Simon Little

Thought I’d drop a quick post to let you know what’s been happening of late. Those of you that follow me on Twitter will already know that for the past few weeks I’ve been back at the National Theatre working on a new series of plays.

The series is called Double Feature, and we perform two short plays per night. There are four plays in total and they will eventually alternate each night. They are:

• Edgar & Annabel by Sam Holcroft
• The Swan by DC Moore
• Nightwatchman by Prasanna Puwanarajah
• There Is A War by Tom Basden

We’ve just finished three previews of the first two plays and are about to start technical rehearsals for the next two. The plays are being staged in the National Theatre’s Paint Frame which has been transformed into a unique performance space. This is the first time the space has been used to stage theatre and everyone is really excited about the project.

We have a four piece band drawn from the Duke Special gang. Our MD is Ben Castle and we are joined by Phil Wilkinson and Mark Edwards. We’ve got some great music and I’m getting a chance to play my Dano 63 again which has been great fun.

I really love working at the National on the Southbank. It’s one of my favourite parts of London. I’ve also been taking the opportunity to take lots of photos with the wonderful Hipstamatic for iPhone (my latest obsession). Here’s a few choice pics from the last couple of weeks…

The press nights are in a couple of weeks so there’s still a little while to go with previews. Hopefully see some of you there in the near future. The Double Feature runs until September 10th.

Until next time 🙂

ps. I had another lovely review for The Knowledge of Things To Come on Guitar Jar last week. You can read the review Here.

It’s official, my debut solo album Mandala is now available on CD!!

In fact I’ve just heard that a few lucky folk have already received the copies of the album I sent out yesterday afternoon. The postal system is obviously improving somewhat. I picked up a motherload of CDs from the lovely David at Key Production yesterday lunchtime and am so happy with the finished product.

The CD is exclusively available on my website (click here for a shortcut!). It comes lovingly packaged in an eco-friendly recycled card sleeve designed by my friend Symeon Cosburn with photos by Ary Vidot. The CD version also includes immediate download of the digital version of Mandala in whatever format you prefer (FLAC, 320k MP3 etc).

I keep getting asked about the record; what sort of music is it? Is it really just bass? So here is some of the info I’ve started sending out to give you some background…

Simon Little releases solo album Mandala

Having been experimenting with live-looping technology for the past few years, bassist Simon Little has now released his debut solo album Mandala.

Best known for his work with The Divine Comedy, Clare Teal and Duke Special, Simon has appeared on numerous recordings and this is his first release under his own name.

The entire album was recorded using solely his Warwick Thumb VI, a wide array of effects and a Looperlative LP1. Simon uses live looping to create ambient soundscapes as a basis for improvistion. He explains:

When I was 17 I was listening to the Weather Report live album 8:30 and heard Jaco perform his solo live-looping piece ‘Slang’. It changed the way I thought about playing the bass and so began my obsession with making music using the bass as a solo instrument.

Whilst I was studying at The Guildhall School, a friend introduced me to the fantastic Eberhard Weber album Pendulum. This album really opened my eyes to the possibilities of using live-looping technology to create vast soundscapes and textures as a basis for improvisation.

Mandala is the culmination of my ongoing experimentation with looping technology. Each track is a live improvisation using the Looperlative LP1.

Mandala is available now on CD or digital download via Bandcamp at Simon’s website http://music.simonlittlebass.com.

Some lovely people have also been asking how they can help promote the record and spread the word online. As you can imagine this is incredibly important for an independent release and I am a great believer in the power of Social Media. My best suggestions for anyone who likes the music is simply to tell your friends, tell your colleagues and tell your family via whatever method you prefer. I use Twitter and Posterous to share new musical discoveries and recommendations. Some people prefer Facebook or Delicious. Some people even prefer MySpace (!). One great way to let people hear the album is using the embeddable player from the Bandcamp page itself. Just click the Share button to copy and paste the code onto whatever page you’re using. Easy…

Big thanks to everybody that has bought and downloaded the album already. I’ve had some great feedback and hopefully will be getting a bit of press coverage in the near future.

Hope you’re all enjoying the music…

Simon x