HISTORY

My interest in electronic music was probably sparked by the Doctor Who theme by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Since then I have always found synthesized sounds or musique concrete more interesting than conventional performances. I started experimenting with making my own music in the '80s, and have never let a complete lack of performance skills stop me playing with synthesizers, sequencers, effects and recording systems.

I’ve done some live performances, some commercial work, and have released four cassette albums, but I never took the obvious step of releasing CDs because I didn’t see any commercial potential in them. Now it’s easy to make music available for download, I’m content to do that, but I may make limited edition CDs available with some extra material.

I try not to get tied down to any one style, but at heart I will always be a fan of the ‘Berlin School’ of cosmic synthesizer music and the ‘Dusseldorf School’ of techno-pop. A list of my influences would include most of the obvious names:

Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze
Jean Michel Jarre, Michael Hoenig
Manuel Gottsching, Neuronium,
Mark Shreeve, Robert Schroeder

and on the synth-pop side:

Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, John Foxx, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Telex, Depeche Mode, Human League, Blancmange, Cabaret Voltaire, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Robert Marlow, Propaganda, Pet Shop Boys

in rock music:

Mike Oldfield, Can, Gong, Camel, ELP, Hawkwind, Rick Wakeman

and in neo-classical:

Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen

 

RELEASES

​Four cassette albums were released in very small quantities, mainly sold at UK Electronica and other events. They are all now available as digital downloads from Bandcamp, as is TechnoFuture, a collection of unreleased recordings from around 1989/1990.
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1980: Industry
1988: Fantômas

1989: Technofuture
1991: Fractal Visions

1992: Videospace

EQUIPMENT

​I have used a wide range of instruments over the years, but have now had to dispose of most of my unreliable analogue equipment such as the MiniMoog, Elka Synthex, ARP Odyssey and Yamaha CS-60, in favour of more reliable virtual analogue and digital equipment. I do use VST instruments, but I don’t really enjoy using them as much as I do playing with hardware.

Krystle Studio partial gear list:

Roland: D70, Jupiter 4, D550, MKS70, JD990, JV2080, TR808, TR727, CR78, MC505, Model 104 Sequencer
Korg: Prophecy, M1REX, DW/EX8000, Micro Preset, Wavestation SR, MS1000R, Triton Rack
Akai: S2800 sampler

Emu: Proteus 1000

Yamaha: TX802, TX816, TX7, RM1X, AW4416 mixer
Doepfer: A100 modular, MAQ16/3 sequencers
Alesis: SR16​

Ensoniq: ESQ1M
Casio: CZ-101, VZ10M
Quasimidi: Rave-o-Lution, Technox, Quasar
Waldorf: Microwave XT, MicroQ
Oberheim: OB-12, Matrix 1000, Minisequencer
Simmons: SDSV
Novation: Xiosynth, Supernova II, A-Station, DrumStation
Generalmusic: S3, S2R, Equinox
Kawai: K1R, K4R, K5000R
Tascam: MM1 Mixers
Technics: SX-WSA1R​

Apple: iMac

Digidesign: MBox Pro 2

Atari: 1040ST
Steinberg: Cubase software

Pearl: Syncussion

Dubreq: Stylophone Gen-X1

Quark: MIDILink

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- plus assorted effects units, drum machines, syndrums, MIDI controllers, accompaniment instruments and PC accessories.