I’m originally from the UK and now living in New York. I’m a recording engineer and media music writer. As an engineer I’ve recorded and mixed a significant body of work at London’s Abbey Road Studios. As a media music writer I have albums published with the major UK Production Music companies. My music is in use throughout the world

The album Sinking Upwards is my first commercial release and the first time I have worked using the name Sonanaut.

Coming to the US and starting over, I had more time to think, as now I had a lot less in the way of obligations and commitments. I love just w... (+) expand

I’m originally from the UK and now living in New York. I’m a recording engineer and media music writer. As an engineer I’ve recorded and mixed a significant body of work at London’s Abbey Road Studios. As a media music writer I have albums published with the major UK Production Music companies. My music is in use throughout the world

The album Sinking Upwards is my first commercial release and the first time I have worked using the name Sonanaut.

Coming to the US and starting over, I had more time to think, as now I had a lot less in the way of obligations and commitments. I love just walking around New York looking at the city and the people of the city. As I walked around I became aware of all the things I think and feel every day. especially in a large modern city with so many different people and particularly in a city like New York with people from surely every part of the world. As I looked at all around me I became aware of some of my feelings, and I tried to be as honest as possible about them to myself, which is something I don’t always find easy. Some of these feelings surprised me, some shocked me, some I knew well and some I couldn’t even really put a name to. Anger, doubt, joy, longing, prejudice, fear, insecurity, sadness, awe, empathy, feeling overwhelmed, desire, superiority, inferiority. I felt rich, I felt poor; I felt tall, I felt short; I felt unwanted, I felt at home.

Experiencing these feelings and others that seem harder to identify, it seems that there’s no way that I can express them all verbally. Words aren’t adequate. Even if I had a friend or partner that would listen to me for hours every evening, there probably just wouldn’t be the time to express to them all that I’d felt in that one day or even to be able to express most of it in a way that someone else can understand. And this is what most gets to me. This area of emotion and feeling that doesn’t seems to have a way of being expressed. I turned to what I know, music, and I decided to assemble an album which in some way helps me articulate and explore some of these feelings.

For me ‘Sinking Upwards’ is a ‘lights off’ album. It’s really a soundtrack album, but the film is the listener’s film, and the music will mean different things to different people. I love that side of music (especially music without lyrics), that it can be ambiguous. I don’t always need music to tell me how to feel. Sometimes I just like to figure it out for myself. And sometimes the same piece of music can mean different things at different times. The thing I do know though, is that it’s difficult for me not to have some sort of emotional response when I listen to music, whatever that music is. That’s the nature of it, and perhaps why we love music much.

Some of the tracks on the album have strong identities for me which I could put into words and with others I feel strong emotions but I’m really not quite sure what those emotions are. The music of 'Sinking Upwards’ is mostly ‘open’. I hope you enjoy it. (-) collapse