My very good friend Mark Spybey has just sent me this press release - it concerns some recordings we made a good few years ago, which are finally seeing the light of day.

Sanderson / Spybey

THE SETLAND L.P.

Richard Sanderson is a musician, radio presenter and music promoter. He is also an old friend and long-time collaborator of Mark Spybey. Originally from Middlesbrough, he began his career in the band Solaris with his cousin, Mark Sanderson and Spybey in 1974. He then formed a string of punk-post-punk bands such as Drop and The Euphoria Case that Spybey was also a member of (Drop were one of Julian Cope’s favourite bands, he famously tried to get Bill Drummond to sign them to Zoo Records and failed..) Richard has lived in London for over twenty years, where he has forged a singularly eccentric career that has seen him focus on free improvisational music, minimalist pop, playing the accordion, morris dancing and collaborations with a diverse range of people such as Steve Beresford, Blixa Bargeld, Minnow and Ticklish. He has played live with hundreds of musicians including members of This Heat and the cream of the UK improvisational scene. He has promoted live music in a variety of clubs over the years, is a Director of the London Musicians Collective and presents a regular show on Resonance 104.4fm.

Mark Spybey was a member of both Zoviet*France and Download. His collaborators include Jarboe (Swans), Mick Harris (Scorn), James Plotkin, Jean-Yves Theriault (Voivod), cEvin Key (Skinny Puppy), Genesis P. Orridge (Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV), Not Breathing, The Legendary Pink Dots, Tommy Grenas (Aubian Lights, Nik Turner’s Hawkwind), Chris Connelly and others. He was a member of Can guitarist, Michael Karoli’s band, called Sofortkontakt! until Michaels sad death in 2001. He played with Can as part of their 30th Anniversary shows. He also toured with Michael and Damo Suzuki and is featured on the Damo Suzuki Network CD ‘Seattle’. Mark has done remixes for Faust and Neu! and toured with Michael Rother and Dieter Moebius, of Neu! Kraftwerk, Cluster and Harmonia fame. Since 2005, Spybey has been recording and playing live with Robin Storey (Rapoon & founding member of Zoviet*France) under the name Reformed Faction. They have released three acclaimed albums. He has recorded for labels such as Kranky, Nettwerk, Scratch, Invisible and Soleilmoon. His two main projects have been Dead Voices on Air and Propeller. In 2008 he released two albums with Phil Western from Download as Beehatch and toured Europe.. He is currently working with Phil on a project called mzmz lalalala with Simon Fisher Turner (Mute Records, Derek Jarman soundtracks)


Richard and Mark have been friends for nearly 40 years and have collaborated together episodically. One such episode took place in London in 1992, shortly before Spybey moved to Canada. The duo revisited some of the songs they had played together in Drop and within the space of 24 hours had assembled a hastily mastered cassette tape of diverse material. Over the years both spoke of releasing the material but for a number of reasons, it just never happened. Spybey mastered the material from the cassette tape weeks before it was destroyed in a flood in 2005. He subsequently manipulated some of the music and finally, it will be released via digital download only courtesy of Chicago’s Lens Records.

The Setland L.P features a number of songs written by Sanderson dating back as far as 1978. On the recordings, Richard played guitar, bass, keyboards, sax and sang. Mark played drums, trumpet, keyboards, backing vocals and toys. The songs are short, staccato and spiky. It’s no wave, it’s textured, minimal ambience, it’s an homage to some of the bands who inspired the duo and it’s an album born out of the beauty of the industrial landscape that they grew up in; of deserted docks, redundant remnants of the once proud iron works and the piercing cold of the wind blowing in from the North Sea. Moreover, it’s a record of the duo’s friendship, one that has weathered relationships, time, hairstyles, continents, movements, the poll tax and fads. It is a relationship that continues to be rooted in their love of music and the capacity that they have to inspire each other.

Both Sanderson and Spybey have experienced success in their respective careers since this album was first recorded. The Setland L.P is a teasing insight into the work that they have done together over the years that, until now, has remained unreleased.

Look, I'm sorry that this blog has become little more than a collection of press releases and adverts for gigs I'm doing, but I'm assuming you're probably all bored with reading about how permanently knackered I am since entering full time childcare.

However, I am occasionally seen in the flesh, and on Thursday (tomorrow) I will be making a very rare excursion into North London to play with Lost Robots in Camden of all places.

Our friend Simon has organised it and it should be a good bash, we're on with Sculpture (Dan Hayhurst) who does interesting retro-sci-fi things with old cassette machines, DJ Tendraw who's on a kind of slo-mo Christian Marclay trip with records made out of strange materials and "The Reactor Core Is Splendid", Simon's own project - singular and peculiar songs sung by a guitarist who has the looks and mannerisms of a young Tom Verlaine. It's at at The Constitution, 42 St. Pancras Way, London, and costs and astonishing £4 or £2 concessions to get in....

I know what you're thinking - Bob Crow has stopped us from getting to this gig, but apparently he has little control over the Northern Line, which, in an effort to confound its "misery line" reputation, is making it easy for you to get to an avant rock gig in Camden. So come on, it'll be like the old days, won't it?

This is what we look like-



Now, you are powerless to resist.