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Pioneering Welsh synthesist primarily active during the 1980s.
Kevin was one of the rare examples of a unique talent with a distinctive
personal style. True, he did occasionally display his roots and influences in
his music, but he never set out to copy or emulate anyone. So Kevin was not
another Schulze or TD wannabe, and this was what made his music so
invigorating and exciting - we'd never encountered the likes of it before!
For this reason alone Kevin's music has remained fresh and vital. Kevin
released a total on 9 albums over 9 years, starting in 1984 with ICON - an
album that was released with universal acclaim from the
"electronica" community. A playful, yet dark edged, music full of
unique ideas - it established his style which he developed on and came up
with further new angles from, never quite repeating himself throughout his
career. Keys to the development of his sound included the OSCar synthesizer,
manufactured by the Oxford Synthesiser Company from 1983, an instrument that
was ahead of its time in many ways and one of the few mono-synths of its time
to have MIDI. Kevin was also not a musician, but a dabbler. He had some
training in electronic studio techniques, with help from Steve Howell at his
Cardiff Hollow Sun Studio. But that was it, everything else was down his own
exploration and experimentation. And throughout those 9 years Kevin never
stopped experimenting. Kevin also played at 2 of the annual Electronica
festivals, in Stafford and in London, and also at some other special events
organised by the Network 23 collective of electronic musicians. It seems that
he only gave up on music when cassette sales in the 1990s dwindled, and he
since turned his attention to other things, as an author and computer artist.
Initially we presented our
favourite two releases on Auricle CDR, namely: ICON and INTIMATIONS OF
IMMORTALITY, his first and third cassettes. These were cleaned-up for an
authentic sound sans hiss or defects and remastered by Alan Freeman at
Tachyon studio. Since negotiating those, Kevin gave his permission to reissue
all his other cassettes. But, as a lot of the master tapes had long been
lost, some help was needed. Fortunately Jack McCafferty had archived all his
collection, and also some had gained release before in digital form. Puzzling
it all together, it was possible to recreated the complete collection of
releases as superior sounding CDs, adding some unreleased material as well as
2 archive collections and a free introductory download sampler.
Unfortunately Kevin O'Neill died in April 2025 after
complications with surgery. This inevitably means that I can no longer ask
Kevin for permission to do further runs of his CDR releases, which means all
are now deleted with just the remaing quantities as detailed on the release
pages. There will be no further runs, and the 2xCDR Live set is now deleted.
However, Kevin did express that we should keep the download versions on
release as long as possible.
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reviews...
Kevin O'Neill synthesist
Germany was without doubt the birthplace and hotbed of what has become
popularly known as Synthesizer or Eurock Music, and although many of the
original innovators, Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, et. al. still
thrive, it's sad to say that little music of worth now emanates from that
quarter.
A large proportion of present day
progressive, inventive and interesting electronic music is now being produced
by British artistes who, whilst acknowledging a great debt to their Teutonic
mentors have managed in most cases to adapt and mould the music to produce
their own individual styles. Interest in and respect for these UK
composer/musicians has been steadily increasing over the past few years and
names that immediately spring to mind in this context are Ron Berry, Ian
Boddy, Mark Jenkins, Carl Matthews, Paul Nagle, Colin Potter and Mark
Shreeve.
To this small, but important band of
synthesists should now be added the name of newcomer Kevin O'Neill.
Kevin was born in Cardiff in 1945
and like most people of his generation (myself included) was weaned on the
music of The Beatles, thence Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, etc. It was
not until the very late seventies however, that he became immersed in the
synthesizer music of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Around this time a
number of events affected Kevin's personal circumstances and general outlook
on life and music. After a rather chequered career in numerous jobs he was
made redundant and left to survive via his own devices. From various music
magazines he read of and became interested in more avant-garde electronic
music (thus learning that there was life beyond Tangerine Dream and Schulze!)
and a desire to produce music himself led to him borrowing his younger
brother's Wasp synthesizer. Once ignited the spark flared and the desire to
learn more about synthesizer and electronic music grew.
Towards the end of 1982 he enrolled
for synthesizer lessons from Steve Howell and thus learned the basic
principles of analogue synthesis. A firm friendship twixt student and tutor
developed. Being unemployed, funds were hard to come by, but thanks to an
understanding family Kevin managed to purchase a Roland SH-101 and a
second-hand Sony TC-377 domestic tape-recorder. Thus, set up, recordings were
made at home during the first part of 1983 and later in the year at Steve's
Hollow Sun Studio utilising the far more sophisticated equipment available
there. From these humble beginnings Kevin's first commercially available tape
album ICON was produced and released in August, 1984.
Opening paragraph of Peter Harrison's Kevin O'Neill article in Audion #2
(September 1986)
Kevin O’Neill - ISLANDS (own label K 05) MC
Kevin O'Neill, on the other hand, has decided to go for
the lengthy approach to composing, but on side 1 of his new tape he goes
through more rewarding musical moments in 20 minutes than you’ll find on 50
minutes of the other two. Musically Kevin’s now in a category all of his own,
sort of melodic/cosmic space-music that is constantly changing as you listen
to it, only noticeably so and not a subtle/subliminal change that makes some
others minutes seem like hours. In terms of mood it recalls early seventies
Tangerine Dream and was just made for a non-sunny day. Right from the start
it grabs your attention and just forces you to listen until it stops, full of
multi-layered synth melodies/space-music, it reveals a potentially huge, if
not exactly commercial, talent at work. But that’s not all, there’s a side 2
and, after side 1, it comes as a shock to the system, being almost early
Shreeve-like in its approach with a long track of free-flying synth music but
without any real melody/rhythm, yet certainly not spacey/cosmic. Kevin seems
to have found the listener’s answer to "free-form synth music" with
a composition that, whilst strange, is again totally absorbing. At parts,
repetition (not that apparent until a few plays) creeps in and Kevin, like
Shroeder, obviously needs those cosmic scissors, but overall a remarkable fourth
album and his best by a long way.
[part of a 3-way review by Andy Garibaldi, including albums by Gandalf and
Robert Schroeder]
more reviews are included on some of the release pages
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discography...
ICON (AN ELECTRONIC MUSIC ALBUM) - MC
private K.T. 01 (1984), CDR Auricle AMCDR 234 (2017)
METAMORPHOSIS - MC private K 03 (1985), CDR Auricle
AMCDR 244 (2017)
INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY - MC private K 04 (1986), CDR Auricle
AMCDR 235 (2017)
ISLANDS - MC private K 05 (1987), CDR Auricle AMCDR 247 (2017)
OMEGA - MC private K 06 (1988), CDR Auricle
AMCDR 248 (2017)
LIVE! - MC private K 07 (1988), LIVE! + 2xCDR
Auricle AMCDR 255/6 (2017)
KATHARSIS - MC Direction Music dmc 09 (1990), CDR Auricle
AMCDR 259 (2017)
YGGDRASIL - MC Direction Music dmc 22 (1991), CDR Auricle
AMCDR 263 (2017)
A HOSTAGE TO FORTUNE - MC Arrival Music AM 002 (1993), CDR Auricle
AMCDR 264 (2017)
THE SECRET TAPES - CDR Auricle AMCDR 275 (2017) unreleased
archives
compilations...
COMPENDIUM - MC Direction Music dmc 12
(1990) original track: The Game Pts 1 - 5, plus 4
remixes
ICONOCLAST - THE VERY BEST OF KEVIN O'NEILL - CDR Arrival Music
AM.CDS.1 (200?)
DEPARTURES - AN ODDMENTS ANTHOLOGY 1985 TO 1996 - 2xCDR Auricle AMCDR
273/4 (2017) includes all the tracks listed here in
grey (except Zen And The Art Of Falling Off Buildings Parts 1-3 which is a
bonus on LIVE! +)
REFLECTIONS - DL Auricle AMDLS BC3 (2018) original
tracks: Pamukkale, Reflections
unique Kevin O’Neill tracks on various artists
releases...
MYTHS OF FAR AND NEAR - MC private K 02 (1985) track:
Zen And The Art Of Falling Off Buildings Parts 1-3
 A CAGE WENT IN SEARCH OF A BIRD - 2MC
Dark Star DS 1-2 (1985) track: The Claws That Catch
JOURNEY TO THE END OF NIGHT - 2MC Auricle AMC 014 (1986) track: Scylla And Charybdis
THE CANTILEVERS OF PASSION - MC Land Of Yrx Products Basl 27 (1987) track: The Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle (also on the
re-compilation: NEW AGE MUSIC FOR INDUSTRIAL AREAS)
U.K. ELECTRONICA '86 - The Final Front-Ear - MC Lotus Records (1987) track: Berceuse
SOUNDS UNKNOWN VOL 2 - MC Sounds Unknown SU 3 (1988) tracks: Sherry's Song, Nant Fawr
THE 2ND AMP RECORDS COMPILATION ALBUM - MC AMP Records AMP-C 007
(1988) track: Pieces Of Eyot
THE DREAM IS JUST BEGINNING - MC Electronical Dreams 002 (1988) track: Oscar's Theme
DIRECTIONS - MC Direction Music dmc 01 (1989) track:
Krakatoa
REMOTE VIEWING VOL.2 - MC Network 23 Box 002 (1989) track: Lik Mai
ARRIVAL - MC Arrival Music AM 001 (1993) tracks:
Gilgamesh, St. Paul's, Flowers For Algernon
FROM THE HILLS OF DREAM - MC Direction Music dmc 24 (1994), VHS
dmv 01 (1994) track: Shining Water
APHELION - MC Messenger Music MRM 9 (1996) tracks: Joy, Bosnia, There Is A Place, Are You Joe King?
other notable compilation appearances...
REMOTE VIEWING 1 - MC Network 23 Box 001 (1986)
THE INTIMATE TEXTURE OF SOUND - LP HWYL 1 (1987)
CYFEIRIADAU GWAHANOL - MC Direction Music dmc 13 (1990)
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Kevin
O'Neill reviews in Audion - #1/10, #2/26-28 = interview/article,
#3/8+10, #5/27, #7/27+31, #8/18, #9/28, #10/3+28, #12/10+14-16+22+32+33,
#15/35, #17/4, #22/25+33, #26/24, #29/39, #44/41, #53/28
plus: #62/21-22 = Auricle reissues article
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