Colin Edwin – fretted and fretless bass guitar , double bass and guembri. –Born July 2, 1970
I have explored the music of Colin Edwin, not through the band that he has been a member of since 1993 Porcupine Tree; but through his collaborations with Jon Durant and more recently with Armonite. So today July 2nd is his birthday. So, I thought it may be a good day to more extensively explore the man and his music. What I discovered is that Colin Edwin, like many talented musicians has many different outlets for his musicianship! In addition to his work with Porcupine Tree, Edwin has released solo albums. He has also collaborated many artists and been a member of several bands! Some basics from Wikipedia.
Colin Edwin (born 2 July 1970) is an Australian progressive rock musician. Since December 1993 he has been a member of the British band Porcupine Tree, where he plays both fretted and fretless bass guitar as well as double bass and guimbri. Edwin is also a member of Ex-Wise Heads, a long running collaboration with multi instrumentalist Geoff Leigh mixing ethnic, ambient, and post-modern influences, as well as a metal-influenced project, Random Noise Generator and the band Metallic Taste of Blood…Continue Reading....
About the Ex-Wise Heads
Ok so the first thing I did after reading the above was going to Spotify. I wanted to find some music from Ex-Wise Heads. I listened to the band’s 2008 release .Liquid Assets. Ex-Wise Heads is a collaboration between Geoff Leigh and Colin Edwin. When I heard Leigh’s flute on the opening track “Another Spark”, I knew, I was going to like his music. So I went back to Wikipedia to find out a little about Geoff Leigh. From Wikipedia…
Geoff Leigh (born 5 October 1945) is an English jazz and progressive rock musician, playing primarily soprano sax and flute. He was a member of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow and founded several bands himself, including Red Balune, Random Bob, Black Sheep, Mirage, and Ex-Wise Heads. Read More
I really enjoyed Liquid Assets and it is still playing as I write this post! After my initial listen to Ex-wise Heads I returned my attention to the birthday boy, Colin Edwin. But before I visited his website I thought about the instruments that Edwin plays. I asked myself: What the hell is a guembri? A side trip back to Wikipedia revealed this about the instrument….
About the Guembri
A sintir, or guimbri, being played by Nuru Kane
The sintir (Arabic: سنتير), also known as the Guembri (Arabic: الكمبري), Gimbri or Hejhouj, is a three stringed skin-covered bass pluckedlute used by the Gnawa people. It is approximately the size of a guitar, with a body carved from a log and covered on the playing side withcamel skin. The camel skin has the same acoustic function as the membrane on a banjo. The neck is a simple stick with one short and two long goat strings that produce a percussive sound similar to a pizzicato cello or double bass. Read More
Note to Self – check out Nuru Kane….
About Twiscapes
Finally, I made my way to Colin Edwin’s website i found it as progressive as he is, initially the reader is greater with a horizontally scrollable list of the various albums that Colin Edwin has played on. Near the end of the list is a list of links where you can explore the world of Colin Edwin at places like his blog, Facebook, Soundcloud, Twitter and more. Note Edwin’s work with Armonite can be found at his Soundcloud page!!
The first album that I encountered was Twinscapes which is a collaborative project for Colin Edwin and guitarist, composer and arranger Lorenzo Feliciati. So I was off again to Spotify to find Twinscapes. I found it, listened and once again I loved it!! From Red Noise Records…..
Lorenzo Feliciati and Colin Edwin first got together for an impromptu one-off gig in London early in 2013, and they discovered an instant chemistry on the bandstand.
As Colin recalls, “I was familiar with Lorenzo’s band Naked Truth and also his solo album Frequent Flyer, and coincidentally had been toying with the idea of a dual-bass project with a bass player friend of mine. So I immediately thought it was something worth doing as an experiment, at least. And I knew that this project would lead us to explore other things you tend to do a lot less of in a regular band set-up, like using different effects, E-bows, have the bass playing melodies and so forth.” Read More
Final Thoughts
Ok I evidently have a lot more exploring of the music of Colin Edwin to do. So let’s just say Happy Birthday to Colin. Thanks for all the music that which I have heard. As well as, that which I have yet to explore!!
Here is a performance of Colin Edwin & Lorenzo Feliciati – In Dreamland – London Bass Guitar Show 2014 with music from Twinscapes!
