John has been exploring electronic and electro-acoustic sounds for nearly 50 years. His first encounter was with an early valve version of a Watkins Electronic Music Copicat, a violin with a guitar pick up and an effects pedal. Later, whilst at music college he was able to access synthesisers the size of old telephone switchboards and reel to reel tape recorders with 10 yard tape loops around jam jars. Following many years of composing, performing, and recording as a jazz saxophonist, a clarinettist in various orchestras, John now spends much of his time with modular synthesisers. His formative music years were greatly influenced by the music of Cornelius Cardew, John Cage, and Luciano Berio as well as his guide and mentor R. Murray Schafer, Canadian composer and educator. John has composed music for film, radiophonic broadcasts, and theatre productions and was commissioned to produce the ‘Terra Nova’ suite celebrating the centenary of Scott’s expedition and first performed at The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. He plays a wide range of styles from keyboard-based synthesiser music to purely modular forms and ‘found sounds’ through field recordings. John also plays sax in a jazz trio and performed in the opening week of Symphony Hall in Birmingham. He is currently Composer/Musician-in-Residence for Birmingham Modular Organisation. John is currently working on a number of music projects including a tribute to Alvin Lucier, ‘The Glowing Moon and the Lonely Gardens’ inspired by the electronic music of Eliane Radigue, and ‘The Allotment project’ collecting sounds from gardens, windows boxes, etc from people all over the world. By day, John is Dr John, a Consultant in the field of Autism.

Recent electronic releases include, in 2020, ‘Structures’, in 2021 ‘Perambulations 1’ and in 2022, ‘Witch Tones’ all available at handmadesound.bandcamp.com and on CD.

Electro-acoustic music and jazz outputs remain exclusively in the live music domain.

Twitter: @handmadesound
Instagram: @handmadesound