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Tim Blake needs no introduction to CDS customers – we've been selling his music since the early French Mantra label CD releases early in the 90’s, so it was with great pleasure when we first announced the highly anticipated March 2017 remasters of his groundbreaking 70’s albums: ‘Crystal Machine’ and the ‘New Jerusalem’ classic.
Since then, all of his other back catalogue titles have been given the same audio makeover.
This UK born keyboardist first based himself in France as a sound and light artist at the start of his career way back in 1970. Some associate him most for his numerous works with renowned bands GONG and HAWKWIND, however, it was as an electronic music solo artist that TIM BLAKE made a real name for himself.
He first came to prominence as a musician when he became a member of GONG, where his synthesiser experimentation and mastery was demonstrated on albums such as: ‘Flying Teapot’, ’Angel’s Egg’ and ‘You’.
After departing GONG in 1975 he teamed up with French lighting designer Patrice Warrener to form CRYSTAL MACHINE, pioneering the use of lasers and synthesisers in a ‘live’ setting.
They performed under this moniker numerous times, enchanting and enthralling audiences. On occasion, French keyboardist Jean-Philippe Rykiel participated in these concerts, particularly in his formative years. Rykiel also made contributions to Blake’s ‘New Jerusalem’ album on synthesizers.
Blake’s debut solo album: ‘Crystal Machine’, was originally released on LP in 1977 on the French experimental label Egg. Tim followed this with his classic: ‘New Jerusalem’ in 1978. Unlike his previous work, the album featured some songs and the lengthy title-track that dominated the album’s 2nd side. Jean-Philippe Rykiel
’s contributions to this album aided the mass-appeal this recording and it is one of CDS Tower’s all-time best sellers.
Tim Blake first joined HAWKWIND in 1979 and remained with the group for just over a year before returning to France and moving away from music.
The 1980's was a barren period as far as solo recordings from Tim Blake was concerned, but in 1991 he began to surface once more as a musician
and he turned out his 3rd full-length album: ‘Magick’
, which was recorded at his home studio in a windmill in Brittany and saw him adopt a more minimalist approach to his music.
Although he made occasional ‘live’ appearances after that, it would be another nine years before he would return with his 4th studio album: ‘The Tide Of The Century’, which was recorded once again at his windmill studio.
In 2002 Tim Blake produced: ‘Caldea Music II’, an excellent all-instrumental album recorded for a specialist label in Spain, and this too became a massive selling import at CDS.
Blake's career was put on hold in 2004, when he suffered serious injuries in a car accident, but by 2007 he had recovered and decided to hook up once more with long time associates HAWKWIND.
In 2012 Tim recorded: ‘Noggi Tar’ – an album Blake describes as “A digital theses on virtual lead guitar”.
Initially made available as a download only album for his official web-site, a Rematered CD edition was released in January 2018 to complete the cycle off Tim Blake’s CD re-issues on the UK-based Esoteric Recordings label.
As Tim himself declares: “It's interesting to note that we are now 40 years on from ‘Crystal Machine’s release, and 45 Years of me working on electronique creations outside of GONG and HAWKWIND”.