Still Life by Amongst Myselves

In the late 80's and during the early 90's he diversified into playing keyboards and guitars in many local bands of which the guitar based post-punk "Spaghetti Machete" and "The Lost Tribe of Ubobo" were successful with regular appearances at some of Adelaide's old haunts like the Royal Admiral Hotel, Royal Oak, Exeter, Austral and the Tivoli. The styles of music were very eclectic ranging from a late punk sound through to world music. Four cassettes of music were produced and sold for both groups.

During the 90's he became more aware of neu-Ambient like Future Sound of London, Steve Roach, Robert Rich and Aphex Twin not to mention a new interest in the Eno's. So with the help of advances is computer based synths he took a great interest in the ambient/new age/drone arena.

Amongst Myselves released "The Sun In The Bottle" in 1999 which was a retrospective of pieces written during the previous four years. The style of this album was definitely new age in its basis with a hint of electro-acoustics as heard on tracks "Before Now" and "The Last Woman on Lysithea". "The Sun in the Bottle" had extensive airplay in Europe and the USA.

During 1999 and 2000 he started work on "Still Life" feeling at ease with the ambient/space/drone direction his work is taking. There are still reflections of new age coming through but as reviewer Hans Stoeve of PowerSpot FM mentions in his review of "Still Life" - "....he has resisted the urge to compose dramatic music".

Meanwhile, at the end of 2000 AquaFM released the first of many compilations titled "ambient@hyperreal.com 01" on which appearred an unreleased piece by Amongst Myselves titled "5am Melbourne 1996". This piece was planned to be part of his 3rd release "Sacred Black". He has also submitted a couple of tracks from "Still Life" for the next compilation.

The success of "Still Life" led Australian radio program "Ultima Thule" to contract Amongst Myselves to create their new opening theme based on the "Still Life" track "Ship of Dreams". During 2002 the 2 cd compilation "ambient@hyperreal.com 02" was released containing the title track from "Still Life", "Ra's Playground".

Amongst Myelves' last release was in June 2001 with the CD "Still Life". "Still Life" was a great success for Amongst Myselves. The styles of music explored in the CD gave him a direction to follow for upcoming releases. This CD was well supported in the US especially by Chuck Van Zyl's "Stars End" program. This is when Amongst Myselves took the whole music thing seriously and spent much time and money in producing a high quality product.

Chuck Van Zyl said "When compared to a gallery walk, this album becomes a collection of sonic vignettes ranging from the serene to the brash, the muddled to the crystalline, from calm to stormy and ultimately more interesting with each visit." and David J Opdyke explains "he paints still life's offworld audioimagery with bold strokes from his wide studio palette, decorating here and there with subtler sweeps."

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