Steve’s NEW solo album Sunsets of Summer’s Past will be released worldwide 1st May 2023 via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Youtube, Steve’s Bandcamp, etc.
The last of the PSYCHIC REMNANTS series of archive releases PSYCHIC REMNANTS VOLUME 11: 1979 has now been released as a download:
Psychic Remnants Volume 11: 1979 | Steve Hillman (bandcamp.com)
INTRODUCTION
Steve has been creating music since the 1970’s and has had albums released worldwide in a variety of genres ranging from electronic, synth rock, progressive rock, jazz and orchestral soundtrack music. He has had some of his music played by members of various orchestras including the world renowned London Symphony Orchestra.
One of his most recent projects is the THE TRANCE DIMENSIONALS, a space rock band he formed which included the legendary Nik Turner, founding member of Hawkwind whose debut album “Synchronicity”, also featuring ex Hawkind Dave Anderson and Mr Dibs was released by Italian label Black Widow Records in 2022. Due to the success of the album work is underway on a new album and the band will be back in the studio in 2023.
Steve also plays keys in Shrewsbury based prog / folk band Ra which morphed into Ra Rising who to date have collectively released four albums.
With lyricist Dave Rees, Steve has had two albums released featuring various established vocalists and they are now working on a third.
Steve also collaborates with the acclaimed musician and vocalist Sally Oldfield in creating videos for her official YouTube channel.
”I am honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with Steve Hillman and receive the benefit of his skill and sensitivity in creating beautiful (Youtube) videos for my music. I find his music deeply inspiring with its vast array of influences from ancient mysticism to modern film music. He is an intrepid explorer of inner worlds and has the talent and technical skill to bring his visions into reality through his alchemy of music and imagery over many decades. A personal thank you Steve for bringing out the hidden colours of my songs! Blessings to you from Sally Oldfield“
Links:
Music | Steve Hillman (bandcamp.com)
The Trance Dimensionals | Facebook
The Official Steve Hillman Fan Club | Facebook
https://www.youtube.com/user/EthericSound/
Contact: theworldover@virginmedia.com
BEGINNINGS
Steve was born near Birmingham in the heart of England and grew up in Smethwick where as a child in the 60’s he was pulled like a powerful magnet to the new sounds he was occasionally hearing on TV and radio created by electronic music. Even though a young child, conventional instrumentation seemed old and too familiar yet these new sounds seemed so futuristic, vibrant and colourful. During the early 70’s he proceeded to obtain any albums that featured the synthesiser such as Perrey & Kingsley’s “Kaleidoscopic Vibrations” and other Moog type albums such as Marty Gold’s “Moog Plays the Beatles”, Walter Carlos’s “Switched On Bach”, Tonto’s “Zero Time” etc. As the early 70’s progressed, he was also beginning to hear the instrument used in bands such as ELP, Genesis and other progressive rock acts and also in a more experimental vein, by bands such as Hawkwind, Gong and Tangerine Dream.
An immensely powerful impact was made when he heard Tangerine Dream for the very first time in 1972 in a live broadcast from Germany on the BBC. This was well before Radio One’s John Peel began giving them airplay and was akin to a mystical experience because it was as if something in the music was calling out from across great distances of space and time. Steve had the strong sense that the nature of the music was forging a bridge between other worlds and dimensions. His awareness of this magical aspect of music motivated him to begin his own excursions into the realms of sound.
At around this same time, as if being guided, at the age of 15 he “accidentally” made himself a rudimentary audio generator when the idea dropped into his head to connect the electronic circuit board of a dismantled tape recorder to the family record player amplifier. To his amazement out from the loudspeaker came a varied array of fantastic electronic sounds, not just oscillating whistles but many strange rhythmic sounds, bubbles and white noise.
In the early 1970’s Steve attended Oldbury Technical School at the same time that the famous comedian Frank Skinner was also a pupil and he also met his future wife Linda there. Steve gained a place at Wolverhampton College of Art but as the 70’s progressed music got the stronger hold over him. Linda went on to attend Birmingham School of Art and also began having private flute lessons. Along the way an electronic organ, reverb and echo unit were obtained along with an Akai reel to reel tape recorder.
Steve 1978
Linda 1978
Steve enrolled in several music courses and passed several grades in the theory of music but in the main taught himself to sight read, compose and to play the guitar and keyboards. He was also being drawn to a wide genre of music from medieval, baroque, classical, folk, eastern, film, progressive rock, etc. and all were to leave a mark on his musical output over the following years.