Nick Pynn
Encyclopedia
Nick Pynn is a British
musician
and composer
noted for his use of bass pedals and live looping with electroacoustic stringed instruments. His early interests were in world folk and experimental music, busking around Germany
and the Netherlands
, having taught himself guitar
and fiddle
.
, recording
sessions (including rockabilly
legend Ray Campi
) and television commercials. In the mid-80s, Pynn studied musical instrument
making, producing several instruments he still plays and records with now.
Pynn joined Steve Harley
in 1990 on acoustic guitar
and fiddle, taking the lead guitar
role in 1996. The 'Stripped to the Bare Bones' tour of 1998 with Pynn accompanying Harley on mandocello
, dulcimer
, acoustic guitar and violin
was a success; a CD
Stripped to the Bare Bones-Live from the Jazz Café
, London
was released, and the two-man show received a 5 star review at the Edinburgh Festival
.
Pynn’s debut solo
CD In Mirrored Sky
(1995) is a collection of autumnal pieces, and features bass
player Herbie Flowers
and Adrian Oxaal
of James
on cello
. Flowers introduced Pynn to Richard Durrant
, which led to the joint album Nick and Dick (1997). Music from Windows followed in 1999. Its theme is summer, with melodies drifting from open windows in Brighton streets. The album ends with four pieces commissioned for a dance performance: 'Flood'. These two solo albums were re-released in 2007 as a double album
.
In 1999, Pynn joined girl band B*Witched for a tour of UK
arenas. One of the highlights of the tour was Pynn being hoisted high above the stage
in a 'metal cage' for a fiddle solo.
Pynn then started playing with the new acoustic
version of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
. In 2002, the band opened for Robert Plant
's Dreamland
tour and double-billed on tour with The Pretty Things
. Pynn still plays with Brown as a two man show, and contributes most of the instrumentation and arrangement
s on their new album The Voice of Love.
In August 2001, Pynn went to Edinburgh
with The Life and Death Orchestra for a Festival
production of poetry
, written by survivors of the Holocaust put to music
. During the second half of the month, he joined American
Perrier Award winning comedian
Rich Hall
in his band, Otis Lee Crenshaw and The Black Liars. Pynn also met Jane Bom-Bane
, and together they wrote
and produced
Rotator, a CD of palindromic
(forwards and backwards) song
s for 2002, and the Fringe show 'Year of the Palindrome'.
Pynn premiered a solo show in 2003 called 'Music from Hotels Rooms, Forests and Submarines'. Using wine glasses, playing cards and live sampling, in addition to his various stringed instruments, his show was well received and was nominated for an award. In May 2004 Pynn's third solo album Afterplanesman was released. In the following year at the Edinburgh Festival, Pynn won a 'Spirit of the Fringe Award' for his music.
The latter part of 2006 saw a successful two-man show tour of Germany
, Norway
, Michigan
and Toronto
with Arthur Brown, and shows with comedian Boothby Graffoe
. 2007 started with sell-out shows
at the Sydney Opera House
with The Lost and Found Orchestra
(a creation of Stomp
) in which Pynn played musical saw, bed bass, bellows organ, bottle bellows, metallophone, traffic-cone berimbau and squonkaphone amongst other instruments. Later that year, Pynn won the 'Star of the Festival Award' in Brighton
, and was co-winner of the 'ThreeWeeks
Editor's Award' with Jane Bom-Bane. In November he played solo shows in Dubai
and Abu Dhabi
.
Pynn regularly performs at the café venue he co-runs with Jane Bom-Bane in Brighton. where an orchestra was recorded 'one at a time' for a new album of original Pynn compositions The Colours of the Night released in October 2009.
Collaborations
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
noted for his use of bass pedals and live looping with electroacoustic stringed instruments. His early interests were in world folk and experimental music, busking around Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, having taught himself guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
.
Career
His early work includes playing with various bandsBand (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
, recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
sessions (including rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
legend Ray Campi
Ray Campi
Ray Campi is a distinguished musician often called The King of Rockabilly. Campi's trademark is his white double bass, which he often jumps on top of and "rides" while playing....
) and television commercials. In the mid-80s, Pynn studied musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
making, producing several instruments he still plays and records with now.
Pynn joined Steve Harley
Steve Harley
Steve Harley is an English singer and songwriter, best known for his work with the 1970s rock group Cockney Rebel, with whom he still occasionally tours .-Biography:As a child, Harley suffered from polio, spending four years in hospital up to the...
in 1990 on acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
and fiddle, taking the lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
role in 1996. The 'Stripped to the Bare Bones' tour of 1998 with Pynn accompanying Harley on mandocello
Mandocello
The mandocello is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It has eight strings in four paired courses, tuned in 5ths like a mandolin, but is larger, and tuned CC-GG-dd-aa . It is to the mandolin what the cello is to the violin.-Construction:Mandocello construction is similar to the...
, dulcimer
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...
, acoustic guitar and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
was a success; a CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
Stripped to the Bare Bones-Live from the Jazz Café
Jazz Café
The Jazz Café is a music venue in Parkway in Camden Town, London, England. It opened in 1990, in the former premises of Barclays Bank, and has been run by Mean Fiddler Music Group since 1992, now a subsidiary of the MAMA Group.-History:...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
was released, and the two-man show received a 5 star review at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
.
Pynn’s debut solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
CD In Mirrored Sky
In Mirrored Sky
In Mirrored Sky is the debut studio album from multi-instrumentalist and composer Nick Pynn.Re-issued August 2007 as a double package with the follow-up 'Music from Windows'.-Track listing:# "In Osnabrück"# "Glide"# "Through Trees"# "The Mill"...
(1995) is a collection of autumnal pieces, and features bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
player Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers is an English musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba. He is noted as a member of Blue Mink, T...
and Adrian Oxaal
Adrian Oxaal
Adrian Oxaal is an English musician and music educator, best known for being the lead guitarist in James between 1997 and 2002. He has also played with the bands Sharkboy and Goat.-Early years, and work with Goat:...
of James
James (band)
James are a British rock band from Manchester, England. They formed in 1982 and were active throughout the 1980s, but most successful during the 1990s. Their hit singles include "Come Home", "Sit Down", and "She's a Star" as well as their American College Radio hit "Laid"...
on cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
. Flowers introduced Pynn to Richard Durrant
Richard Durrant
Richard Durrant, Dip RCM, ARCM, FLCM is an English guitarist & multi-instrumentalist. He studied guitar, cello, and composition at the Royal College of Music and has since performed a mix of all guitar styles - classical, pop, jazz, folk. He also runs the indie acoustic LongMan Records company...
, which led to the joint album Nick and Dick (1997). Music from Windows followed in 1999. Its theme is summer, with melodies drifting from open windows in Brighton streets. The album ends with four pieces commissioned for a dance performance: 'Flood'. These two solo albums were re-released in 2007 as a double album
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
.
In 1999, Pynn joined girl band B*Witched for a tour of UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
arenas. One of the highlights of the tour was Pynn being hoisted high above the stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
in a 'metal cage' for a fiddle solo.
Pynn then started playing with the new acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
version of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Arthur Brown
-Association footballers:*Arthur Brown , English international football inside right who played for Aston Villa in the 1870s and 1880s....
. In 2002, the band opened for Robert Plant
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...
's Dreamland
Dreamland (Robert Plant album)
Dreamland is singer Robert Plant's seventh solo album and the first with the band "Strange Sensation". The album was released in July 2002.Many of the songs are cover versions, mainly blues, but also some rock...
tour and double-billed on tour with The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things
The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...
. Pynn still plays with Brown as a two man show, and contributes most of the instrumentation and arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
s on their new album The Voice of Love.
In August 2001, Pynn went to Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
with The Life and Death Orchestra for a Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
production of poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, written by survivors of the Holocaust put to music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
. During the second half of the month, he joined American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Perrier Award winning comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Rich Hall
Rich Hall
Richard "Rich" Hall is an American comedian, writer and musician.-Early life and career:Hall was born in Alexandria, Virginia and grew up in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He is part Cherokee Indian...
in his band, Otis Lee Crenshaw and The Black Liars. Pynn also met Jane Bom-Bane
Jane Bom-Bane
Jane Bom-Bane is a singer, songwriter and poet who accompanies herself on harmonium and guitar. Sometimes she wears mechanical hats which illustrate her songs....
, and together they wrote
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Rotator, a CD of palindromic
Palindrome
A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction, with general allowances for adjustments to punctuation and word dividers....
(forwards and backwards) song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
s for 2002, and the Fringe show 'Year of the Palindrome'.
Pynn premiered a solo show in 2003 called 'Music from Hotels Rooms, Forests and Submarines'. Using wine glasses, playing cards and live sampling, in addition to his various stringed instruments, his show was well received and was nominated for an award. In May 2004 Pynn's third solo album Afterplanesman was released. In the following year at the Edinburgh Festival, Pynn won a 'Spirit of the Fringe Award' for his music.
The latter part of 2006 saw a successful two-man show tour of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
with Arthur Brown, and shows with comedian Boothby Graffoe
Boothby Graffoe
Boothby Graffoe is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies approximately 7 miles south of Lincoln, on A607 . It's population is approximately 400....
. 2007 started with sell-out shows
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
at the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
with The Lost and Found Orchestra
Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra
Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra is a music based physical theatre piece created by the founders of the percussive theatre show Stomp, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas....
(a creation of Stomp
Stomp
Stomp may refer to:*Stomp , a downwards kick using the heel*Stomp , a percussive physical theatre troupe*Stomp Records, a record label now part of Union Label Group*Stomp Entertainment, an Australian entertainment group...
) in which Pynn played musical saw, bed bass, bellows organ, bottle bellows, metallophone, traffic-cone berimbau and squonkaphone amongst other instruments. Later that year, Pynn won the 'Star of the Festival Award' in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, and was co-winner of the 'ThreeWeeks
ThreeWeeks
ThreeWeeks is a newspaper that covers the Brighton and Edinburgh Festivals in May and August respectively.It has covered the Edinburgh Festival since 1996 and the Brighton Festival since 2006.- Education Programme :...
Editor's Award' with Jane Bom-Bane. In November he played solo shows in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
and Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
.
Pynn regularly performs at the café venue he co-runs with Jane Bom-Bane in Brighton. where an orchestra was recorded 'one at a time' for a new album of original Pynn compositions The Colours of the Night released in October 2009.
Selective discography
Solo recordings- In Mirrored Sky (Roundhill RHLCD43) 1995
- Music from Windows (Roundhill RHLCD99) 1999
- Afterplanesman (Roundhill ROUND004) 2004
- In Mirrored Sky / Music from Windows (Roundhill ROUND007) reissued as double package in August 2007
- The Colours of the Night (Roundhill rhlcd09) 2009
Collaborations
- Nick And Dick The acoustic collaborations of Nick Pynn & Richard Durrant (LongMan 026CD) 1997; re-issued 2006
- Rotator (Roundhill ROUND2002) Nick Pynn and Jane Bom-Bane 2002