qubism

Thanxxxx, thomas. the "spooky noises" in the intro are sampled from a Pat Metheny record (can't remember which one right now...) I don't listen to a lot of Jazz, but I do love almost every … (more)

Charles from Chicago asked me about my inspiration for anthropomorphic and ghost of catalonia . I thought I would put my reply on hear for anyone who is interested.

To answer your question about anthropomorphic, it was partly inspired by me seeing something about an exhibition of Aztec sculpture which featured an anthropomorphic figure. I had to look up the word in the dictionary! I don't know exactly how this inspired the work, maybe it was the thought of chanting, so I credited one of the samples on the album to the choir of the sun (Aztecs? who knows!) Musically, John Crossley and myself had just recorded teotihuacan (an ancient Aztec city) for the TIME label to be released on 12". This was really a dancefloor track, my demo was kind of tribal house. We knew em:t was coming though, so John suggested the ambient second half. This was the first time I had done any proper ambient stuff in a big studio and John was really doing an ambient remix of the original house track. Once we got going I did throw in some stuff as well and the ambient bit is the same music that I originally wrote, just twice as slow and beatless. John did some great stuff with the effects and this did inspire the musical direction of anthropomorphic.

When my demo was accepted for the first em:t compilation, em:t 0094, we went into the studio again and coincidentally it was world AIDS day so I thought I should mention that on the sleeve notes as it did make me think a bit while we were recording.

Inspiration for ghost of catalonia was mainly from a holiday in Spain and some of the looping dialogue was recorded at Figueras near the Salvador Dali museum. The direct musical influences are really David Sylvian and the other former members of the pop group Japan and Ryuichi Sakamoto (What a genius, he deserved that Oscar more for his whole body of music I think.) I will probably put some of this stuff on the site cos I've been meaning to for ages and have been too busy!

Cheers, Richard Qubism Shepherd ▪

Charles from Chicago asked me about my inspiration for anthropomorphic and ghost of catalonia . I thought I would put my reply on hear for anyone who is interested. To answer your question abo… (more)

I am the artist Qubism . I notice you don't have too much info on Qubism other than that it was possibly a John Crossley project. I wrote all my stuff originally, gave my demo's to John who played them to Chris & Dave who then asked for an album. John and I went into the studio and we kind of did re-arrangements together, but the excellent production skills are all his.

I wonder if John has seen this site because today is the first time I've ever seen it! I hope, given a little time to write, I can contribute more info about the album, inspirations, sample origins(Don't know if thats a good idea though because I'm sure Prince has some big hot shot lawyers. No one spotted those samples then? Good!) It is a wonderful surprise to find this site. It is quite mindblowing to think that people might want some more info about Qubism.

I am going to get in touch with John to ask what he knows about the relaunch of emit (Is this true?!). We do have one finished unreleased track (3 mixes of it) (recorded just after the album). Maybe I can find a way to get it out to people. It's called anthropocentric, a kind of sequel to anthropomorphic . Maybe the person running this site should get in touch and I could send some scans of press stuff etc. & the qubism bookmark!

Bye for now, I'm sure I will return soon - Richard "qubism" Shepherd ▪

I am the artist Qubism . I notice you don't have too much info on Qubism other than that it was possibly a John Crossley project. I wrote all my stuff originally, gave my demo's … (more)