Another bass clarinet and guitar duet, rehearsing for our two Tuesdays Post gigs at the start of November. Recorded in rehearsal, 29th October 2014. Photo credit https://www.flickr.com/photos/balladist/2409358994. Copyright 2014 Darkroom.

An unusually major-key bass clarinet and electric guitar duet. Recorded in rehearsal, 2nd March 2014. Photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/zebble/7412947/. Copyright 2014 Darkroom.

A sampler of Darkroom's album Gravity's Dirty Work - a continuous edit from the tracks - strung with black nylon - baby armageddon - karhupuisto / beautiful retreat - a pair a part The album is available on CD, double heavyweight vinyl or digital download from http://darkroomtheband.bandcamp.com/album/gravitys-dirty-work "The Darkroom duo of Michael Bearpark (No-Man, Henry Fool) and Andrew Ostler (Expert Sleepers) return with their first double album. "Begun as an exploration of early 90's electronica and its many sources, the album developed from extended improvisations through meticulous editing, layering and post-production into a coherent and timeless suite. "The trademark blurring of guitars, synthesiser and found sounds moves from the heavenly Beck meets Talk Talk atmospherics of Karhupuisto / Beautiful Retreat through apocalyptic foot-on-monitor fuzz mayhem at the end of the title track before closing with the eloquent scandinavian jazz-electronica fusion of A Pair A Part. "Also featuring Andrew Booker (No-Man, Henry Fool, Sanguine Hum) on percussion and Simon H. Fell (Keith Tippett, Derek Bailey, Lol Coxhill) on double bass, the album is mastered for all formats by Jon Astley (The Who, George Harrison, Tori Amos). "Artwork by the inimitable Carl Glover." Copyright 2013 Darkroom.

A rehearsal recording from July 2013. This was intended to be the ambient start and ambient end of a 30 minute set, which would get noiser in the middle. The loopfest was to be the debut of Os's bass clarinet, and indeed this recording is the first published Darkroom recording featuring the bass clarinet. Let us know if you like it. Copyright 2013 Darkroom.

An excerpt from a rehearsal for Darkroom's forthcoming gig at Tuesdays Post. We were mainly testing that we could sync Mike's Timefactor pedal with the laptop, which generates the loop that you hear through most of this piece. The drums are from the modular. The bassline was added afterwards in the studio, by recording a clarinet loop and then tracking its pitch and envelope (using Silent Way Follower), and using that to drive the modular (in a lower octave). Copyright 2013 Darkroom.

The end of the first improvisation from the December 30th 2009 session. You can download a higher quality version of this track from darkroomtheband.bandcamp.com Copyright 2010 Darkroom.

Another section from the December 30th 2009 session (the clue is in the title). You can download a higher quality version of this track from darkroomtheband.bandcamp.com Copyright 2010 Darkroom.

We’ve put most of our catalogue up on our Bandcamp page. Bandcamp is a great service that allows musicians to sell directly to their fans. It also offers downloads in much higher quality formats than other services - up to and including lossless formats such as FLAC, so for example you can now go and get Some Of These Numbers Mean Something in 24 bit FLAC, better than CD quality! The downloads are also cheaper on Bandcamp. Well, to be accurate, the downloads can be as expensive as the band wants them to be, but I’ve set ours so you pay about what we would get from iTunes for a sale - because on Bandcamp we get all the money (none goes to Apple etc.) we can afford to do that and not lose out. We’ll also be putting up most of our podcast tracks on Bandcamp from now on. The podcast will remain as 128kbit mp3s (i.e. low quality by today’s standards) but you’ll be able to download the higher quality versions from Bandcamp if you want. Copyright 2010 Darkroom.

On December 30th 2009 Mike and I got together for an old-school Darkroom ambient jam. This is a section from right at the start of the evening - some gentle, tentative even, guitar that finally builds up into a majestic loop. Copyright 2010 Darkroom.

A rather pretty combination of modular synth loops and simple picked guitar arpeggios. Mixed with assistance from Melissa Terras. Copyright 2009 Darkroom.

A bleepy electronic construction using many elements generated by the Darkroom modular synth. Plus a slide guitar part from Mike. Copyright 2009 Darkroom. By the way - follow Os on Twitter: @expertsleepers

A section from somewhere in the middle of the 1st July Improvizone gig (http://www.vimeo.com/album/108940), with drums removed, and processed into a somewhat dense and noisy drone rock-out. Copyright 2009 Darkroom. By the way - follow Os on Twitter: @expertsleepers

This is a slightly processed/tweaked/warmed-up version of what Mike and I played at the start of the last section of the 1st July Improvizone gig (http://vimeo.com/5513010). Andy left the stage for a bit so it really was just a duo at that point (unlike what usually happens in these podcasts which is that I just leave Andy's playing out). Copyright 2009 Darkroom. By the way - follow Os on Twitter: @expertsleepers

The third and final part of our set at The Antwerp Loopfest, which happened on May 30th 2009. You can watch the whole set at http://vimeo.com/4960054 - Copyright 2009 Darkroom. By the way - follow Os on Twitter: @expertsleepers

The second part (of three) of our set at The Antwerp Loopfest, which happened on May 30th 2009. You can watch the whole set at http://vimeo.com/4960054 - Copyright 2009 Darkroom.

The first part (of three) of our set at The Antwerp Loopfest, which happened on May 30th 2009. You can watch the whole set at http://vimeo.com/4960054 - Copyright 2009 Darkroom.

From the 25th March 2009 Improvione gig. This piece was shaping up quite nicely when Mike's RE-20 Space Echo pedal had a catastrophic failure and started producing a nasty click followed by screaming feedback - and not the good kind. Trumpeter Simon Taylor carried on gamely while Mike and I discussed what was going on but in the end we gave up on it and took a break while Mike reconfigured his pedals. Since Andy therefore probably won't be using this section as an Improvizone.com download, I thought it was fair game to edit up into a Darkroom podcast. Oh, fake wind and real wind? The real wind is obviously the trumpet. The fake wind is my Akai EWI (making its debut appearance) which is making the cello noises. Copyright 2009 Darkroom.

This material comes from the end of our November 2004 gig, where we supported Steve Harris's Zaum. We were joined by Peter Chilvers on bass and keyboards. The end of the gig was particularly magical, as Peter left the stage and went off to play the piano in the adjoining hall (the venue was a converted church, and the piano was in the more churchy bit). Of course the piano wasn't mic'd up, so Mike and I had to simply play very quietly to allow the piano (complete with all-natural church reverb ambience) to be heard. For this podcast I've filled in the gaps left by the unrecorded piano with copies of bits of the live recording. Copyright 2009 Darkroom.

As you might guess from the title, this comes from the same Improvizone gig as the earlier iz20080528_0031resample track. Andrew Booker posted a different mix of this section, including the bass part, on the Improvizone site recently, and I encourage you to go and check that out as it's rather lovely (the track is called "Upload 2 from 2008-05-28 at Ember EC1M" and you can find it at improvizone.com/downloads.php or on the Improvizone podcast). Copyright 2009 Darkroom.

We recently released our 8th album, Some Of These Numbers Mean Something. You can buy it from burningshed.com, or from a download retailer such as iTunes. More info from our website, darkroomtheband.net. Copyright 2008 Darkroom.