ARC are Ian Boddy (also DiN label boss) and Mark Shreeve, two veterans of the UK electronic music scene. Their music is deeply routed in the traditions of the German synthesizer music
of the 1970's and as such they employ a vast range of vintage analogue equipment not the least of which is Shreeve's massive Moog IIIC modular system. Although this is the duos sixth CD
release their concert appearances are rare occurrences with only three prior performances. So when the duo were asked to play at the Gatherings concert series in Philadelphia organised
by the Stars End radio show host Chuck van Zyl the logistics of staging such a show were considerable. Boddy had performed in Philadelphia four times previously ( three times at the
Gatherings and once with Robert Rich - React DiN29 ) and so knew there was an enthusiastic audience for this style of electronic music. However this was Shreeve's first Stateside concert
and with the impracticality of transporting so much vintage gear the duo were helped out by three local musicians who kindly lent the duo several synthesizers as well as analogue modular
& sequencing systems.
The concert itself was staged at St.Mary's Church in Philadelphia on 14th November 2009 which was a suitably atmospheric venue for the electronic music of ARC. The five long tracks span
the range of structured melodic sections, classically inspired space chords to improvised sequencer work-outs and prove once again that Shreeve & Boddy are masters of this form of
electronic music. Four of the tracks are completely new material with the fifth, Falling Through to Rapture having at it's core the sequencer section from the track Rapture which was the final track
of the duo's last studio album Fracture preceded and followed by two glorious sections of vast, spacey mellotron chords. The multi-track recordings from the concert have been mixed and mastered by
Shreeve to provide the listener with a thrilling ring side seat at was an inspired performance by this duo.
In November 2009 Ian Boddy & Mark Shreeve journeyed to the USA to play at The Gatherings Concert Series, St.Mary’s Church, Philadelphia. This was Boddy’s fifth appearence in Philadelphia but was the first time he had travelled with long time musical collaborator Mark Shreeve who was playing in the States for the first time. The Gatherings are organised by Chuck van Zyl who is also the host for the Star’s End radio show broadcast every Sunday morning from 1am - 6am on WXPN. Following their very well received performance on the Saturday evening at The Gatherings the duo moved across town to the modern, spacious WXPN studio to perform live on Star’s End. In front of a small group of helpers and friends ARC played from 2am till 3am with a totally improvised set of music. Boddy orchestrated and developed the architecture of the music from his laptop running Ableton Live whilst Shreeve played some gorgeous mellotron lines and produced a virtuoso display of live sequencing from the large analogue modular system kindly lent to ARC by local muscians.
The set was mixed back in the UK by Ian Boddy and nothing has been added or taken away. The audio has simply been cleaned up and balanced. The set is split into 3 sections with the aptly named first track Creep growing slowly and eerily into a dark, brooding slab of atmosphere. This gives way to the middle track Rise which features Shreeve’s sequencing throughout. Boddy adds some strange lurching drums and analogue white noise percussion and as the piece grows in intensity the pair take turns soloing on a Moog Voyager. Finally the last track Fade morphs from the dark atmospheres of the opening piece toward a blissful, relaxing close.
Rise is a unique document of this one-off live improvisation and shows how Shreeve & Boddy are masters of this style of electronic music. A short video clip of their performance has been posted to YouTube.
Rise is the seventh DiN download only release on the DiNDDL sub-label. It is available in lossless FLAC and high quality MP3 with full quality printable artwork from the MusicZeit download store co-run by DiN @
In September 2009 Ian Boddy & Markus Reuter released their third DiN collaboration Dervish (DiN33) which proved to be their most adventurous and experimental release to date. Pushing the envelope sonically from what many might have expected from these two talented but very different musicians they employed a wide range of guest musicians to create an incredible mix of tone colours. Pat Mastelotto the current drummer with King Crimson featured on four of the tracks whilst a combination of string quartet and recorders added to the unusual instrumentation on display on Dervish.
The inspiration for this album was the musical theories of 20th Century composer Olivier Messiaen. His 7 Modes of Limited Transposition were employed in each of the tracks on Dervish giving each an unusual tone colour and feel due to their exotic harmonic structures.
Dervish had some excellent press responses including the last track Spiral Manoeuvre being played on the well respected BBC Radio 3 show The Late Junction. There are a lot of ideas on Dervish and Boddy felt that a remix of the album was possible to highlight the mysterious and often piquant quality of Messiaen’s scales. However this was to be no ordinary remix project in that Boddy has completely stripped down and rebuilt the tracks from scratch. Gone are all the drums, percussion and solo instruments and instead he concentrated on the beautiful string quartet and woodwind recordings made for the album. Only small sections of these were used on Dervish but these together with Reuter’s harmonic touch guitar loops were used as the basis for what is essentially a legato album of music. Nothing new was added rather the existing material was rebuilt into a more spacey, ambient form with gorgeous reverbs and delays. Thus we have Unwound, certainly an experimental album but one which given the chance will reward the listener with a journey into a harmonic world of mystery and wonder.
Unwound is the sixth DiN download only release on the DiNDDL sub-label. It is available in lossless FLAC and high quality MP3 with full quality printable artwork from the MusicZeit download store co-run by DiN @
In April 1999 Ian Boddy formed the DiN electronic music label and the first 3 releases were released simultaneously. Prior to this Boddy had established himself as one of Europe's best known melodic synth artists with a string of albums and concerts to his credit. He had also begun to colloborate with other musicians such as Andy Pickford, Ron Boots and Mark Shreeve (as ARC) and during the 90's was releasing his albums on his private Something Else Records label. By the mid-90's the electronic music scene was evolving rapidly into many different new forms of expression and Boddy felt that he wanted to expand his sonic palette and collaborate more extensively with other musicians from other genres of music. With this in mind he set about establishing DiN as a fresh new label that could not only release his own solo and collaborative projects but also showcase other musicians who he admired and felt had something important to contribute to the world of electronic music. Much care and attention to the design philosophy of the look of the label, the cover designs and to it's identity was spent in establishing DiN as a recognizable brand that would appeal to collectors of quality music over the years. Indeed all the releases on DiN are of a strictly limited edition with no on-going represses further enhancing it's collectability.
It is now April 2009 and the latest album Shade by Parallel Worlds has just been released as DiN32. During the intervening releases Boddy has produced 5 solo albums and collaborated on a further 13 with musicians from a diverse range of styles ( Markus Reuter, Nigel Mullaney (as Dub Atomica), Chris Carter (of Throbbing Gristle), Mark Shreeve (as ARC), Robert Rich & Bernhard Wöstheinrich. There have also been 11 releases by other artists - Protogonos, Centrozoon, Surface 10, Subsonic Experience, dbkaos, Tetsu Inoue, Radio Massacre International, Hoffmann-Hoock & Wöstheinrich and Parallel Worlds. As part of the "DiN plan" every tenth release is a sampler disc containing a continuous mix of tracks from the previous 9 releases and thus there have been 3 of these iNDEX compilations so far. In fact the first one iNDEX01 (DiN10) was featured on the cover of the June 2001 issue of the well respected music magazine The Wire and helped DiN establish an international reputation. These sampler albums also see the DiN graphic style change for the next batch of releases so an evolution of the DiN albums is easy to follow.
DiN has thus established itself as one of the most innovative, interesting UK electronic music labels over these past 10 years. One of Boddy's main aims was to allow DiN to act as a bridge between the analogue sound world of the early 70's synth pioneers and the digtial soundscapes of the more experimental modern exponents of electronic music. DiN continues to embrace new technologies and with the download revolution in full swing has established a sub-label DiNDDL (DiN digital download) to produce a series of download only albums that will run alongside it's regular CD releases. There have been 5 of these so far and furthermore these and all of the DiN catalogue are also available on iTunes, EMusic and MusicZeit. Undoubetdly these are challenging times for independent labels but by continuing to evolve and release high quality music DiN is looking forward with relish to the next 10 years.
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of DiN the first sampler disc iNDEX01 (DiN10) that was featured on the cover of The Wire magazine in May 2001 is presented as a free download (256kbps MP3). The CD features 15 tracks covering the DiN1 - 9 releases, many of which are now out of print. The continuous mix features the music of Ian Boddy, Markus Reuter, Protogonos, Dub Atomica, Chris Carter, Centrozoon, ARC, Surface 10 & Nigel Mullaney. To get this free download please click on the cover of DiN10 above - the files will come to you as a Zip file - simply unzip to get the 15 MP3 tracks and enjoy the music.
The music is available in DRM free high quality MP3 (256kbps) or lossless FLAC files together with hi-quality printable artwork. The majority of Ian Boddy's non-DiN releases, other DiN artists and many more musicians and labels can be found at this excellent new site. Please go to http://www.musiczeit.com
