Steven Wilson HQ News

Bonus CD contents

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 PST

The bonus CD with the Insurgentes DVD pre-orders (now closed) is going to be an unreleased piece called Vapour Trail Lullaby. Here's the text that will appear on the sleeve: steven wilson - vapour trail lullaby (9.18) this song was written and demoed for porcupine tree prior to the band recording 'in absentia', a prolific period of writing that resulted in perhaps the best pool of songs that the band has been able to draw from for a studio album to date. but as that album developed in a heavier direction, the song didn't really fit in stylistically, so was dropped quite early on and never recorded by the band. two years later it was included instead on the first blackfield album under the title 'lullaby'. the blackfield interpretation worked really well but took the song in a very different direction, stripping it down to just voice, piano and strings, so I took the opportunity to revisit the full arrangement of the song during sessions for my first solo album 'insurgentes'. this time the song went a lot further down the road (you can see me playing it in the film during the piano recording session at st bartholomew's church in brighton), but once again it didn't fit in with my more experimental ideas for the album (in many respects it just sounded too much like porcupine tree) so I never finished it, although I did adapt the coda section into the short instrumental album track 'twilight coda'. even though the new version was much more fully realised, I find I still prefer the original demo version from 2001, so that is the one I have decided to include here. still, it's another part of the 'insurgentes' story, which saw around 30 songs, both old and new, and in many different styles, considered.

Insurgentes London screening

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PST

Tickets for the Prince Charles Theatre screening of Insurgentes on 2nd September are available directly from Prince Charles here

Insurgentes pre-order and screenings

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PST

Burning Shed now have the double DVD of Insurgentes up for pre-order. The first 2,000 copies from the store will come with a little extra free gift too! The 2 disc set comes in a hardback digibook with 64 page book, and includes a lot of bonus video and audio material. Also announced is that there will be pre-release screenings of the film, with question and answer sessions with SW and director Lasse Hoile, at Prince Charles Theatre in Leicester Square, London on 2nd September, and at the IFC Centre in New York City on 21st September. There are a small number of tickets available to the public for each of these screenings. NYC tickets are now available from the Burning Shed, with London tickets to be available shortly.

EM column number 4

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PST

The fourth of Steven's columns in Electronic Music appears in the September issue, or can be viewed on line here.

Next Crimson reissues

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:00:00 PST

The next 2 reissues in the King Crimson stereo / surround sound remix series, In the Wake of Poseidon, and Islands, are set for release on 11th October, as CD/DVDA sets. They will be available to pre-order from Headphone Dust from September. Once again all the music has been remixed from the original master tapes by SW with Robert Fripp, along with a lot of bonus out-take material mixed for the first time, and mastered by Simon Heyworth. You can find full details of the contents on the DGM website.

SW in EM

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PST

Steven has recently started writing about music again, this time in the form of a monthly column for the US magazine Electronic Musician. It's called "New is the New Old", and each month he writes about an aspect of the music industry as we know it today, compared to how it was in the past. 3 columns have so far been published, and they are also available online at the EM website.

New vinyl releases in stock

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 PST

There are a few ToneFloat vinyl releases just added to the Headphone Dust mail order page: The original vinyl version of Porcupine Tree's In Absentia was released by Warner Brothers in 2003, but that version sold out very quickly and has become quite a rarity, so now a new 180gm 2LP vinyl edition is available on either marbled or regular black vinyl. This new edition improves significantly on the quality of the Warners release, and is housed in a beautiful spot varnished gatefold sleeve. SW's Cover Versions V + VI are now available on 7 inch singles, completing the Cover Version series on vinyl. There's no box for the set to go in as there is with the CD version, but orders will include a post card of a reproduction of two pages from SW's personal note book, on which he noted any song it occurred to him might be good to record for the series. Finally there are a few remaining copies on sale of the exclusive split 7 inch single given away to attendees of the Bass Communion / Fear Falls Burning concert in Antwerp in 2008.

In Absentia / Cover Version vinyl

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:00:00 PST

ToneFloat are now pre-selling a new 180gm double vinyl edition of PT's In Absentia album. It came out on vinyl originally through Warners in 2003, but that version sold out very quickly and has become quite a rarity these days. They are also pre-selling the last two SW Cover Version 7 inch singles, which completes the vinyl series. There's no box for them all to go in as there is with the CD version, but orders will also include a post card of a reproduction of two pages from SW's personal note book on which he noted any song it occurred to him that might be good to record for the series. Both the PT vinyl and Cover Version singles are expected to ship on 12th July.

Atlanta Mick Karn benefit release

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 PST

"Atlanta", a complete 2 hour live performance from Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet tour, is now available as a download from the PT Store. The show was recorded and mixed to the usual PT standards in order to provide material for a planned live album, but when the decision was taken to film much of the same repertoire in Holland for a major DVD release instead, the Atlanta recording ended up back in the vault. Now PT have now decided to make it available in complete form as a download only release to raise funds for Mick Karn's treatment for cancer. Although the repertoire is similar to that on the Anesthetize DVD, the performance has its own atmosphere, and also includes the first ever officially released live recording of "A Smart Kid". The mp3s are high quality 320kbps files, and there is a break between tracks 8 and 9 in case you want to burn your own 2 CD set, for which Carl Glover has also provided CD artwork. Please note that profits from the sale of the Atlanta download will go to Mick Karn and his family.

SW at Number 1!

Sun, 30 May 2010 00:00:00 PST

Well, kind of....The new Pendulum album "Immersion", on which Steven co-wrote and sang the track called "The Fountain" has entered the UK album chart today at number 1. Congratulations to Rob Swire and Pendulum!