“These ingeniously interwoven pieces, using Moogs, Mellatrons and Korgs, are a fitting sonic tribute to a great mathematical mind.’
– Electronic Sound
Will Gregory Moog Ensemble – formed by the Ivor Novello winning musician, producer and co-creator of Goldfrapp, Will Gregory – have announced a Digital Deluxe edition of their debut album, Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project, set for release on Mute on 27 September 2024.
The deluxe edition – described by Will as “the soundtrack to an imaginary Archimedes biopic” – features insights from the recreational mathematician, comedian and author Matt Parker, best known for his YouTube series, Standup Maths. The nine pieces written and presented by Parker each introduce a track from the album giving fascinating insights into the life, inventions and legacy of Archimedes, the Greek mathematician who lived and worked in the third century BC.
The album – recorded by the Moog Ensemble on analogue synthesisers, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales – has been augmented with two bonus tracks, ‘Heavy Logic’ and ‘Parabolic Sleuth’. Listen to ‘Parabolic Sleuth’:
The album’s inspiration, which Parker expands on in his insights, arrived when Will started digging into the mathematician’s life, after watching lectures online during the pandemic lockdown. “I became a bit of a YouTube fiend. Attending all these lectures I would never normally go to on subjects I had no business to be interested in. Scratch any of these maths gurus and it turned out Archimedes was their favourite mathematician. I wanted to find out why.”
A series of live dates will coincide with the release – starting with Hidden Notes festival in Stroud before three performances with the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican, London Basingstoke and in Saffron Walden and a further date in Southampton for the ensemble. Further details below, with more dates to be added.
Although the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble have been performing together since 2005, it took Archimedes to bring them all together to commit these spirals of melody, circular structures, sequences, and patterns to tape. The ensemble’s members – a talented bunch who have worked with the likes of Florence & the Machine and Dua Lipa – include Portishead’s Adrian Utley, a longtime collaborator of Will’s, who co-produced and plays on the album. Mute’s Daniel Miller is its “kind of executive producer”, and he even played on one of the tracks. “Given he’s been into synths right from his early days, and is a genius with them, that was a good moment”, alongside John Baggott, Graham Fitkin, Simon Haram, Vyvyan Hope-Scott, Ross Hughes, Hazel Mills, Daniel Moore, Hinako Omori, Eddie Parker, Harriet Riley and Ruth Wall, their instruments include Minimoog, Moog Voyager, Korg 700s, Prophet 6 and Roland JX3P, their individual lines coming together in intricate arrangements creating a stunning superstructure of sounds.
The album has been a humbling, joyful project for the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble, and it continues to be, with Will enthusing, “I mean, the knowledge that these people had. And also, the idea that it only takes one person to absolutely leap the whole of civilisation forward, take so many steps – it’s astonishing. And to think that libraries were burned, and so much knowledge was lost for millennia. It reminds us what we have to hold onto.”
Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project takes the fertile imagination and application of those incredible times, and adds an effervescent spirit of discovery to the mix, one that often crackles and sparkles when musicians are powerfully inspired to make music together. Another legacy of Archimedes’ work rises up as a consequence – an album that brings ancient history into the modern world, pushing us towards an endlessly curious fascinating future.
Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project – Digital Deluxe edition is out on 27 September. The original version is out now on vinyl, CD and download on Mute.
Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project – Digital Deluxe tracklisting
Digital disc 1
- Young Archimedes
- Buoyancy Theory
- Circles, Spirals and Pi
Law of the Lever - The Claw
- Archimedes’ Screw
- Heat Ray
- The Sand Reckoner
- Archimedes’ Legacy
- Heavy Logic – new bonus track
- Parabolic Sleuth – new bonus track
Digital disc 2
- Young Archimedes (Matt Parker Insight)
- Young Archimedes
- Buoyancy (Matt Parker Insight)
- Buoyancy Theory
- Circles, Spirals and Pi (Matt Parker Insight)
- Circles, Spirals and Pi
- Law of the Lever (Matt Parker Insight)
- Law of the Lever
- The Claw (Matt Parker Insight)
- The Claw
- Archimedes’ Screw (Matt Parker Insight)
- Archimedes’ Screw
- Heat Ray (Matt Parker Insight)
- Heat Ray
- The Sand Reckoner (Matt Parker Insight)
- The Sand Reckoner
- Archimedes’ Legacy (Matt Parker Insight)
- Archimedes’ Legacy
Will Gregory Moog Ensemble dates
21-22 Sep – Hidden Notes Festival, Stroud
8 Oct – Barbican, London – with the Britten Sinfonia
9 Oct – Basingstoke, The Anvil – with the Britten Sinfonia
10 Oct – Southampton, Turner Sims
11 Oct – Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden – with the Britten Sinfonia
Will Gregory Moog Ensemble players
Will Gregory – Minimoog and Mellotron
Graham Fitkin – Moog Voyager
Hazel Mills – Prophet 6 and Minimoog
Ruth Wall – Korg 700s
Vyvyan Hope-Scott – Minimoog
Hinako Omori – Prophet 08, OB6 and Minimoog
Daniel Moore – Moog Sub 37 and Minimoog
Adrian Utley – Minimoog
Ross Hughes – Roland Promars Compuphonic MRS-2, Minimoog, flute and bass clarinet
Eddie Parker – Minimoog and Roland JX-3P
John Baggott – Minimoog
Simon Haram – Minimoog and EWI
Harriet Riley – Marimba, snare and bass drum
