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Shaun Blezard

Shaun Blezard is a composer and improviser working with digital technology. Currently his interest lies in smart technology and his playing is based around an iPhone and iPad. Touch screen technology, accelerometers and wireless technology are opening up so many avenues of exploration in music and it is becoming much more like playing a traditional instrument.

Shaun has been working with digital/electronic music for 20 years, starting with basic samplers in the 90’s, through various versions of laptop set ups, fx boards and current smart technology. Starting in the world of ambient dance, he has evolved into a skilled electronic musician, playing a range of styles from sound art installations to full on free improv, pushing for new ways of expression working with new technologies and how they integrate with traditional instrumentation.

He has played with range of contemporary artists including Matthew Bourne, Ryoko Akama, Keith Jafratte, Charlie Collins, Kalendar, Anton Hunter, Mick Beck, Martin Archer, Stephen Grew, Steve Lewis, Seth Bennett, Susan Matthews and Yoko Miura.

Awards

Portfolio Improviser - Sound and Music 2014 New Voice Composer - Sound and Music 2014 Nominated for Arts Foundation Fellowship 2014

Orfeo 5: In The Green Castle

Read "In The Green Castle" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
December 6, 2017

You never know what to expect from this UK-based record label, which is often a good thing. Otherwise, its website accurately delineates that Orfeo 5, “play what might best be described as improvised narrative landscape music, their pieces evolving over time to create a sense of place and journey." It's an acoustic-electric set, largely nestled in the experimental domain. Occasionally the core trio --abetted by Shaun Blezard's insightful electronics manipulations--venture into hardboiled sojourns via stinging or ...

“No, these improvisations aren’t useless in the kipple way, rather the band Kipple creates environment that tends to build upon one another and create a sound that almost reproduces itself, “It always gets more and more.” Kipple is the hybrid of improvisational jazz and electronic music with Simpson and Blezard on substituting their electronic talents for the more standard piano. “Acts of Silence

Orfeo 5 - live at Totally Wired‘Orfeo 5 have created an album that has haunted my seedee player this last month. You can hear their influences (especially that of Parker) but not in any way that’s distracting or demeaning to either party. Jafrate’s saxophone alternates between atonality and lyricism with sublime ease and Blezard’s noises can be both unobtrusive and leading depending on the particular compositions…..Both players interlink almost seamlessly…..a mighty fine melding of breath, circuitry and oodles of ideas. Recommended.’ Wonderful Wooden Reasons