Steven Wilson

Porcupine Tree

VOYAGE 31 chronicles the concert history of Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson from a unique Dutch perspective. This deluxe hardcover coffee table book (160 pages) by journalist Wouter Bessels is written in Dutch, but will appeal to fans worldwide as it is filled with never before seen photographs and pictures of rare memorabilia. The limited and numbered edition of the book comes with an exclusive 7inch featuring a recreation of the rare SW 'Cure For Optimism' single (an alternate edit and mix of the version that later appeared on Porcupine Tree’s Recordings). More information and details 👉 http://smarturl.it/pt-sw-voyage31

Watch Jess Cope's beautiful video for ‘Song of Unborn’ 🐋 in full on my YouTube channel, here 👉 https://youtu.be/YXki_m6bF7o "I took Carl Sagan's quote, "We are all made of star stuff” and based the film around that idea for Song of Unborn. Using abstract imagery and different styles of animation, the video represents the human form developing from the inside of its body instead of inside the womb. This is the first film that I have made with next to no narrative. I focused more on using the evolution of animation as a way to represent the evolving foetus in utero. The combination of space, sky, sea and fish just seemed to be the direction I wanted to take it. The paper cut out fish at the start represent sperm, the string rays are red blood cells through veins and the jellyfish are nerves. The whales represent the transition from gill-bearing aquatic fish that can only survive underwater to air breathing mammals that give birth to live young. It depicts the transition from a baby inside the mother's womb to the birth and its first breath. I enjoyed exploring new animation techniques and I am pretty pleased with the way this video turned out, but after experiencing the process of working with CGI I would undoubtedly stick to traditional, old school, hand made, in camera effects. My favourite scene is the space scene. I created it on a multiplane and poked millions of tiny holes in a piece of black wrap that sat at the back of the set. The space dust was created with talcum power on different layers of glass and the planet/egg was made out of a gel ball that florists use. The fish were made out of card and painted with metallic paint to catch the natural light. By using a real camera zoom it gave the magical illusion of depth and space." - Jess Cope

Jess Cope's beautiful video for ‘Song of Unborn’ will be premiered on my YouTube channel tonight at 7pm BST (2pm EST, 11am PST). Don't miss it! 👉 https://youtu.be/YXki_m6bF7o

My longtime visual collaborator Lasse Hoile is releasing Muzak: The Visual Art of Porcupine Tree, which showcases many never-before seen images from his photography, stage backdrops, films and album art sessions. Muzak covers the period between the 2002 album In Absentia to 2009's The Incident. Muzak is now available to pre-order from The Flood Gallery across three different editions - Deluxe, Collectors and Signature. The first 500 deluxe editions sold include a free exclusive two-sided A3 Lasse Hoile art print. http://smarturl.it/LasseHoileMuzak

A year ago today, the third and final Royal Albert Hall concert on the To The Bone tour was filmed and recorded for the live release Home Invasion. To mark this anniversary, a new 5LP vinyl box set has been released by Caroline International containing the whole performance plus previously unreleased tracks not featured on last year's CD/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital release 👉 https://stevenwilson.lnk.to/HI5LP 🎥 by Crystal Spotlight

My Bass Communion project now has its own Bandcamp page, where much of the discography is now available to listen to and purchase digitally (more releases will be added soon). https://basscommunion.bandcamp.com For those of you who aren't familiar with Bass Communion, this is my ambient / noise / experimental project, which has been active since the mid 90's, and now has 9 albums, several EPs, a box set, and a number of collaborative works to its name, across both vinyl and CD formats. Very rarely are synthesisers used, most of the source material comes from recordings of things such as percussion, piano, guitar, choir, and a lot of old 78 records! Many of the albums focus on one or two single sound sources, such as Molotov and Haze which uses only guitar, and Pacific Codex which uses only recordings of metal percussion. While a lot of the physical releases are still available to purchase from outlets such as Burning Shed, many others were small editions that have long since sold out, so the Bandcamp page makes the music more permanently available for those who wish to explore it.

Home Invasion deluxe 5LP vinyl edition out 29th March: https://StevenWilson.lnk.to/HI5LP After it’s release on CD, DVD and Blu-ray last year, Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall now arrives as a deluxe 5LP vinyl edition that takes the film soundtrack and expands it across 4 heavyweight LPs, plus an extra LP containing 6 additional tracks (3 are the rehearsal tracks included as extras on the DVD and Blu-ray, 3 are previously unreleased). Each disc is housed in its own sleeve, and also included is a 32 page full colour, glossy tour book. All the contents are housed in a beautiful “mirror” effect hard slipcase. Strictly limited one-off worldwide pressing. Pre-order now from Burning Shed! 🎬 Unboxing video filmed by Crystal Spotlight

I was recently interviewed by Danish 🇩🇰 radio station myROCK and I spoke about my ideas for the next record, touring and more. Listen in full here 👉 http://smarturl.it/sw-myrockdk-podcast

And so finally the To the Bone tour comes to an end. 14 months and 145 shows performed to over a quarter of a million people in 33 different countries. Even though I'm ready for it to end and to get back to working on new things, it's been a wonderful journey with some very special people. I gave up long ago telling the band they gave 110% after gigs, because they basically gave 110% at *every* show. So my humble gratitude to Adam Holzman, Alex Hutchings, Craig Blundell, and Nick Beggs for playing the music with such dexterity, commitment and soul every night, for being such wonderful touring companions and for putting up with me! I wish them the very best with their next projects. The show was also quite a technical feat to stage every night and behind every spectacular show is a spectacular crew. So I owe a massive debt of gratitude to Tonto, Ian Bond, Karma Auger, Dave Taylor, Tellson James and Dan Oswald for making the show look and sound as good as it did, sometimes under incredible pressure and limitations. To "Lord" Dave Salt for tour managing the mind blowing logistics of the whole thing (plus to Mike Scoble for stepping in when Dave wasn't available) and to Adam Mussett (Europe) and Megan Harrell (America) for handling the merchandise. To all the bus and truck drivers; Darren, Anja, Elvis, Richard, James, Steve, James and Brad for getting us and the equipment safely to our destinations in all sorts of inclement weather conditions. Finally in the "without whom" department, not present on the tour but just as essential to making it what it was, are my friend and fellow architect in designing the show, visual genius Lasse Hoile, and Jess Cope for once again creating incredible animated visuals. And last but not least; if you came to any of the shows, then I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support and enthusiasm for the music, you were a big part of this too. Now I'm going home.... S xxx 📷 Band photos by Lidschlag

Watch The Raven That Refused To Sing (from Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall) http://smarturl.it/raven-rah This week marks the sixth anniversary of the 2013 release of The Raven That Refused to Sing, an album that was in many ways my loving homage to seventies style progressive rock. To commemorate that anniversary here is the title track as taken from the recently released Home Invasion concert film, recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall last year, complete with Jess Cope's brilliant animation. A deluxe 5LP vinyl box set of the soundtrack to the film will be released next month, including some bonus music not included in the film.

Musicians, including myself, pay tribute in The Guardian to the musical visionary Mark Hollis, who passed away this week.

A series of photos 📸 taken by Hajo Müller in Hamburg on 20th Feb. I love them because they show many of the different emotions I move through during (and before) a concert. Performing for nearly 3 hours every night during the To the Bone tour has been a very intense and rewarding experience, but one that always leaves me pretty drained by the end of the night.

One of the things I’ve appreciated most about the To the Bone tour is what a joyous experience it’s been. This is definitely the happiest band and crew I’ve ever had, across 140 shows barely a moment of discord or raised voice, everyone working together to make every show special, always with a lot of joking around and good humour. And I feel that this sense of fun has translated to the audience, so that even though my music tends towards darker things, the shows have felt like a celebration of life. 📷 by Hajo Müller

😱 If you missed it, Lasse Hoile's brilliant video 🎬 for 'The Same Asylum as Before' is now online! Watch here 👉🏻 smarturl.it/sw-tsaab-video

😱 THE SAME ASYLUM AS BEFORE 🎬 smarturl.it/sw-tsaab-video Lasse Hoile's brilliant video for The Same Asylum as Before has only been viewable as part of the live To the Bone concert experience until now, but with the tour finally coming to an end in a few weeks, the time has come to share it online, especially since it's been very popular and much requested. Lasse and the actors shot the video in sub-zero temperatures in Denmark in January 2018, so it sounds like it's a lot more fun to watch than it was to make. Enjoy! Shot, cut and directed by: Lasse Hoile Produced by: Fade to Grey 2018 for SW Productions Ltd. Papermache heads designed by: Bente Laurenz Jacobsen Woodface designed by: Bettina Ejlersen Line producer: Camilla Schmidt Woodface actor: Nikolaj Buhrkal Perturbed big-head guy: Frank Rosgaard

There is now an official Steven Wilson page on Weibo for my Chinese 🇨🇳 fans, with a welcome message and some recent videos. If you are based in China (or know someone that is) please follow the page, I'm really curious to find out how many people are listening to my music with a view to hopefully playing concerts there one day! http://weibo.com/stevenwilsonhq

The show in Copenhagen 🇩🇰 on 21st February is moving venue from the Royal Arena to Det Kongelige Teater (Opera House). All tickets 🎫 for the Royal Arena will be honoured, but please note that there are only a few remaining tickets available for this show. In addition Tel Aviv 🇮🇱 Bologna 🇮🇹 and Helsinki 🇫🇮 are now completely sold out, and shows in Rennes 🇫🇷 Brussels 🇧🇪 Bergamo 🇮🇹 and Bochum 🇩🇪 are down to the last remaining tickets. stevenwilsonhq.com/sw/tour-dates/ 📷 by Joe del Tufo

Soundcheck in Lisbon 🇵🇹 today for the first show of the final leg of the To the Bone / Home Invasion tour, and probably last shows for quite some time. Looking forward to this! 😎

The new Tim Bowness album "Flowers at the Scene", which I co-produced and mixed with him under the no-man moniker, is now available to pre-order for 1st March release. As I previously wrote I think the album is wonderful. It features 11 diverse and concise songs of propulsive Art Rock, heartbreaking ballads and quirky pop, delivering cinematic storytelling and confessional lyrics. You can sample the album by watching a lyric video for the first single "I Go Deeper" here: https://youtu.be/ptY7m76xAps Available from burningshed.com/store/timbowness as deluxe digipak CD, 180g black vinyl, and 180g red vinyl editions. Both vinyl editions come in a gatefold cover with insert and also include a CD of the album.

There's only a very limited number of VIP upgrades remaining for the forthcoming Europe tour! burningshed.com/store/headphonedust/sw_hd_viptickets The upgrade (sold exclusively through Burning Shed and available for select shows only) includes early entry to attend an informal soundcheck performance of a few songs that won’t be in the main show, as well as exclusive goodies including a 60 minute live CD of a high quality recording made during the 2013 Raven tour (while Chad Wackerman was with the band). Each CD will be signed and personalised with your name, and will not be available from any other source. Strasbourg 🇫🇷 and Helsinki 🇫🇮 are sold out and only a handful of tickets remain for the Tel Aviv 🇮🇱 Bologna 🇮🇹 Bochum 🇩🇪 and Brussels 🇧🇪 shows.

Some of you will know that for about 10 years starting in the mid 90’s I did a fair amount of music / sound design for TV 📺 commercials alongside my own musical activities. These were nearly all in the UK, for brands like LEGO, The Observer, Sony PlayStation, Ski, M&M's UK, and MTV, some of which you may recognise if you’re of a certain age. Many of these were directed by my good friend Mike Bennion. Mike is also the person with whom I collaborated in 2003-4 on a script for a surreal ghost movie called Deadwing, which we wrote to give him an opportunity to direct a feature-length film. At the time we didn’t manage to get it financed, but we have recently reactivated and rewritten it (and changed the title) with a view to trying again, especially since what would have been fairly expensive to make 15 years ago is now more viable. These days you can make high quality movies on iPhones after all. At the time I recorded several songs and instrumental pieces for the soundtrack, but when it didn’t get off the ground they were instead placed on Deadwing and Insurgentes. For example the “David” mentioned in the song Lazarus is the main character in the Deadwing script, and the album version is essentially the demo I made for the movie with Gav’s drums added. What I want to do here is share with you one of the commercials we collaborated on around the same time we were working on the script, for a digital radio company called DMX. I chose this one because in terms of the visual aesthetic it’s closest to what we had (and still have) in mind for the film. Mike’s approach was to create as much of the surreal imagery as possible in camera rather than with computer manipulation, and I love the organic feel such that you can sense his personality and fingerprints in every frame. I have a memory that the company itself hit some financial problems soon after it was made, so I don’t know if the commercial was even broadcast in the end, but I happen to think it’s a bit of a work of art. Hoping to bring more news on the developing movie 🎥 soon (PS - we may need your help).

Steven Wilson’s New Year Update 2019

Home Invasion: In Concert at the Royal Albert Hall will be released as a lavish five 180gm vinyl box set via Caroline International on 22nd March 2019. Pre-order now 👉🏻 https://stevenwilson.lnk.to/HomeInvasionPC 🎬 by Crystal Spotlight

Both the 'Get All You Deserve' live album (recorded in Mexico City in 2012 on the Grace for Drowning tour) and 'Drive Home' (including unreleased tracks and live recordings from the Raven tour in 2013) are now available on all streaming/download services! 🎧 https://stevenwilsonkscope.lnk.to/Get_All_You_Deserve https://stevenwilsonkscope.lnk.to/Drive_Home