Where is Max De Wardener today?
Today Max is in New York, playing bass in Dani Siciliano's band. Today Max is in a church in Putney recording the organ for a track on his album. Today Max is making Harry Partch's cloudchamber bowls for a different track. Today Max is writing and recording with fellow Accidental artist and friend Mara Carlyle. Today Max is playing a gig with Zimbabwean mbira player Chartwell. Today Max is in a very quiet room in West London, recording the nearly inaudible tones of wires being hit together (or played) by a percussionist. Today Max is at home writing music for a film.
Max de Wardener is a true original, a talented multi-instrumentalist and composer. His debut EP for Accidental Records, "Stops" (2002) wove a solemn tapestry of gentle oratorio, tonal grandeur and shimmering, cut-up electronics. With his debut album, 'Where I am today' (2004) he presented the widescreen version of his musical vision.
'Where I Am Today' manages that rare thing, an electronic album that relies more on actual musicianship than recording techniques. The sound sources are part arch-experimentalist and part Sunday-school music room, so we find recorders and organs rubbing shoulders with cloudchamber bowls, transistors and the sound of wires. It is an album with a clear-cut experimental agenda that has managed to remain beautiful and emotive.
Max composed the music for Paul Pavlikovsky's feature-length film, 'The Last Resort' and Kenneth Glenaan's 'Gas Attack' . He is also a member of both Dani Siciliano and Mara Carlyle's live bands.
