Shpongle
| Shpongle | |
|---|---|
 Shpongle at Moscow's Yotaspace Club, 2015 |
|
| General information | |
| origin | England |
| Genre (s) | Ambient , Goa , Psychedelic Rock , New Music , World Music , Dub |
| founding | 1996 |
| Website | www.shponglemusic.com |
| Founding members | |
Composition, programming, synthesizer, guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, piano |
Simon Posford |
Composition, flute, chanting |
Ronald Rothfield (Raja Ram) |
| Current occupation | |
Composition, programming, synthesizer, guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, piano |
Simon Posford |
Composition, flute, chanting |
Ronald Rothfield (Raja Ram) |
singing |
Michele Adamson (since 2000) |
singing |
Abigail Gorton (Hari Om) (since 2000) |
cello |
Harry Escott (since 2000) |
guitar |
Pete Callard (since 2000) |
Drums |
Joe Russo (since 2013) |
bass |
Chris Borud (since 2014) |
violin |
Janey Choi (since 2014) |
Keyboard, programming |
Dick Trevor (since around 2008) |
| former members | |
Percussion |
Nogera (2004-2008) |
hillside |
Manu Delago (2008-2013) |
hillside |
Dante Bucci † (2014) |
Drums |
Andy Gangadeen (2008-approx. 2009) |
bass |
Chris Barker (2004-ca.2005) |
violin |
Max Baillie (2013) |
guitar |
Chris Taylor (2008) |
| Guest musician | |
singing |
Sussan Deyhim (2013-2019) |
singing |
Durga McBroom (2017-2019) |
guitar |
Tommy hamilton (2019) |
saxophone |
Leo Pellegrino (2019) |
clarinet |
Sylvain Carton (2019) |
hillside |
Dan McQueen (2019) |
Brass instruments |
Empire Strikes Brass (2019) |
Shpongle is an English music project founded in 1996 by Simon Posford and Raja Ram . The musical concept uses mostly psychedelic ambient , elements of psytrance , psychedelic rock , jazz , dub and world music , but also pursues musical concepts of new music , which is particularly reflected in the structure of many songs. The compositions by Posford and Raja Ram are characterized on the one hand by driving electronic rhythms , on the other hand by ambient and ethnic elements. There are also interspersed vocal interludes.
history
While Simon Posford was already successful in the Goa scene with his solo project Hallucinogen, in 1996 he began his musical collaboration with the native Australian Ronald Rothfield (Raja Ram). He was the founder and flautist of Quintessence in the 1970s , retired from music production for a few years after its dissolution and then began producing psytrance music in the early 1990s . Since 1994 he has been running the Psytrance label TIP World . The first project Posford and Rothfield worked on with other musicians was called Mystery of the Yeti. In 1996 the two founded Shpongle, the first album "Are You Shpongled?" was released in 1998. Simon Posford is a master of many musical instruments and plays most of the arrangements for the works. Raja Ram complements flute melodies and chanting with often curious and psychedelic content.
In 2000, singer and DJ Michele Adamson, opera singer Abigail Gorton (Hari Om), cellist and film music composer Harry Escott and guitarist Pete Callard came into contact with Shpongle and have been with Shpongle since their second album, Tales of the Inexpressible (2001) Involved in albums and most of the live performances of the project. In 2001 Shpongle also made their first live appearance at the Solstice Music Festival in Japan. Since then, there have been regular, but rather rare, live performances with a wide variety of line-ups - from one person (only Simon Posford) to twenty people, and sometimes guest musicians only take part in one or two performances.
In the following years four more albums were released - Nothing Lasts ... But Nothing Is Lost (2005), Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland (2009), Museum of Consciousness (2013), Codex VI (2017) and a remix album (2003) . From 2004 the percussionist Nogera, from 2008 the drummer Andy Gangadeen with Shpongle. Joe Russo has been a permanent drummer for Shpongle since 2013 . On the studio albums, Simon Posford usually plays the drums himself. The Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim contributed vocals for three tracks on the fifth album, and Durga McBroom for the track Celestial Intoxication on the sixth album. Since at Shpongle the singers usually write the lyrics themselves, they are named as co-composers for the respective pieces.
A double concert on two consecutive evenings in May 2019 in the Red Rocks Amphitheater, USA was announced by the band as their last live performance. Raja Ram was already 78 years old at this performance. At the same time, however, there was talk of the imminent release of a seventh studio album.
Naming
In an interview, Simon Posford explained the origin of the word Shpongle as a blend of the words "spangled" and "monged" (colloquial for: "high" or "stoned"). Posford used the term " shpongled " at an early meeting as an attribute for Raja Ram, who at that time was apparently on a drug intoxication .
Discography
Albums
- 1998: Are You Shpongled? (Twisted Records)
- 2001: Tales of the Inexpressible (Twisted Records)
- 2003: Remixed (Twisted Records)
- 2005: Nothing Lasts ... But Nothing Is Lost (Twisted Records)
- 2009: Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland (Twisted Records)
- 2013: Museum of Consciousness (Twisted Records)
- 2017: Codex VI (Twisted Records)
Singles
- 2000: Divine Moments of Truth (Twisted Records)
- 2001: Crystal Skulls (TIP World)
- 2004: Dorset Perception / Beija Flor (Twisted Records)
- 2010: Invisible Man in a Flourescent Suit, Nothing Is Something Worth Doing (Twisted Records)
- 2011: The God Particle (Twisted Records)
Live videos
- 2009: Live in Concert at the Roundhouse London 2008 (Twisted Records)
- 2015: Live in London (Twisted Records)
- 2015: Live at Red Rocks Amphitheater (Twisted Records)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ SHPONGLE LIVE IN CONCERT AT RED ROCKS. Sphongle, accessed May 11, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.groovetickets.com/bz_art_new.asp?DID=856 ( Memento from September 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive )