I was probably never quite single minded enough for rock music. Had I spent half the time on arrangements and all that stuff that I spent on trying to get (& keep) my Synthi AKS in tune, Fragile Skies might have been a little more together. But they weren't, and neither was I. Around the time that FS were working on being at least a competent pub band, I spent more time working on ex-band drummer Paul Gallant's first solo opus, "Root of Earth". This, and the subsequent "Sound Windows" laid the ground work for three joint semi-improvised tapes, "Easter" (1989), "Level" (1991) & "Sense" (1993), all except Sense released on our joint label, Burrow Recordings.
	Easter was an accident. Recorded in very low-tech surroundings, somehow or the other it really worked. Basically a very dark series of improvisations based around a couple of synths and a lot of percussion, lifted by electric guitar from Peter Maydew, its limitations are clear, but I'm still very pleased with it. Easter was performed live at the first of the three "evening of unusual music" events we organised at Cambridge Carpenter's Hall, and the opening part of the title track was played at the Derby EMMA Festival in 1994, with the original lineup. Level suffered from "trying too hard". Whilst bits were more ambitious and more constructed than Easter, neither the technology nor our skill in operating it were really up to the challenge. Some parts worked though; the accidental church bells, the title track. We tried to remix it in 1993, but gave up in the end. It was impossible to play live. Level was significant for me, in that it was the first colour sleeve I produced on the Macintosh, using the pre-Photoshop PixelPaint. Sense was the culmination of our efforts. A near-professional sound, with carefully composed tracks based both on experimentation and discipline, along with some understanding of what we were actually doing, led to a tape which we could happily sell to people - and we did! The first track, Ritual Train (you can hear the second part here), was particularly well received. Sense led us to be invited to perform at the second (and biggest) EMMA festival in Derby, in 1994. Electing to play live (supplemented by Peter Maydew) rather than rely on DAT backings like most other people was possibly a mistake, but then so was asking us.

		Over the past few years, several projects have ended up slightly short of completion. In 1993 I put together a series of improvisations, to be called "Prospect". This never came to anything, although the artwork and master tapes were completed. The artwork (see right) was a bit of an in-joke, but I doubt that even the handful of people who could in theory guess what I was going on about would be able to penetrate the murk. Between 1994 and 1996 I recorded about an hour's worth of material for an AD Music CD to be called "Seaweed & Stars". This, again, never happened, mainly because other things overtook it, and I lost interest. I still admit to the existence of some of the music though, so here are bits of it: "Prospekt" (1993) : This track is, I think, the only thing I've ever composed entirely in my head. It was on a long, straight, deserted St Petersburg arterial road at around 1am in December 1992. "Coasting" (1994) : Remarkably upbeat and terse for me, even with the grafted on intro. "Seaweed & Stars" (1994): A complete rambling mess, although I like bits of it. Mostly composed on paper, believe it or not, and entered into a sequencer note by note. "Lilac Wall" (1996): The best thing I've ever recorded. Mostly on the bizarre EMS Polysynthi, thanks to Stephan Whitlan. They sound a bit strange through RealAudio, clever as it is...