Artist Spotlight is our regular feature introducing you to Cities and Memory artists around the world with an in-depth interview. In this edition, we introduce you to Edinburgh-based musician Simon Holmes, whose songwriting-based approach to working with field recordings has lit up several recent Cities and Memory projects.

I am a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and field recordist where narrative is at the centre of all my work. This can be from the lyric of a song, the feel of a piece of music or the basis of a field recording. It is important that my work is able to tell a story and find a space in the world by evoking visual imagery which the listener can connect with.

This has been particularly important for my Cities and Memory submissions where I try to represent the field recording by creating a narrative to help people relate with the subject matter of the project.

An element which flows through all of my music is vocal harmony. I find the voice really helps guide and focus my creative practice. I see it as another instrument working alongside the piano and guitar for instance, rather than simply being there to present the melody and lyric. Vocal harmonies help me convey certain emotions, feelings and sentiments which I feel are often difficult to generate in other ways.

I am always writing and recording music, from my early days in rock and indy bands to my current Cities and Memory tracks.

Here are couple of examples of my work which helped shape my more recent compositions:

I used to perform under the name Stanton Delaplane where I really developed harmonisation within my song writing. I used a Boss RC-20 Loopstation to build choral loops as the basis of each song. ‘Mary Wade’ and ‘Concrete’ were two of my favourite tracks which can be found on the Stanton Delaplane Soundcloud page:

I was lucky enough to be commissioned to write music for the global touring artwork ‘Museum of the Moon’. The original score was a simple 8 bar piece of choral music called 66:23. I asked each member of the choir to interpret the tempo of each 2 bar phrase in their own way which created a beautiful ethereal choral drone representing the lunar landscape.

As a field recordist I enjoy exploring my local area. Edinburgh is perfect because of its rich history. As part of the Cities and Memory Sonic Heritage project I submitted a recording of trains crossing the Forth Road Bridge which is an iconic structure I see virtually every day.

The interview continues below ⬇️, and this map collects together all of Simon’s contributions to Cities and Memory: 

I live by the sea in north-east Edinburgh. Portobello represents a space between the urban sprawl and nature and the sounds reflect this.

I can walk across the High Street listening to the traffic and bustle of the morning rush hour and five minutes later be walking along the beach listening to the waves and the call of oyster catchers and curlews. It’s a truly magical place to live and listen to.

I can’t remember not having sound and music in my life. I grew up in a very musical household where singing and the piano were constants. I learnt piano and brass at a young age where I remember playing in the Derby Youth Brass Band and experiencing what could happen when 30 players got together in a room and finding my place in that sound.

Likewise, singing in choirs and smaller choral groups helped me discover how close vocal harmonies could create sensations within me that no other medium could.

These experiences really fed my love of vocal harmony which continues to be a focus of my work today. At the age of 14 I bought my first Stratocaster copy and the rest, as they say, is history.

I love listening, thinking and ‘finding my way into’ a music project.

I spend a good deal of time exploring ideas and themes, hoping a creative direction becomes clear and then getting THAT moment when the instrumentation, vocal melody and lyric just work. It’s such an amazing feeling when it all comes together and I listen to the final mix.

I released an album in 2022 as one half of choral-electronica duo ‘Holmes + atten Ash’ called ‘Saturnian’. This was through Edinburgh label ‘Blackford Hill’ with my Bristol based pal Paul Nash. I had a number of years after my children were born where I simply didn’t have the space and found I had a creative block. ‘Saturnian’ was an important project because I rediscovered my ability to write again as well as reigniting my love for musical collaboration.

The album was written and recorded remotely during Covid and I continue to be really proud of what we created. Its a suite of 13 tracks based around the moons of Saturn and available via the Blackford Hill Bandcamp Store as a digital album or 12 inch vinyl.

I have really enjoyed working with and reimagining the field recordings from the various Cities and Memory projects I have been involved in.

There are two pieces that I am particularly proud of: The first is ‘I am the Air’ from the 2023 Autumn Project where I discovered my way of working within the Cities and Memories framework. I tried a number of ways of using, sampling and effecting the original recording but nothing seemed to work for me. Eventually I decided to go back to my roots as an acoustic songwriter. It came together beautifully, paving the way I would work with recordings for future projects. It was also selected for the Sounds of the Year Album 2023.

Another track that I am particularly proud of is ‘Foam and Flow’ which made its way onto the Bandcamp release for the Migration Sounds project. The project really resonated with me because it was so current and such an important topic. Being able to travel to Oxford and hear the track playing in the Pitt Rivers Museum was the icing on the cake.

My musical tastes are extremely eclectic but I am a sucker for a good tune. I have a lot of favourite artists and songs covering many genres.

As a dad of two teenage girls you can only image who I have become very familiar with and grown to love!

The soundscape of the mountains – I have loved the mountains for many years. When I was younger I was always obsessed with getting to the top of a munro, which is a commendable past time, but I missed so much about what being there actually meant.

When I had children I wanted to introduce them to the mountains as soon as I could and started taking them out as soon as they could walk. This coincided with the time I became aware of ‘The Living Mountain’ by Nan Shepherd where she talks about being ‘in’ rather than ‘on’ the mountains. This made me reassess my experiences, and my time in the mountains became much slower, allowing me to listen and look in more depth.

I fell in love with the serenity of the mountain soundscape (wind, rain, birds, moving grass, water, etc.) and how the quality and perception of the sounds changed when I walked deeper into the hills. I continue to love the feeling this brings.

My Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro Headphones which I have used for around 20 years. They look rather worn and frayed at the edges but they work beautifully. I really trust what I hear when I record and mix. They are like old friends.

My Rode NT2-A is the only studio mic I have ever owned and have used it for all of my releases. Its fantastic for all elements of studio recording and particularly helps with the rich vocal sound which I love.

I have a new project called ‘Three Field Lines’ with artist and musician Andrew J Brooks focussing on improvising to field recordings. I am on euphonium and voice with Andrew on bass saxophone, both augmented with an array of loop and effects pedals.

We firstly take a field recording from either the urban or nature setting and then randomly select a common key signature to base our improvisation. We try and react by translating what we hear into layered audio from the instruments and effects. This results in a number of unique performances which we are currently developing.