You might not be aware that Steve is not only a visual artist, but also a musician.
From the tender age of two Steve has had a natural passion for sound. His mother felt forced to hide his first wind instrument, driven crazy with the incessant sound of trumpeting, followed closely by the disappearance of the tin drum! Age eight saw him given a harmonica by his granddad, and age eleven a ukulele banjo by an uncle.
At the age of twelve he was forced into a decision between art and music at school. He reluctantly chose one above the other and pursued visual art, but at the age of fourteen had the opportunity to take up guitar lessons with a fellow pupil. Flute has subsequently also become another prime instrument.
Steve’s music has always leaned toward the soulful, passionate and sometimes melancholic (with heroes as diverse as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Leonard Cohen, John McLaughlin, Samuel Barber and Keith Jarrett – to name a few). He very quickly developed his own special style of playing acoustic guitar, which, whilst offering a cursory nod toward his early classical training, has more intrinsically absorbed a variety of authentic influences from jazz-rock and ethnic folk, especially the flamenco tradition.
Today sees Steve with his own sound studio, regularly making what he likes to view as ‘sound sculptures’ by skilful manipulation of a whole universe of sounds available to the contemporary musician, as well as recording natural outdoor sounds for inclusion in much of his work. His 2005 album ‘Tracks Across an Ancient Land’ was a courageous melding of the twin sides of his art, audio and visual, as the album was created as a soundtrack for a show of paintings by the same name at the Great Atlantic Mapworks Gallery in St. Just, near Penzance in Cornwall, UK. The CD also contains a slide show of all the images from the exhibition, along with the sketches he made in preparation for the show.
Into the sound sculptures Steve will usually add live instruments such as guitar, flute or voice. His haunting album ‘Waiting for a Signal’ is the latest example of such work. Like much of Steve’s recent music, there are strong elements of life coaching. Aside from some sublime moments in the music itself, there are words, sometimes even subliminal, which act as a stimulus to personal transformation. Steve explains that his music is deeply involved with spiritual consciousness and universal wholeness, and ever seeks to elevate the mind toward a realisation of oneness of human spirit, and its rightful place in the divine.
Steve’s music studio can be found as an anteroom off his painting studio space, not far from his home in Cornwall. He tends to produce his own albums, but made an exception with the ‘Pause for Breath’ album, which was produced by Dare Mason of V.I.P. Lounge in Penzance, Cornwall. This 2006 album is a compilation of eleven poignant songs that track Steve’s spiritual path through a fall from grace, his overwhelming sadness, and a passionate determination to transcend. The songs, however, do not leave the listener feeling in any way an outsider to the experience, but rather facilitate the listener along their own path. And ‘moving’ is probably the best description for the whole album. To quote another singer’s expression regarding this work is a message: “Steve, you really do bear the sadness of the world; but the catharsis you inspire enables the light to come through”. (Poppy Seed 2005) These clear songs cannot be fitted within either folk or classical genres, and can only be experienced for themselves. In this we are reminded of the timelessness of Nick Drake - honesty shines through uninhibited.
Throughout the past decade or so, Steve has also been involved in projects with other musicians - some quite diverse. We find him working with West African musicians, improvising with performing poets, playing with a South American singer, in an avant-garde trio, playing flute in a 6-piece band, etc.
We hope you will enjoy your own excursions into the musical world of Steve Slimm, and maybe feel for yourself that singularly personal connection with whatever moves such artists and composers to want to touch us as deeply as is humanly possible – with their own special brand of humanity.
Follow the links below for Steve’s music:
