sustained theatre

The album features tracks submitted at the innovative grass roots music event, CDR, from it's world-wide community of producers.‘burntprogress V/A 2.1’ is Gavin and Tony's third album release. Available for digital download containing 27 tracks at Juno Records, it features an eclectic range of soulful electronically produced music submitted to burntprogress CDR project. Defiantly a quality selection and a mix of artists pushing the boundaries of an artform

Speaking to Gavin Alexander of burntprogress you find that their new album is not just a one off item, its a build on projects such as past work that has seen them lead on 'Freeness', an Arts Council England/Decibel funded project developed with Turner prize winner Chris Ofili; '‘Freeness’ was a platform for artists of Asian and Black heritage. The events we delivered were a critical success that year, being promoted in The Observer.

' I'm from a film making background and met with Tony Nwachukwu during his time working as an artist with 'Attica Blues' who were signed to both Mo’ Wax and Sony Records. Even though 'Attica Blues' became a major underground success, Tony's experience made him conclude an that there was much more out there for the artist.’

' What he wanted to achieve was to develop a cultural democracy where artists could bring their musical works-in-progress and have their track played on a top rate sound system, amongst a like-minded audience, after utilising the numerous digitally empowering music software such as Reason, Fruity Loops and Logic Pro that is now readily available.'

'At the genesis of CDR, I was fascinated with the way that a creative idea could become a tangible reality,whatever your level of experience, from the confines of your bedroom. This was very much not the case with the Film Industry at that time!'

'The unique regular platform that burntprogress provides with CDR has led to many organic outputs including witnessing artists changing their approach from one event to another and them learning from hearing their tracks out loud'.

A more recent project we delivered was CDR @ Late Tate in partnership with Tate Britain, with a focus of djing music from the CDR archive and live perfomances from members of the CDR Community. The wonderful & slightly surreal experience of new works being played in a sumptuous gallery room surrounded by Turners and other works from the Masters in front of a huge audience.

‘‘We started of in 2003,dropping beats in spaces such as the 'Embassy' in Islington. In those early days, we had 15 people come through and we would play their tracks during 'Open CDR'. We’ve grown as a project since then, creating new spaces in various cities around the world with support of the British Council & other international institutions and at festivals such as The Big Chill. It's interesting to hear people talk about their music being played at an internationally renowned festival such The Big Chill, people never expect to be dancing to their own music at a festival that been headlined by international artists such as Mr.Scruff or Orbital.'

'burntprogress really took off in October 2004 when working with Sony Playstation and created a unique presence up and down the UK with the 'Reconnaissance' tour, playing at 10 major cities such as Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham. Since then the CDR community have set up satellite CDR nights around the world in their respective cities, so you now have CDR:Tel Aviv, CDR:Amsterdam, CDR:Sydney & CDR:Seoul.We still do CDR:London at Shoreditch's 'Plastic People'. It's a completely free space for anyone who wants to come thru, listen to new works-in-progress from artists who submit their tracks to us.'

'As co- directors of burntprogress, myself and Tony deliver a range of events. We're currently in final stages of an Arts Council of England funded 2 year programme delivered in spaces within the East Midlands (Nottingham, Derby & Leicester). It's created a lot of attention in how the events are providing a social network platforms for exchange of creative ideas from Sector artists. We deliver Creative Knowledge Seminars as part of the program of activity, again providing people with new progression routes on thoughts about the music industry and their own creative practice.'

'One of the items that has been amassed over the years is an ever increasing archive of over 6,000 audio tracks submitted at the various CDR events . We're looking at ways that we can develop the concept of a new channel for distribution, a space similar in approach to the likes burntprogress' use of Soundcloud and MySpace.

'Its an interesting process, really quite good as previous projects that burntprogress has been delivering includes events for companies such as Apple Mac at INIVA. It's all about creating opportunities for artists to get to grips with and develop their professional understanding of new software experiences, its all part of our musical landscape, whether you're learning or participating as an artist.'

'Thanks to Gavin Alexander for the conversation!''