2022 Round-up

A slightly belated round-up of Synth Evolution activities from 2022. (Had a bit of flu at the end of last year which somewhat knocked me for six, hence the delay.)

Sill, last year was quite productive, now I look back at it - so a big thanks to all Synth Evolution customers whose support, interest and purchases keep me motivated to make and sell the best synth related products I possibly can. I love you all!

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POSTERS

• A refreshed set of colours to my best-selling core product - the Greatest Hits of Synth poster - now in blueprint blue, racing green, alongside re-prints of the black and white versions. I do love the green version! :-)

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• I was hugely honoured to be asked by the Alan R Pearlman Foundation to design the 50th Anniversary poster for the beyond-legendary ARP Odyssey. I was only too happy to oblige, basing this design on a vintage advert, but updating it with some great quotes from selected artists, musicians and producers declaring their love this instrument. A lovely project to work on and resulting in a splendid celebration of this classic synth:

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• I branched out into posters featuring a single synth for the fans of any one particular synth. Available in A4/A3 sizes or as digital downloads, I can produce these to order to feature any of the 500 or so synths I have illustrations for!

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T-SHIRTS

• Following 2021’s highly successful and enjoyable ‘World Cup of Synths’ collaboration with ‘We Are 1 of 100 T-shirts’, I approached them with a new idea focussing on synth oscillators. I think we came up with super-cool designs celebrating both the synths themselves in a novel and - splendidly nerdish way!

• Did I mention we got a cease and desist from Moog Music by not thinking through the implications of using the Moog logo? Whoops! Luckily we got permission from the ARP Foundation to use the logo on this glorious artifact below:

• https://weare1of100.co.uk/clothing/all-t-shirts/t-shirts/oscillator-champion-2022-oli-freke/

• We also made a splendid ARP Odyssey t-shirt to accompany the poster:

• https://alanrpearlmanfoundation.org/product/50-year-odyssey-tee-shirt/

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Calendar

• Following of from the collaboration with the Alan R Pearlman Foundation with the Odyssey’s 50th Anniversary poster, it was great to see the illustration used in their 2023 Calendar - available to purcahse right now for the year ahead…

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SYNTHfest uk

The first in-person SynthFestUK since lockdown took place in October 2022 and it was wonderful to catch up with old friends and make new ones after a two year hiatus. As ever Synth Evolution hosted a stand and sold plenty of books, posters, mugs and t-shirts. Thanks to all those customers and it was great to chat with everyone there, customer or not. I was able to slip away to see Paul Wiffen’s splendid talk featuring the Elka Synthex (Jarre’s laser harp) and the E-Mu 50th anniversary talk by Tony Wride of Exclusively Analogue.

Synth Evolution stand at SynthFestUK 2022

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synthtrax.net

• I created a Wiki site to log all the verifiable uses of synths in every track ever made. Yes, that was a bit crazy ambitious, but it’s up and running and I had some enjoyable research sessions fleshing out the Moog Minimoog, ARP 2600, Roland Jupiter 8, and many more. Check it out, and help out - it’s an open Wiki and I would welcome any dedicated collaborators :-)

• www.synthtrax.net

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Music

As well as all the Synth Evolution products and activities, I also produce electronic music with synths (unsurprisingly!) In 2022 I released three techno EPs which I think get the balance right between hardness, funk, groove, melody, arrangement and is in-keeping with the genre’s heritage. Well, I would say that of course, wouldn’t I?

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2023

So, what about 2023 then? Well, all things being equal, it’d be great to create a new poster or two. I haven’t really thought what that could be yet, but I’m sure it will be some combination of hand-illustrated vintage synthesizers combined with a view of their place in musical and tech history.! I’d also love to follow up 2020’s Synth Evolution book, and I have some ideas that could similarly grab the imagination of synth fans everywhere. And of course, bang out some more banging techno! Hopefully get to do some PAs too…watch all these spaces, and more!

SynthfestUK 2019 review

It’s taken me a couple of weeks to recover from all the excitement, but here’s a few pics and notes from the event.

Here are some pics of the stand before show opening:

Nice Dreadbox modular machines to the right of me :-)

Mugs, T’s and posters!

Note the SynthSounds.net site on the iPad for visitors to play with

I was extremely honoured to have provided illustrations for the backdrop of the seminar room:

You can see my synth illustrations on the backdrop. A fun game of ‘guess that synth, sampler and drum machine’ while people waited for the seminar sessions and product demos to start. The Siel DK70 had ‘em all stumped :-)

Notes

I had a great time meeting customers and visitors alike, talking synth and poster. A big thanks to my friend Des for helping me man the stand. Eight hours can be tiring without back-up!

One highlight when I was off the stand was seeing the Fairlight seminar; lovely to see a real one in action and playing some of those famous sounds - ORCH5, and all. (Even more pleasing was the fact I’d included the Fairlight on the backdrop, so was nice to see that there as well!)

And there were loads of synths - too many mention; I’ll have to write another post..

SynthFest 2019! I'll be there!

Pleased to announce Synth Evolution will be hosting a stall at Synthfest this year. Last year was a blast! (Exhausting, but still a blast).

It’s October 6th 2019 at the Octagon Centre, Sheffield, UK.
All the details are here: www.synthfest.co.uk

I’ll have some exclusive Synth Evolution products this year - more mugs, t-shirts and mousemats with all the synths we know and love on them.

See you there!

ps: I notice in the Sound on Sound video from last year, you can just see the edge of my stand with Martin Ware (Human League, Heaven 17) standing somewhere in front of it. Success!

SynthFestUK - new poster & fun times

SynthFestUK was a blast! Held in Sheffield, UK in October 2018, our stand was up near the entrance of the upper level. Had a great view of the Novation stand and Erica Synth opposite, and was sandwiched between KMR Audio and Tubbutec.

This was how the stand was looking after set-up on Friday:

Synth Evolution stand at #SynthFestUK 2018

Picture doesn’t include the iPad I had with the SynthSounds.net website on so visitors could check out all the vintage synth sounds on that site.

The day was a great success - many happy visitors leaving the show with Synth Evolution posters, mugs and t-shirts. Would definitely love to do it again. The best thing was meeting people and ‘talking synth’ for eight hours! Tiring, but fun. Was great to find out about people’s set-ups and synths. And how far some people had come - Germany, Sweden, Belgium for some.

I walked past Will Gregory (Goldfrapp, WG’s Moog Orchestra) and Martyn Ware (Human League, Heaven 17). (Did I ever mention that I’ve supported the Human League with my band Cassette Eletrik in 2007? Probably.) It was also great meeting writers and editors of Sound on Sound and Electronic Sound, both magazines I’ve been a fan and reader (and occasional writter) for years.

The only thing I’d do differently next time is to bring a buddy to share shift duty on the stand. I literally only had 10 mins break all day and didn’t actually get to see any of the synths or talks. HIGHLY FRUSTRATING!!! :-)