the emphasis on sound processing and the lack of instrumentation. Essentially, I was making ambient music using an electroacoustic music methodology – processing field recordings primarily and incorporating sparse use of guitar derived textures. 

I was inspired to make ambient music by Brian Eno, Harold Budd and David Sylvian. I was particularly inspired by the following albums: The Pearl, Thursday Afternoon, Apollo and Gone to Earth - and I still am. 

Q: Tell us something about your method of creating music and how you generate those otherworldy sounds

One of the primary processes I employ is recycling sounds (and recycling the recycled!). I find it fascinating how a sound can end up sounding so different after multiple processes and manipulations, yet retain some of it’s original properties. A number of my pieces are ‘single source’ works, where only one original sound was used and a number of variants were created. 

On a technical level, I use some standard processes - time stretching and delays primarily. I do a lot of what I call ‘smoothing’ – using filters to get rid of unwanted peaky resonances, in a sense ‘sculpting’ the sound. I try to create ‘organic’ sounds - I don’t like harsh sounds, it’s easy to make a noise, it’s harder to make a ‘colourful’, interesting texture. I create a lot of textures/drones and I work on the layers or ‘components’ within a drone. What sounds like a single sound may be made up of a number of these component sounds. I also use more esoteric sound processes that I’ve come across/developed. I try to ensure they are transparent, as opposed to being obvious effects. Another technique I use is chaining multiple effects together to get a particular sound – an example of this is the ‘Brushed Steel’ guitar sound that you referred to in your review of ‘Oxana’, which gives an almost vocal quality to the guitar. 

As well as the conscious approach, there are certainly unconscious elements as well as the active decisions and ideas that I’m exploring. There are a number of unpredictable ‘wild card’ processes that I employ. 

In general, from what I can gather my approach to creating ambient music and the way I use the guitar in ambient music is somewhat unique. I spend a large amount of time of the ‘sound design’ side of things, I endeavour to create interesting and refreshing sounds and reject a lot on the way. All of my material is created almost entirely on computers, with very little outboard gear. In fact, I couldn’t create my material any other way. 

Q: What's your artistic vision in the Igneous Flame releases? Is the music intended to be interpreted by the listener in a certain way?

The music can be listened to ‘actively’ or ‘passively’. However, there is sufficient depth in the work for concentrated listening and that’s how I judge it. Making music is very important to me - It’s something I feel compelled to do. I find in the world today that the quality of ‘beauty’ is very rare. Beauty is a quality I’m trying to achieve with my work, even the darker material its intended to be beautiful (I don’t like a lot of ‘ugly noise’ ambient) 

On a personal level, as a very sensitive person, I believe that some of my ‘inner life’ is brought into my music and the work can engage with the listener on different levels. In some ways, my music is an expression of things I can’t express. 

Q: Your music released under the name Formbank is very different to Igneous Flame. What inspires these different approaches?

The Formbank stuff is crazy - IDM for those with a sense of humour. Whilst the Igneous Flame project is beatless, I’m very interested in rhythm and this is where the Formbank project comes in. It’s all sequenced (and takes a long time to do) I used to play bass in quite a few bands and I had a really ‘unusual style’, I’m very much like mad syncopation and ‘oblique’ rhythms. 

Even though I describe the project as crazy, I still put a lot of work into it. It’s good for developing my compositional side as well, as I use an entirely different approach to the Igneous Flame stuff. It’s a welcome diversion from all those infernal drones! In one sense, it’s something of a technical exercise, particularly in terms of the production.

Q: What direction do you think your music will take in the future?

Good question, I can’t really predict that myself. I don’t like to repeat myself or to be pigeonholed into some sub-genre (‘dark ambient’ comes to mind). I’d like to carry on doing the more melodic material as well as the darker stuff and there will be a more experimental electronica project on the horizon as well. 

On a deeper level, I’d like my music to have an effect on people and that it creates ‘something’ for them. It’s subtle stuff and it won’t engage with everyone, but for the people it does, (from what I’m told) it works. 

Finally, as a kid, someone asked me what I’d really like to do when I grew up (this actually hasn’t happened yet, but I digress) and I said that I wanted to make weird sounds all day. As some kind of ‘mad-scientist’ exploring the sonic world in my audio laboratory, I’ve achieved that!