Inspired by nature and music at a young age, James started 'playing' with recording using an old 1970's cassette recorder. Studying piano led to a passion for composing at an early age. In his early teens he bought a Yamaha CS5 mono synth and then Roland Juno 6 polysynth, these combined with Boss drum machines and a Tascam Portastudio meant multitrack recording was possible. Like many caught by the music technology bug, any spare money was spent on buying more 'sound generating black boxes'. Before moving to computer based recording, an Akai MPC supported Midi-sequencing duties along with a Fostex D80 dedicated hard disk recording for audio. As technology progressed and field recorders became more affordable, location recordings featured more in compositions and rejuvenated the challenge of wildlife sound recording. Software and digital hardware synthesisers are now used along with sound design techniques and location sounds.
Shape The Air was born to span - creative, technological, acoustics and natural world influences for music composition. Music is inspired by everything from electronic dance and classical music to progressive rock. Now more music is being listened to on headphones from phones and similar devices, this also provides an opportunity to incorporate binaural recording techniques, where sound can be recorded with microphones at the ear position of either a ‘dummy head’ or person. On playback through headphones this can produce a highly immersive listening experience. Typically, music from Shape The Air is ‘optimised’ for headphone listening and will often contain binaural elements, particularly from location sound recording.
James Muxworthy 2020.
(keyboards, guitars, vocals, percussion, sound recording and production.)
