Geoffrey Armes

GEOFFREY ARMES


A Long and Winding Road


Born in Bristol and growing up in London and on Arran before a peripatetic adult life, Geoffrey Armes' biography is a testament to what thoughtful, unbending application can achieve. It is rich, eventful and contains immense mileage. 

Geoffrey is a seasoned musical alchemist, an exponent of the piano, guitar, and percussion. He has filled a six decades long odyssey with the creation and development of his own musical style. 

His insight, intuition and subtle talent as a musician have been sought after and put to use by renowned recording artists. The recognised architects of modern dance lean heavily on his musical sixth sense; names like Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey and Merce Cunningham. He has toured in his own right playing in New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Tokyo and London.

"AND HERE I AM IN THE LAST QUARTER, the last season, the winter years before birth and spring rejuvenation, with one foot away in the next world and the other being that resides here with the urgent imperative at times to take care of business before leaving. As ever in song. Looking in all directions - past, sideways and anticipatory, forward.  An album - an alchemy or recording and transposing..."

The Winter Years is his first recorded album since 2010 and the culmination of a lifelong physical, spiritual and musical journey. It is a masterpiece purposefully weaving a life of observation, curiosity and conviction into a set of songs.

Striving for Virtuosity


Excellence in music, like any other creative endeavour requires two elements: mastery of technique and highly developed empathy.

"The roots of everything I do are traceable to pop and rock, particularly from the 70s and 80s, a unique period in the development of music. Raw energy leftover from the rebellious 60s met with a growing access to music making. Using the feeling of change and aspiration to a better way of living overwrote the stylistic artifice of the previous decade and a greater understanding of technique and appreciation for structure was the result.

I specialize in lead guitar, bass and keyboards, recording and my own forte: dance accompaniment. The latter is a forum I particularly treasure and one in which I have created a name and a niche. Unlike studio or live work, it requires a very developed mastery of the rudiments of music per se in order to be able to create, embellish and react to mood, atmosphere and nuance.

My profession has taken me to London, Amsterdam, New York, Tokyo and now Berlin. These places gave me a unique opportunity to imbibe the spirit of the times as well as understand and master the use of musical structure. The excitement of having, inter alia, reggae, bluegrass and elements of Gregorian chant cohabiting belongs to the age of mature contemporary music. 

When I record, I strive to compensate for the lack of vitality of a live room with live people - the in the moment moment, lived most intensely by the improvising musician. On this Album I have added instruments and parts in the 2D to recreate the 3D and the spiritual energy of the live room. This is my attempt to reproduce my ideal scenario: a holy trinity of musician, music and audience. I use unconventional tunings and I add space by working with reverbs and echo, sonic environments in which instruments and sounds are played, evolving a sound world to live in. Much of this is done at the mix stage where the mix engineer listens and crafts sonicscapes."