As a child, Ken grew up to the sounds of Bert Kaempfert, James Last and The Carpenters. When he was 7 he started playing the recorder and when he was 8 he started piano lessons. As a teenager Ken was listening to Brian Eno, The The and David Sylvian whilst mucking around with synthesizers and strange 80s bands. By the time he was 20 he had quit teacher training college and was working as an IT programmer and using his income to fund his expensive music technology habit.

During most of his 20s Ken played in bands, some serious, some less so, whilst following opportunities as they came up to earn a crust. In 1996 Ken moved to Bristol and hooked up with local musicians Adam Smith, Paul Ramos and Vicky Burley. Two bands emerged that were trip-hoppy and jazzy and cool, but they caught only the faintest of interest from ‘the business’. Ken immersed himself in a new found love of jazz legends Charles Mingus, Kenny Burrell and Lee Morgan, then bought a computer and decided to see what he could do himself.

In 2003 he contributed a track to a compilation of Art of Noise covers. An album followed in 2004 entitled ‘Salary Man’, released under the name ‘ Avon’ and featured some of his previous collaborators. The moniker ‘ Avon’ was in reference to the anti-hero of cult 80s BBC sci-fi show Blake’s 7 which was being repeated on UK Gold at the time. Ken currently prefers Space 1999 for vintage sci-fi kicks. Salary Man attracted wide-spread critical acclaim, but was not a ‘break through’ album commercially. Salary Man did, however, bring Ken’s talents to the attention of DJ Nick Luscombe who brought Ken in for a live performance on his show ‘Flomotion’ on XFM. Listening to the show was radio producer, DJ and promoter Ben Eshmade, who was producing chill out show ‘The Chiller Cabinet’ on Classic FM at the time and got Ken in to write a new set of jingles and idents.

A short, 5 track EP followed in 2005 entitled ‘The Cut’, which included the track ‘Prelude’ – used for a major cinema and TV advertising campaign for Axe/Lynx in the USA. In 2006, Ken released his next CD, Marginal – this time under his own name. Tracks from Marginal have been played on chill-out shows all over the USA, in Canada, Russia, Japan, Switzerland, Denmark and the UK. In particular, Marginal has been a firm favourite on UK digital station Chill. Ken’s music has also been popular on student radio in Canada and the chill-out internet station Calmscape in Denmark who nominated Ken ‘most promising artist of 2006’.

Ken rarely plays live but when he does you can find him in his local haunt of the Tobacco Factory in Bristol and performing as part of the ‘Arctic Circle’ in London – a community of contemporary musicians, DJs and VJs. In addition to The Cloud of Reason, 2007 marks the beginnings of two new artistic collaborations. Ken is currently writing a set of tracks with Swedish multi-instrumentalist folk musician David Stiernholm and co-writing pop songs with Bath-based singer/songwriter Ollie Smith. Ken Peel is married, is a dad and lives in Bristol, England.

Bristol, England
26 Feb 07

Out of the fog of logic comes Ken Peel’s new EP ‘The Cloud of Reason’

The Cloud of Reason is an EP of five new electronic tracks from Bristol-based composer and music producer Ken Peel. A download-only release, The Cloud of Reason is available on iTunes from Monday 19 March.

Previews have attracted wide appeal; from uber-cool London DJ, Nick Luscombe, who describes it as “very cool and rather beautiful” to legendary establishment presenter, Simon Bates, who describes it as “sublime contemporary music”.

The Cloud of Reason is Ken’s most ambient outing to date and includes field recordings from contributors to the ccMixter internet project alongside Ken’s gentle and melodic soundscapes. Locations such as a summer meadow in Spain and a block of flats in Helsinki feature alongside air traffic control and arctic weather recordings

But what is this Cloud of Reason? Speaking from the studio Ken says “I think too much and often what I think about is reasons for not doing things, even music, which I love. I also think that other people, lots of other people, find some perverse comfort in ‘thinking things through’ before they do them, and often they never do them. This is counter-productive, because what we want to do is what we want to do not think about reasons not to do it. So, this process of reasoning can be like a cloud; rather than illuminate the way forward, the cloud of reason can hold us back, or even cause us to lose our way. The Cloud of Reason EP is music inspired by, and arising, from this condition.” Ken adds, “yes, I really do need to get out more.”

Ken Peel’s 2006 release “Marginal” has been featured on cutting-edge music radio programmes in Switzerland, Denmark, Japan, Russia, Canada, the USA and of course the UK where his music features regularly on the digital station Chill. Previously he has recorded under the moniker ‘ Avon’ releasing an EP in 2005 (The Cut) and a critically acclaimed album in 2004 (Salary Man).

Ken Peel is part of the Arctic Circle, a loose collective of contemporary musicians, DJs and VJs. If you are in London on April 27 you can catch Ken at a rare live performance at The Whitechapel Gallery, part of the Arctic Circle gallery nights.

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Notes to editors

1. The Cloud of Reason is available from Monday 19 March 2007, download-only from iTunes (there is no CD release) and from all reputable digital download sites.

2. Hi-res images and PDFs of this press pack are available from www.kenpeel.com/press

3. For more information contact Sarah at Shed Management on 0117 902 4288 (international 0044 117 902 4288).

4. Nick Luscombe is the founder and producer of the Flomotion XFM (London) radio show and club nights in London, ‘atmospheric grooves the cooler side of club land’. He is also the curator of the popular ‘Roots and Shoots’ night at the ICA.

5. Simon Bates is currently the presenter of The Breakfast Show on Classic FM (London).