Content for the Discontented, created and curated by Kim Halliday

St Pauls Carnival - Sound Systems

A Sonic Map of the Sound Systems at the 2023 St Pauls Carnival in Bristol. This years Carnival theme was Learning From Legends, as we celebrated the Caribbean legends of our past, present and future. This theme is about reflecting on our legendary Elders in a year that marks Windrush 75 and the 60th anniversary of the Bristol Bus Boycott, celebrating the Living Legends in our community, and nurturing the next generation of legends who will step up and take their place.

Babylon

6 pieces of music with a Composer’s Commentary - the story behind the music, the same 6 pieces as instrumentals, and 6 remixes. Each piece will be released with those 3 versions. The 6 pieces are linked in several ways. Babylon was conceived around three momentous events from pre-Christian history - the Hanging Gardens, the Tower of Babel, and the Great Flood, as well as more personal pieces about Kim’s mother and grandchildren. In the Composers Commentary version, Kim explores how stories have been absorbed and subverted by major religions, and, like Kim’s previous release Desiderium, the work is semi-autobiographical, mixing historical fact with his own life experience.

Musically, three of the pieces explore the same melodic material, re-imagined into ambient soundscapes reflecting the serenity of the Hanging Gardens and Heaven. Otherwise, it’s Dub, Prog and Post Rock. Go figure…

Unpleasantville - Bath

A geo-locative audio tour of Bath, from Bath Spa Station, all the way to Bath Spa Station, and featuring the truth about where you are!

For the best experience, open a browser on your mobile device and go to https://sonicmaps.xyz/player/ and search for Unpleasantville Bath.

Alternatively, you can use this Sonic Map

Unpleasantville - Bristol

A geo-locative audio tour of Bristol, from Stokes Croft to the Harbourside, and featuring the truth about where you are!

For the best experience, open a browser on your mobile device and go to https://sonicmaps.xyz/player/ and search for Unpleasantville Bath.

Alternatively, you can use this Sonic Map

Desiderium

Desiderium is a latin word defining desire or longing, especially a feeling of loss or grief for something lost. This Desiderium is a story about long hot summers, council estates and ghosts - a story in a folk horror tradition, but with music a little more progressive and post-rock. Containing 13 pieces featuring both spoken word and instrumental tracks, the album is rooted in personal truth yet interspersed with ancient mythology and history. Partly an insight into his upbringing, growing up through the summers of the mid-Seventies, into the Winter of Discontent and Thatcher’s Britain, the album briefly touches on the loss of his father and grandfather, and subsequently weaves in themes of the living dead and ghosts. It takes its listener down an eery path, the sombre narrative reminiscent of whispered ghost stories captivated by the past.

Showing Influences ranging from progressive rock to trip hop, from Quatermass and The Stone Tape through to Hammer Horror, Kim’s blend of folklore, hauntology and post rock has a clear dystopian influence threading through from start to finish.

Decayed

10 years, 10 pieces, each a crime that has, as yet, been unpunished. A look back on the decade from 2010 to 2019, from Austerity to Cambridge Analytica and beyond, plunderphonics, newsreel, skewer-style editing and new music from Kim Halliday a review of the decade between 2010 and 2019, selecting a story from each year.

These pieces are accompanied by videos, but can equally be enjoyed as audio.