Stay in touch
Good things.
Occasionally.
New music, live shows, podcast discoveries and the occasional ticket offer. A few words from me when there’s something worth sharing.
For those who like to dig a little deeper
More work & full credits
Recordings, scores, shows, collaborators and a few less sensible things. There’s more about the studio here too.
Scores, themes & songs
- My Friend Maisy
- Title theme and We Can Do Anything. Other series music by Tom Haines. Watch and listen.
- Cold Call
- Score for the Channel 5 drama (2019).
- Pistol
- Additional music for Danny Boyle’s series (2022).
- Extreme Diet Hotel
- Music for the Channel 4 series (2018).
- Advertising
- Work for clients including Bird’s Eye, Ambrosia and the National Lottery. For the Lottery’s 25th anniversary advert, I arranged, recorded and produced the brass and drum parts.
- Production music
- Soul, jazz and afrobeat-influenced tracks for Felt, alongside other production music. Listen and find licensing details.
- Nosferatu
- An entirely live, improvised score at ALSO Festival (2025), with no loops or prerecorded samples. Watch the performance.
- Autistic Joy
- Score and sound for Maddi Crease’s film (2024).
- First Impressions
- An original score using sounds recorded in Margate, for Theatre Royal Margate (2010).
- Songs and comedy
- Annabelle’s Skirtingboard Adventure with Howard Read, The Santa Claus Science Experiment, and two songs developed for Songs for the Hall at Wilton’s Music Hall and Snape Maltings (2020). The planned production was cancelled during the pandemic.
- Podcasts
- Music for projects with Lulu Popplewell and Alexander Bennett, and for Born Yesterday.
Playing & recording credits
I’ve played or recorded with artists including Kelis, Sam Smith, Paul Epworth, John Paul Jones, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, The Cure, Paloma Faith, Jamie Cullum, Baaba Maal, Roni Size, Jarvis Cocker, Kojey Radical, Bugge Wesseltoft, Angélique Kidjo, Mulatu Astatke, Last Skeptik, Billy Bragg, Charlotte Church, Azekel, Eliza Doolittle, Eric Idle, Redlight and Jim Bob. Some of those projects also involved arranging.
- Hackney Colliery Band
- Band leader, trumpet, composing, arranging and co-production. Albums include Common Decency, Sharpener, LIVE and both volumes of Collaborations.
- Jim Moray
- Layered cornet, flugel, tenor horn and baritone for Spencer the Rover. Watch the official video.
- Theatre
- The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare’s Globe (2025), Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre (2022), and West End and touring work including Elvis.
- Acoustic instruments & electronics
- Trumpet with delays, harmonisers, sampling and live processing, including my collaboration with Harriet Mackenzie and performances with Hackney Colliery Band.
Musical direction & arranging
- For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music
- Arranging, playing and leading the end-credit band, alongside music consultancy and mixing for the Cosmic Shambles documentary series. Explore the series.
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Musical director, orchestrator and performer for Sean Holmes’s Shakespeare’s Globe production (2019 and 2021), with music by Jim Fortune.
- Robin Ince & Brian Cox
- Musical direction and arrangements for live shows, including Hammersmith Apollo and Space Shambles at the Royal Albert Hall (2018). Performances have included Robert Smith and Brian Cox on The Lovecats, Eric Idle on Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and Chris Hadfield on Space Oddity.
- Arrangements for artists
- Work with Billy Bragg, Sam Smith, Roni Size, Scroobius Pip, Jim Bob and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, among others.
- Hackney Colliery Band
- Arrangements and commissions including Sky Arts, BBC Four, the Imperial War Museum and the London 2012 closing ceremony.
- Roundhouse
- Musical direction and co-arranging for Puffball (2014), and work on On Mass with Jamie Cullum and Tim Exile (2015) and Angélique Kidjo (2017).
- Bollywood Brass Band
- 100 Years of Bollywood (2013–2015).
- Theatre & comedy
- Music and sound for The Santa Claus Science Experiment (2013–2014); co-created Annabelle’s Skirtingboard Adventure with Howard Read (2015, touring until 2017); work on Victoria Melody’s Ugly Chief (2017).
Workshops, teaching & education
- World Music Big Band
- Musical director since 2024. A workshop band with players of different experience levels and a professional rhythm section, performing at the Vortex. Meet the band.
- University teaching
- Undergraduate trumpet and improvisation at Goldsmiths and Brunel; arranging and music technology for master’s students at London College of Music (2025).
- Workshops & masterclasses
- Projects with the Roundhouse, Royal Opera House, Nottingham Trent University and Hackney Empire, and a masterclass with the Household Cavalry.
- Collaborative projects
- Artist in residence at ACS Cobham (2014), and work with an unauditioned collaborative band for Oslo’s Mela Festival (2012–2014).
Production, recording & mixing
- Spanner Big Band
- A Load of Old Toot!! (2024): production, mixing and mastering. Listen to the album.
- Bollywood Brass Band & Jyotsna Srikanth
- Carnatic Connection (2016) and A Day in Bangalore (2018): production and mixing. Carnatic Connection was nominated for Best Group at the 2017 Songlines Music Awards and included in Songlines’ 2020 selection of 50 greatest world-music albums of the previous five years.
- Hackney Colliery Band
- Co-production on Common Decency, Sharpener, LIVE and Collaborations: Volume One and Volume Two; mixing on selected Collaborations tracks.
- Ubermanoeuvre
- Loud Music for Awesome People (2020): production and mixing.
- Oompah Brass
- Christmas EP (2018): recording, production, mixing and mastering.
- Moir
- Up Without a Down (2017): production through the Roundhouse mentoring programme.
- Film, speech & podcasts
- Mixing for the feature documentary Rapid Motion; music consultancy and mixing for For the Record; podcast and spoken-word work including Answer Me This! and Lulu Popplewell, alongside podcast production for the World Bank.
- Other recording work
- Music education resources for Warwick Music; recordings with Little Woolly Vision; comedy videos and work for Ergon Associates.
- Mastering
- Projects include Ziyah’s Tales of Ordinary Madness (2020) and Oompah Brass’s Christmas EP (2018).
Inside the studio
My Hackney studio is where I record, arrange, mix, experiment and film. It’s set up for remote sessions as well as working together in the room.
- Monitoring
- Genelec The Ones and subwoofer, a 7.1.4 monitoring setup, Avantone MixCubes and other speakers for checking how a mix translates.
- Microphones
- Coles 4038, Townsend Labs Sphere, DPA, Shure, Oktava, Avantone and sE microphones, plus contact and underwater microphones.
- Preamps & outboard
- Neve Portico II, Thermionic Culture Rooster, SSL SiX, Eventide H9000, Tegeler Crème and Schwerkraftmaschine. Focusrite RED/RedNet and Universal Audio interfaces.
- Recording & editing
- Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton Live and LUNA, with tools including RX and Melodyne. Dorico and Sibelius for scores, and Premiere for video.
- Acoustic instruments
- Fender Rhodes 54, upright piano, trumpets, flugel, cornet, tenor and baritone horns, trombone, drums, hand percussion, cajon, whistles, pipes, chromatic shruti box, cimbalom and conch shells.
- Synths & controllers
- Moog Matriarch, Expressive E Osmose, Arturia PolyBrute, OP-1, Organelle, Folktek Resonant Garden, SOMA Pipe, DrumBrute Impact, Ableton Move, Ableton Push 3 Standalone and Roland V-Drums.
- Processing & other possibilities
- Eventide H9000 and H9, SOMA Cosmos, Beetlecrab Tempera, Torso S-4, Replicator tape delay, Vermona Retroverb Lancet, Landscape Stereo Field and Boss SY-300, alongside software instruments and effects.
- Filming
- Cameras and lighting for podcast conversations, performances and demonstrations, with audio recording and video editing in the same workspace.
If a project depends on a particular instrument, format or setup, drop me a line and we can check the details together.
Live shows & other experiments
- On the Origin of the Pieces
- An Arts Council England-supported solo show at Wilton’s Music Hall in 2019 grew into the podcast in 2023 and regular live shows with guests. Explore the episodes.
- Universe of Music
- Music and astronomy with Professor Chris Lintott, including Cheltenham Science Festival. Watch and find out more.
- Soundbox
- My duo with harpist Valeria Clarke, exploring acoustic instruments, electronics and improvisation. Watch the performances.
- Music & astronomy
- Work with Chris Lintott for Gresham College, and with Matt Russo on music inspired by a planet 600 light years away.
- A rather unusual Christmas record
- Made for Robin Ince’s 24-hour Christmas show in 2020, using sounds contributed by the show and its audience. Listen to One Lesson and Carol.
- Brass for Africa
- A remote collaboration involving Mustardseed School in Kampala, Magdalen College School and Hackney Colliery Band (2021).
- Comedy & solo shows
- Two hour-long Edinburgh solo shows, appearances at the Alternative Comedy Memorial Society and Distraction Club, and occasional attempts to make shells funny.
Extremely impressive qualifications
A few certificates I have kept
Step 1 piano. Grade 4 flugelhorn. BAGA level 3. Amersham Scout Quest more than three times. I do have actual qualifications too, but these seemed worth keeping.
Scores · Themes · Songs
Music for screen and stage
I write scores, themes and songs for television, film, animation and theatre. Live acoustic instruments, sampling and electronics all find their way in; the sound grows out of the story.
Talk to me about a score, theme or songMy Friend Maisy
Theme/title music and We Can Do Anything
Five notes, a short opening sequence, and a much bigger musical world. I composed the title theme, then developed it into the full song We Can Do Anything. Working with the sounds of children’s playground instruments and toy boxes was an interesting challenge, and great fun.
Theme/title music by Steve Pretty. Other series music by Tom Haines.
Hear the story behind the five notes on the podcast ↗︎
From playground chimes to a full song
The starting point was the major pentatonic scale: five notes familiar from playground chimes and children’s instruments. Here’s the idea in action.
Cold Call
Original score · Channel 5 drama
Live acoustic instruments meet sampling and electronics: a different side of my writing from the bright, compact world of Maisy.
Extended score selection · 14:42. Hear individual cues ↗︎
Autistic Joy
Composition & sound design · short poetry film
Music and sound design for Maddi Crease’s film, built around the poem and picture.
Advertising
Music for the small screen
Previous clients include
Talk to me about music for a campaign →
Music for licensing
Production music
I also write production music for licensing. These tracks for Felt draw on soul, jazz and afrobeat, with plenty of room for the trumpet. Try Turn It Up, or explore the tracks and licensing details below.
Playing on production music
Layering trumpet parts for Future Pop’s Brass-Infused Pop, working with Ed Haydon. Different horns, mouthpieces, microphone models and room sounds help each part find its own place in the section.
Hear the production-music album ↗︎
Turn It Up ↗︎
Nu-jazz and soul, with vocals and a trumpet solo.
Call to the Source ↗︎
An afrobeat-inspired instrumental, opening with trumpet and Rhodes.
Double Down ↗︎
An afrobeat-inspired instrumental with a laid-back groove.
Live scores, theatre & other experiments
More musical worlds
Podcast theme · Born Yesterday
I wrote the theme music for Born Yesterday, Alexander Bennett and Andy Barr’s comedy podcast. Two comedians clone themselves, then invite guests to explain the world to the results.
Nosferatu · a score made live
An entirely live, improvised score for Murnau’s silent film, recorded at ALSO Festival in 2025. Every sound was made there and then: no loops or prerecorded samples. Trumpet, wind, percussion and live processing, shaped in the moment as the film unfolded.
Theatre, children’s songs & comedy
For First Impressions at Theatre Royal Margate, I sampled local sounds and worked them into the score. Other projects include Annabelle’s Skirtingboard Adventure with Howard Read, The Santa Claus Science Experiment, and songs for Wilton’s Music Hall.
Music, astronomy & a rather unusual Christmas record
A collaboration with Chris Lintott for his Gresham College lecture:
Improvising with a planetary system 600 light years away ↗︎
One Lesson and Carol was made during Robin Ince’s 24-hour live show, from samples of the show and contributions from its audience.
Listen to One Lesson and Carol ↗︎Explore the full composition catalogue →
More cues, production-music reels, theatre scores, arrangements and collaborations.
Selected theatre & television credits
Additional music for Danny Boyle’s Pistol; an original score for First Impressions at Theatre Royal Margate; brass and drum arrangement, recording and production for the National Lottery’s 25th anniversary advert.
Musical direction, orchestration and trumpet for A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe, with music by Jim Fortune. Music consultancy and mixing for For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music.
Explore recording & production →Live shows · Conversations · Musical adventures
Live shows & presenting
I make shows about music, and the rather extraordinary things people do with it. There’s live playing, conversation, the occasional experiment, and usually at least one instrument that needs explaining.
I’m available for live shows, festival appearances, hosting and conversations with guests. Music is the starting point; science, history and the odd unexpected noise tend to find their way in.
Talk to me about an eventA show for musically curious people
On the Origin of the Pieces
What makes a sound become music? Why can a few notes make us dance, cry or remember something we thought we’d forgotten? On the Origin of the Pieces is a podcast and live show for anyone who has ever listened to music and wanted to know a little more about what’s going on.
On stage, I bring live playing, conversation and sound experiments together, following ideas with musicians, scientists and other curious people. An unfamiliar instrument, an everyday noise or a question from the audience can send us somewhere unexpected. You don’t need to read music or know the terminology. Just bring your ears.
A live show at Wilton’s Music Hall. Watch on YouTube.
Keep listening
The podcast follows the same curiosity between shows, with conversations, listening experiments and music from unexpected places. Here are the latest episodes.
Music meets astronomy
Universe of Music
My double act with astronomer Professor Chris Lintott, presenter of The Sky at Night, explores where music and astronomy meet. We’ve performed it at festivals and venues around the UK, including Cheltenham Science Festival.
A scientist and a musician comparing notes. Sometimes quite literally.
Explore Universe of Music →
Hosting, interviews & conversations
Making On the Origin of the Pieces means talking with musicians, scientists and people whose work touches music in all sorts of ways. I’m interested in how they listen, what they notice and the questions that keep them going. I like conversations that make room for detail without leaving the audience behind.
In 2026 I hosted two stages at First Light Festival, from conversations with scientists, academics and musicians on the Interstellar Ideas stage to live music in the church. Whether I’m interviewing a guest or keeping a full programme moving, my job is to put people at ease and bring the audience with us.
If you’re putting together a festival session, artist conversation or live music programme, I’d be happy to talk about hosting it.
Music for the whole evening
I also work behind the scenes as a musical director and arranger. That has included Robin Ince and Brian Cox’s live shows, Space Shambles at the Royal Albert Hall, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe.
For For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music, I arranged, played in and led the band for the performances that close each episode. Here’s Charlotte Carpenter joining us for Friday I’m in Love.
So if the brief involves guests, a band, a succession of very different musical ideas and somebody keeping track of it all, that’s familiar territory.
What are you putting on?
Tell me about the audience, venue, date and the sort of evening you have in mind. We can work out whether an existing show, a conversation or something made for the occasion is the best fit.
You don’t need to arrive with a fully formed brief. A promising question is a perfectly good start.
Enquire about a show or hostingLive · Studio · Remote sessions
Trumpet & sessions
I play trumpet and flugel horn, from a written part in a theatre pit to an improvised solo on a record. I also play cornet and tenor horn, and dabble in other brass when a particular colour is called for. I also put them through electronics when the music calls for something a little less obviously trumpety.
I’m based in London and available for live work, studio dates and remote sessions from my studio in Hackney.
Ask about a gig or session
Some people I’ve made noises with
Alongside leading and playing with Hackney Colliery Band, I’ve played or recorded with artists including Sam Smith, Kelis, Paul Epworth, The Cure, Angélique Kidjo, Mulatu Astatke, Roni Size and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Theatre work includes trumpet for The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2025 and Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre in 2022, as well as touring and West End shows.
I also toured for a year with a musical about Elvis. I learned a lot about Elvis.
Have a listen
Hackney Colliery Band at the Barbican
I lead, write for and play in Hackney Colliery Band. This was our sold-out Collaborations show at the Barbican, with guests including Mulatu Astatke, DJ Yoda and the Roundhouse Choir.
Explore the Barbican show and full line-up
Shofukan · Spanner Big Band
My trumpet solo on Spanner Big Band’s version of Snarky Puppy’s Shofukan. I also mixed and produced the album, A Load of Old Toot!!, trying to get some of the band’s glorious live chaos onto a record.
Watch Shofukan on Instagram ↗︎ · Hear the album & explore my production work →
In the studio: Jim Moray · Spencer the Rover
Layering cornet, flugel, tenor horn and baritone for Jim Moray’s take on the folk song. Here’s how I built the brass-section sound, one part at a time, with baritone horn added off camera. You can hear it all together in Jim’s finished track below.
Hear the finished track
Watch the brass session on Instagram →
Building a trumpet section
A different kind of layering: bright, punchy trumpet parts for production music. A session for Future Pop: Brass-Infused Pop.
On record: Paul Epworth’s Voyager
Featured trumpet in a very different setting from a theatre pit.
Acoustic instruments, live electronics
I work with delays, harmonisers, sampling and other electronic ways of extending an instrument’s sound. Here’s a performance with violinist Harriet Mackenzie: Slack Tide, for trumpet, violin and live electronics.
The Lark Ascending
Another side of my work with violinist Harriet Mackenzie: our version of The Lark Ascending, with trumpet and live electronics.
Arranging and leading the band
For For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music, I arranged the music, led the band and played in the performances that close each episode, working with a variety of guest artists. Here’s Charlotte Carpenter joining us for Friday I’m in Love.
Watch the closing performance · Explore the whole series
In the theatre
Watch the National Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing for an example of my trumpet playing in a full production. Viewing access is through National Theatre at Home.
Remote recording
Send me the track and a little about what you need. I can play a written part, develop ideas with you, or record a few improvised approaches for you to choose from.
I record in my Hackney studio, with Coles and Sphere microphones, Neve, SSL and Thermionic Culture preamps, and Genelec monitoring. There’s plenty of scope for a clean, natural brass sound or something more thoroughly transformed. Explore the studio.
I send listening copies for feedback, make the agreed adjustments and deliver the final audio in WAV or your preferred format. Let me know your deadline early so I can check it against touring and other sessions.
More than one horn?
I can arrange, record and mix horn parts, including putting together a section where the project needs one. Years of playing, recording and leading bands have given me a wide network of musicians I know and trust. I can bring in the right players for the sound, from a small horn section to a larger ensemble.
If you already have an arrangement, great. If you know the sound you want but haven’t written the notes yet, that’s also a useful starting point.
Recording & production →Workshops & masterclasses
My teaching spans undergraduate and master’s level: trumpet and improvisation at Goldsmiths and Brunel, and arranging and music technology for master’s students at London College of Music.
I lead the World Music Big Band, a workshop band bringing players of different experience levels together around music from across the world. Rehearsing, improvising and performing together is at the heart of it, with a professional rhythm section supporting the band.
I’ve also worked on education projects with organisations including the Roundhouse, Royal Opera House and Hackney Empire. I’ve also run a masterclass with the Household Cavalry. My masterclasses can bring acoustic playing and electronics together, alongside improvisation, ensemble playing and practical musicianship.
More teaching, playing and studio details →
For the instrumentally curious
I mainly play a Monette trumpet because I am well fancy/good at eBay. Recording usually involves a Coles ribbon microphone or a Sphere modelling microphone, with rather more electronic possibilities than any one track ought to need.
Need some trumpet?
For live work, send the date, place and what you’re putting together. For a recording, send a track or sketch, your deadline and whether you have parts already.
Enquire about a gig or sessionProduction · Recording · Mixing
Make a recording
I produce, record and mix music and spoken word from my studio in Hackney, London. I’m a working musician as well as a producer, so I’m interested in what the players are trying to do, as well as what the microphones are picking up.
A lot of my work involves brass, woodwind, jazz and music that crosses between traditions. It also takes in documentaries, comedy, podcasts and electronics. The job is to listen to what the project needs.
Tell me about your recordingLooking for production music to license? Listen to my Felt tracks →
Selected recordings
Spanner Big Band · A Load of Old Toot!!
Production and mixing. A large band, a lot of detail and plenty of room for the players to sound like themselves.
Bollywood Brass Band & Jyotsna Srikanth · Carnatic Connection
I produced and mixed this meeting of brass, percussion and Jyotsna Srikanth’s violin. It brought the band a Best Group nomination at the 2017 Songlines Music Awards and was selected for Songlines’ 50 greatest world-music albums of the previous five years in 2020. We followed it with the EP A Day in Bangalore.
For the Record: An Incomplete History of Music
Music consultancy and mixing for the Cosmic Shambles documentary series, alongside arranging, playing and leading the band for the performances that close each episode. Different guests, different songs, and the pleasure of finding a sound that brings everyone together.
Two of those closing performances, with me on synth and trumpet. Each player starts at the song.
David McAlmont · Nightshift
I played synth on Nightshift with David McAlmont and the band, closing the final episode.
Charlotte Carpenter · Friday I’m in Love
On trumpet with Charlotte Carpenter and the band, closing the first episode.
Explore the episodes and whole series →
Podcasts & spoken word
I produced, recorded and composed the music for comedian Lulu Popplewell’s Come to Bed with Me. Here’s an episode with Ed Gamble and Matthew Crosby.
My podcast-production clients also include the World Bank.
From an idea to a record
I can help develop arrangements, record parts and performances, and work through the production and mix with you. Or you can bring a project that’s already recorded and needs mixing.
My experience includes co-producing several Hackney Colliery Band albums, recording and mixing brass ensembles, and making music and speech for podcasts and films.
Horns, synths & other possibilities
My playing extends beyond trumpet to flugel, cornet, tenor horn, baritone horn and synths. I can build a brass section one part at a time, add a synth part, or use live electronics and conch shells when a recording calls for a different sound. I develop, arrange, record and mix the parts.
That might mean playing exactly what you’ve written, or trying out some ideas together. The right answer isn’t always another trumpet, but it’s worth considering.
Trumpet & remote sessions →Working together
Send me something to listen to, even if it’s an early sketch, and tell me where you’d like to take it. We can agree the scope, schedule, fee and delivery requirements before starting.
I’m comfortable working from scores or by ear, and with musicians who work in quite different ways. Much of this happens remotely. For longer sessions here in my Hackney studio, I also make a mean coffee. Food has been known to happen.
For the gear heads
The studio includes Genelec monitoring, Coles and Sphere microphones, Neve, SSL and Thermionic Culture preamps, and an assortment of analogue and digital processing. There’s a Rhodes, an upright piano, brass instruments, percussion, synths and a lot of shells.
I work with Pro Tools, Logic and Ableton Live. If a project needs a particular format or setup, let’s check it together.
The studio is also set up for filming, with cameras and lighting for interviews, performances and demonstrations. I film my podcast and plenty of other work here, so we can capture the pictures as well as the sound.
A look inside a session
Building the sound
Trumpet, tenor horn and baritone, layered for a session with James Turner. A deliberately nostalgic brass sound, keeping some of the small imperfections that make it feel human.
What are you making?
Send a listening link, a little about the project, what you need help with and any deadline. If you have a budget in mind, that’s useful too.
Enquire about recording or mixingBands · Shells · Questions about music
Projects & collaborations
Some of these projects are loud. Some are very quiet. A surprising number involve shells.
They’re the longer-running musical worlds I’m involved in, alongside composing, playing and producing for other people. Follow the links to hear more, or get in touch if something suggests a collaboration.
Hackney Colliery Band
I lead this band, bringing brass and drums into contact with rock, jazz, electronica and soul. My work with the band includes playing, composing, arranging and co-producing.
It has taken us from clubs to festival stages and a sold-out Barbican Hall, with collaborators including Mulatu Astatke and Angélique Kidjo.
Shellectronica
Shellectronica traces a line from ancient instruments to modern ears. I use conch shells, live processing and sampling to explore the continuum between the sounds people made thousands of years ago and the music we make now. Playing these extraordinary objects is a way of reconnecting with that past, and hearing what it might offer the present.
Sometimes the result is an extended ambient performance: a ‘conch bath’, if you will. Sometimes it takes a rather different turn.
An hour-long live performance commissioned by ALSO Festival. Watch on YouTube.
On the Origin of the Pieces
A podcast and live show for musically curious people. Conversations with musicians, scientists and other people who think deeply about sound, alongside unfamiliar instruments, listening experiments and music made from unlikely things. A chance to hear something familiar differently, or find a sound you didn’t know you needed.
Latest from the podcast
Violin · trumpet · live electronics
With Harriet Mackenzie
My ongoing collaboration with violinist Harriet Mackenzie brings acoustic playing and live electronics together. We move between new music and familiar pieces heard from a different angle, including our version of The Lark Ascending and my piece Slack Tide.
Universe of Music
Music and astronomy with Professor Chris Lintott. A live double act exploring the places our subjects overlap, with room for both questions and musical demonstrations.
Explore the show →Soundbox Ensemble
My duo with harpist Valeria Clarke: harp, trumpet and electronics, moving between delicate melodies and more atmospheric territory. Sometimes joined by a small army of musical robots.
Soundbox Ensemble at the Nest Collective’s Magpie’s Nest festival.
Another side of Soundbox
Valeria and I first met playing instrumental hip hop with Last Skeptik. Collaborations at the Lowry and my Natural History Museum residency led to the duo: harp, trumpet, percussion, tenor horn, voice and electronics.
Meet Valeria Clarke ↗︎Bringing people together
Musical direction and arranging run through much of this work. I’ve led music for Robin Ince and Brian Cox’s shows, worked at Shakespeare’s Globe and the Roundhouse, and directed the World Music Big Band at the Vortex.
Something here set you thinking?
If you’re programming a festival, putting together a show or have an idea that might sit somewhere between these projects, I’d be happy to hear it.
Talk about a project or collaborationMusician · Composer · Presenter
Hello. I am Steve Pretty.
I spend my life working with sound in its many forms, and how it connects us.
I write music, play it, produce it and make shows about it. Sometimes all in the same evening.
Let’s make somethingA few ways we could work together
Commission music
Scores, themes and songs for screen and stage. From the five-note world of My Friend Maisy to the drama of Cold Call.
Hear my composition work →Book a show or host
Live music, conversations and sonic experiments. Shows for curious audiences, and a host who can ask the questions and occasionally play the answers.
Explore live shows & presenting →Book a musician
Trumpet and flugel horn for gigs, theatre and recordings. Acoustic playing, improvisation and, when the occasion calls for it, some fairly peculiar electronics.
Hear trumpet & session work →Make a recording
Production, recording and mixing for music and spoken word. I can also arrange and record the horn parts, which saves a certain amount of emailing.
Explore recording & production →Acoustic instruments · live electronics
A sound to start with
Trumpet, violin and a few electronic possibilities. Slack Tide, performed with Harriet Mackenzie.
Written by Steve Pretty; performed with Harriet Mackenzie.
A couple more ways in
A musical world for Maisy
Five notes, playground instruments and a small animated mouse.
Explore composition →A show for curious ears
Playing, stories and questions about what music does to us.
Explore shows & presenting →Other musical worlds
Hackney Colliery Band, Shellectronica, Soundbox Ensemble and the conversations that keep sending me back to an instrument.
Meet the projects →On Instagram
Follow @stevepretty ↗︎Got a Thing in mind?
A gig, a film, a recording, an idea that doesn’t quite fit any of the headings above? Tell me a little about it.
Drop me a line · web@stevepretty.comA deeper look at the recordings, shows, teaching and studio.
