Tim Parkinson

Tim Parkinson has consistently pursued an independent path, seeking to engage with whatever it means today to be a functioning composer in the world. His music has been labelled as experimental, "reconstructing music from the ground up", and "sounding like nothing else", the work invariably returning to fundamental enquiries around the meaning of sound. He has been associated with other British independent voices of the same generation, such as Bailie, Harrison, Newland, Saunders, Whitty. His music is mostly performed by a dedicated community of friends and musicians, but he has also written for various groups and ensembles including Plus Minus, Apartment House, [rout], Incidental Music, Dedalus, Edges, Basel Sinfonietta, London Sinfonietta; and for various instrumentalists including Stephen Altoft, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Julia Eckhardt, Tanja Masanti, Andrew Sparling, Craig Shepard, Silvia Tarozzi, Philip Thomas, Stefan Thut, Deborah Walker. His music has been performed in UK, Europe, USA, Armenia, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Broadcasts of music have been on BBC Radio 3, Resonance FM, WDR Köln, and Schweizer Radio SRF2. Two albums of music have been released on Edition Wandelweiser (2006, 2010); in 2019 Piano Music 2015-16 was released on all that dust, and the electro-opera Pleasure Island was released on Slip as vinyl and download, followed in 2020 by Here Comes A Monster  released on Takuroku. In 2021 songs 2011 were included on a split release Time Is Over with work by Travis Just on awavepress. In 2022 Another Timbre released an album of a selection of chamber works from 1998-2017.
https://www.untitledwebsite.com/

Featured releases

"'Pleasure Island' is British composer Tim Parkinson’s disquieting and joyous Slip debut: play time in end times. Titled after the Disney adaptation of ‘Paese dei balocchi’ (or the Land of Toys) in Carlo Collodi’s ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ (1883), 'Pleasure Island' is a metaphysical playground of organic and digital cohabitation, its inhabitants pacified by toys and comforts. Alongside Dawn Bothwell, Suze Whaites, Laurie Tompkins, and Francesca Fargion, Parkinson exerts an uncannily emotional pull from an unlikely but potent alliance of ultra-minimal aesthetics, dead-beat drums, junk electronics, and mechanised mantras. Voices are hemmed in by electronic sound. People buffeted around by machines. Words surrounded by garlands of digital interference. Time repackaged as countdown. Tim’s trash-opera ‘Time With People’ continues to be performed around the world, past champions of which include Object Collection, a.pe.ri.od.ic, Edges, and NEC, and he is a co-curator of London’s longstanding ‘Music We’d Like To Hear’ series. Despite decades of fiercely independent production, this is his only piece conceived of first and foremost as an album. --- Tim Parkinson / keyboards, stylophones, drums, percussion, midi, electronics, sounds, vocals Francesca Fargion / vocals on 'Happy Birthday' Dawn Bothwell / vocals Laurie Tompkins / vocals Suze Whaites / vocals --- Recorded in London Oct–Dec 2017 & Newcastle May 2018. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Artwork by Rick Pushinsky.

Tim Parkinson – Pleasure Island

Featuring material recorded & assembled from November 2019 until deep in quarantine, Tim Parkinson's 'Here Comes A Monster' captures the fear and foreboding atmosphere of the UK's capital city, scribing diaristic post-punk scenes through a twisted lens. Holding a mirror to the city's inner topography, Tim assembles images from the underground and overground; fragments of eavesdrops, moments and moods that have burrowed into his conscience. 'They've Got A Good View Of The Shard' repeats a mantra-like overheard phrase about the tower corporate skyscraper, a building Tim describes like "big sleeping monster from another planet that looks as if it might shoot a laser into the sky and ignite the atmosphere". 'Everything Is OK' composes mechanised denial and the sound of people playing candy crush in a breeze of ice-cold industrial cycles. The counterbalance of dealing with the world by staring into the headlights (“Get Me Out Of Here”) while also using filters of denial (“HeadPhoneHead”), is a theme that haunts the album. The idea of Monsters of mythology included Behemoths and Leviathans - the monsters Tim is coming to terms with are not just physical, but everywhere. --- Written and performed byTim Parkinson - voice, guitars, midi synths, midi drums, field recordings, midi piano, reed organ, percussion with The GBSR Duo (George Barton & Siwan Rhys) - vocals (track 1, 3, 6)Angharad Davies - vocals (track 1, 4, 6), violas & percussion (track 6)Nouvelle Ensemble Contemporain - vocals (track 1)Year 10 drama students from Ashmole Academy - vocals (track 1)Emma Harrison, John Lely, Juliet Fraser, Luke Nickel, Brian Lee, Angharad Davies, Rori, Gerry Summers, Gwenno Saunders, Sarah Hughes, Marjolaine Charbin, Alex Ward, Dominic Lash, Lutfi Abu Aun, Mark Knoop, Rick Pushinsky, Laurence Crane, Ros Bailey, Markus Trunk, Alex Nikiporenko, Matteo Fargion, Rachael MacArthur, Mira Benjamin, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, Benedict Drew, Steve Beresford, Onyee Lo, Xenia Pestova-Bennett, Rhodri Davies, Angharad Closs Stephens, Travis Just, Kara Feely, Gilbert Linley, Thierry Madiot, Silvia Tarozzi, James Saunders, Marianne Schuppe, JG Thirlwell, Dora Blount, Richard Dawson, Jessica Cox, Ruth Sanderson, Rachel Steadman, Leo Chadburn, Laura Steenberge - vocals (track 4) October 2019-April 2020 Cover art by Rick Pushinsky. Arranged by Oliver Barrett.

Tim Parkinson – Here Comes A Monster

Past events