Rowan Bishop

Listeners are welcomed inside the hallowed soundproofed walls of Eno’s London studio to experience first-hand the recording methods of his latest project. An immersive experience, we are up close and personal to one of the most important artists and producers of the 20th and 21st century. An opportunity to understand Eno's creative processes when it comes to composing and recording new material, as well as revealing the innovative ways this music can be used for the good of the planet.

I created original music for the episode as well as providing mix and mastering.

You can hear the show here.

Self-confessed sports geeks Elis James and Colin Murray are here to serve up the juiciest tales from the world of sports – think epic rivalries, scrappy underdogs, and the wildest comebacks and you’re in the right ball park.

Thought you knew the story? Think again. From top-secret training sessions to dressing room dust-ups, join Colin & Elis as they dive into the greatest sporting stories of all time (and probably get a yellow card for simulation!). Blood? Sweat? Tears? Sport has it all. And that’s why we love it.

I was brought onboard by Crowd Network to mix, master, edit and sound design the podcast.

A smart speaker for kids that inspires creative, independent play.

I was commissioned by Yoto to create 15 bespoke themed soundscapes for creative play. I visited a racetrack, airport, diggerland and many more locations to capture immersive binaural sounds for inclusion into this collection.

In addition to the soundscapes they also asked me to create 5 timers for meditation, exercise and more. I created binaural recordings of the sea, prayer bowls and more to make fun and immersive musical timers.

Josh Widdicombe and Dara Ó Briain explore the exceptional circumstances that allowed a below average footballer to find his way onto football’s most elite stage, the Premier League.

Ali Dia - It's a name synonymous with footballing failure. Whether he’s guilty of a con, a hustle, or simply of being the recipient of a lucky break, Dara and Josh unearth the reality behind the myth that has surrounded his name for the past quarter-century.

I sound designed, wrote music for, mixed and mastered this series for Global and Listen.

You can hear the series here.

The podcast that shows the fun side and real-world implications of the insights from behavioural science. For innovators and anyone who is interested in human behaviour around the world, who want to make smarter decisions about how they design their lives and businesses.

I wrote and produced this series for VCCP and Cowry Consulting.

You can hear the series here.

It's a war with many names - The Yom Kippur War, the Ramadan War, the October War.

What is clear 50 years after it was fought is that it was a conflict that really did change the world. In this Archive on 4, Michael Goldfarb tells the story of the war that began on 6th October 1973 and ended less than three weeks later, yet somehow the combatants and the rest of the world still live with the aftermath.

I provided music, sound design, mix and master.

You can hear the show here.

Renowned venue Bristol Beacon reopened its doors in 2023 after a five year closure for renovation. The accompanying publicity campaign featured online and radio advertisements.

I provided sound design, mix and master for the campaign.

New four-part podcast series 'Mind the Gap - Tube 160' tells remarkable stories of what makes the world's oldest Underground network so iconic - by people who love it.

Presented by railway historian, broadcaster and lifelong Underground enthusiast Tim Dunn, the podcast guides listeners on a journey through many of the ways in which people enjoy the Tube network from its extensive architectural heritage to enabling London's rich night-time culture.

I provided light sound design as well as mix and master.

You can hear the series here.

Wally, a nuclear physicist from Idaho, faced almost certain death when he flew into the Central Highlands of Vietnam to prevent nuclear devastation, during the end days of the war.

Working with 2 Degrees West productions, I provided original music and sound design and well as mix and master.

You can hear the episode here.

Aired as a part of The Documentary series on the BBC World Service, the program followed the female scientists using solar tech to help fisherfolk in South East Asia reduce their impact on the environment, improve their health and earn money.

Working with 2 Degrees West productions, I provided original music and sound design and well as mix and master.

You can hear the program here.

Inspired by the Somali-style nomadic structure called the Aqal, Dhaqan Collective has co-created this interactive installation with Somali communities in Bristol and beyond, integrating Somali weaving songs and woven tapestries in an experiment to connect the city to cultural practices that can inspire us in our fight to tackle climate change.

Dhaqan Collective invites guests to step inside the House of Weaving Songs, a domed steel structure inspired by the Aqal, a nomadic Somali home. Once inside, become enveloped by a series of beautiful woven tapestries that when touched ignite a sonic patchwork of stories and sounds of Somali women’s traditional weaving songs. Offering the space as a sanctuary to reflect on the significance of Somali culture and our collective climate anxieties, Dhaqan Collective will also invite visitors to add their own voice, connecting the city to endangered ancestral cultural practices.

I was brought onto the project to produce, design and install the audio component of the project. Traditional weaving songs and conversations were recorded using ambisonics and then played back on 4 speakers in the space, creating an immersive experience when the interactive touch points were triggered. A microphone was available to use in the space that was processed in real time in a virtual modular environment, bouncing the sound around the space and weaving together participants’ contributions with the weaving songs.

First shown during Playable City Bristol 2023.

Taco Bell used my track ‘Hard Pressed’ as the music for their social media campaign around their Naked Chicken Taco.

The track is part of the album, “Concrete Cuts”, available to license over at London Sync Music.

For three police recruits in Belfast, the pressure is immense. Facing criminal gangs and divided communities, they don't know who to trust. The odds are, they won't all make it.

My track ‘The Unravelling’ was used as the music for the publicity campaign and trailers for this gritty BBC police drama.

That track can be found on my album ‘Homicide’, published by Twisted Jukebox. Available here.

Emotive, cinematic and contemporary piano & string tracks for overcoming adversity a perfect fit for uplifting and inspiring human stories.

A collaboration with Dave Huntriss, the album was created using piano, modular synths, tape loops and other fun stuff.

ADORE is a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Garry Fabian Miller.

ADORE invites you to explore Fabian Miller’s ‘camera-less’ practice that experiments with darkness and light, and weaves in work by the artists, writers and thinkers that have inspired him over the years.

Arranged around different elements, ADORE reveals an artist of incredible patience – returning to capture the same grove of hawthorn trees throughout the seasons, year after year – and for whom the slowing of time has taken on a deep-rooted importance.

I was commissioned to create the soundtrack to two films that are showing at the exhibition. Working with poet Alice Oswald, and combining the reading of her poetry with experimental tape loop textures, the final 5.1 surround audio envelops the listener in words and sounds that support Garry’s stunning visuals.

I was asked to put together a music package for the New Scientist Weekly Podcast. This includes a main theme and a series of beds and stings to support their fantastic content. The brief was to create something funky and uplifting for the main theme, in a departure from the more traditional ambient music that people might expect from science based content.

In A Life More Wild we walk and talk in the countryside with fascinating people, transporting you to the great outdoors and helping you connect with nature through their unique perspectives.

In series two we’re back outside talking love and loss with Fearne Cotton, tree planting with activist Ellen Miles, potting with Poppy Okotcha and taking a deep breath with rubgy player turned movement coach Richie Norton, among a host of others. In every episode, you’ll find a stroll we’ve taken with one guest and a chat we had another on a similar theme.

I mixed and mastered all episodes in series two.

At the beginning of 1992, from April to September, more than 3,000 innocent people were systematically killed and tortured in the municipality of Prijedor and over 30,000 detained in concentration camps. Season 2 of Untold Killing tells the harrowing story of the war crimes committed where innocent men, women, children and the elderly were detained in concentration camps such as Trnopolje, Keraterm and Omarska. Their testimonies are a reminder of how a peaceful society became hell on earth. It’s a story of torture, injustice and how the world reacted after The Guardian published it’s story about the persecution and killings in the concentration camps echoing that we have failed the promise of “Never Again.”

I edited, mixed, mastered and sound designed series two of Untold Killing, as well as writing the majority of the original music.

The story of the Freshwater Five is either one of the biggest drug busts in British history or one of its greatest miscarriages of justice.

In 2011 a group of fishermen living on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, were convicted of one of the largest, most audacious drug-smuggling plots in British history. They were accused of scooping up £53 mill ($69 mill) worth of pure cocaine in the dead of night from the middle of the English Channel.

The men were given combined sentences of 104 years in prison. But they maintain their innocence and are fighting to clear their names.

Presented by Raphael Rowe, a journalist who himself spent 12 years locked up for a crime he didn’t commit, this series delves into both sides of the case, exploring each twist and turn, to piece together the real Freshwater Five story.

I provided sound design, theme and other original music, edit and mix for The Catch.

The Catch won ‘Best True Crime Podcast’ at the British Podcast Awards 2022.

A podcast that combines first-hand experience with expert analysis, Conflicted breaks down the complexities of history, religion and politics of the Middle East and puts them in a global context.

In Season 3 of the award-nominated CONFLICTED podcast, Islamic scholar Thomas Small and ex-jihadi turned spy Aimen Dean, turn inwards on the region to re-examine the power struggle in the Middle East. Borrowing Samuel Huntington’s idea of The Clash of Civilizations, the hosts begin their investigation into the conflict with the Cold War and then work all the way back to the Bronze Age to answer two main questions: Is the real reason for instability and bloodshed in the region a clash of civilizations? And what ideas are silenced in the mainstream interpretation of the conflict’s origins?

From oil wars to ancient religious cosmology, this season will bring nuance to listeners’ understanding of the Middle East by redefining what it means to discuss, analyse and understand its history and vital role within our global order.

I produced and edited several episodes of Season 3 of Conflicted for Message Heard.

Whistleblowers tells the stories of some of the world’s bravest people. Meet the extraordinary doctors, scientists and civil servants who risked their careers, lives and even the safety of their families to stand up to those who refuse to tell the truth.

A Spotify exclusive.

I provide sound design for and also mix Whistleblowers for Stabl.

Small Business, Big Lessons is a new podcast from Buffer that goes behind the scene with inspirational small businesses who are truly driving innovation and redefining how work happens.

I was brought on board by production company Message Heard to produce this series for social media management software giants Buffer. I worked with Buffer to build the eight episode series, producing, editing, mixing, sound designing and writing the theme music.

Listen on Spotify here.

In The Last Custodian Podcast poet, spoken word artist and disability rights champion Stephen Lightbown reads his poetry collection, The Last Custodian, in full and engages in thought provoking conversations with poets, writers and other disability rights activists around creative process, access issues in the arts and how to survive an apocalypse.

I produced, recorded, mixed and mastered this series as well as writing original music to accompany the poetry readings.

I used modular synthesisers, a baritone guitar and orchestral elements to create a score that complemented the post apocalyptic imagery and sense of intrigue, loss and longing.

I was asked to work on sound design and mix for the promotional video for the collaboration between sunglasses brand SunGod and the McLaren Formula 1 Team.

Focussing on mechanical car and engine sounds, I layered up field recordings of actual F1 cars with other mechanical noises and synth layers to create an aggressive and dynamic feel. I also used granular synthesis to design a soundscape for the final shot of the glasses.

You can see the full video and find out more about the collaboration here.

Your Amazing Mind is a podcast series produced with the University of Bristol shining a light on mental health issues experienced by students.

Each episode features the story of a student relating to different aspects of mental health, and then a discussion with an expert in the field.

I produced the podcast with UoB and 18Sixty, including edit, mix, master, music and sound design.

You can listen to Your Amazing Mind by clicking here.

Atmospheric, shimmering, dreamy and floaty with all sounds made by an electric guitar.

I wrote this album for production music library Twisted Jukebox’s new ‘Simply’ library. They are building up a library of works where each album is made up of just one element, and I chose ambient guitar!

It actually became quite a challenge to compose full pieces just using one element, but using modulated reverbs and delays, acoustic guitar and bass I managed to create a versatile set of tracks that cover a lot of ground.

I’m currently working on another album for the ‘Simply’ label, so watch this space!

You can listen to the album on Twisted Jukebox’s website.

Bricks works with Bristol’s creative, local and social enterprise communities to programme collaborative activities and secure permanent spaces in the city for those communities to embed in place and build sustainable futures.

As part of Bricks Artist Programme they have commissioned a series of podcasts and in each episode a different artist takes the lead exploring a subject of their choice bringing in contributors from within and without the creative realm.

I worked with the chosen artists on each episode to develop their ideas and facilitate recording sessions. I edited, mixed and provided original music and sound design for each episode.

The Bricks Podcast was featured in The Guardian’s weekend Guide, and excerpts from each episode are aired weekly on BCfm.

You can find the Bricks Bristol podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Listen on Apple Podcasts here.

After 5 years of trying for a baby, countless rounds of IVF, treatment, 18 embryos AND some life changing decisions, Chris’ daughter Rosie was born in January 2020. Along the way, there was heartache, pain, wacky diets, excitement, hope, determination, loss of faith and a lot of needles.

I was brought on board by production company EighteenSixty to work on the podcast, providing mixing and sound design services as well as some original music.

You can listen to IVF Dad on Apple Podcasts.

IVF Dad won Silver in the Grassroots award at the 2022 Arias.

PositiveNegatives produce comics, animations and podcasts about contemporary social and humanitarian issues, including conflict, racism, migration and asylum.

In 2020 I worked with PositiveNegatives on two animations, Mphatso’s Story and Mwansa’s Story, which explore the lives of two adolescent girls in Zambia and Malawi, as both try to end an unintended pregnancy.

I produced original music and sound design for both animations, working with animators and researchers to bring the stories to life through creative audio.

You can see the animations here.

Dark-edged, indie-infused modern drama cues. Haunting hybrids where cinematic piano, strings and percussion meet an indie and post-rock sound. Brooding, minimal atmospheres full of emotional heft. Momentous builds slow-churn the dramatic tension towards epic, soaring climaxes. Ideal for dark drama promos and builds.

I created this album for the wonderful Evolution Media Music. Using mostly guitar and piano for the original ideas, I built up huge atmospheric tracks adding massive drums, analogue and granular synthesis and layers of emotive strings.

You can listen to the album here.

I was commissioned to co-produce, edit and create music and sound design for the Caraboo Loops podcast.

Caraboo Loops is a monthly podcast transmitting our collective curiosities and ambient wanderings of Bristol and further a field. In each episode, we collaborate with a guest artist, cultivating conversations around social histories, folklore, arts, music and everything else that falls between the cracks.

The music and sound design for this series was created using vintage reel to reel tape players and tape loops of different lengths to create crunchy, disintegrating sounds to enhance the stories and interesting avenues explored in the different episodes. To find out more about this process, visit my Instagram.

You can find out more and listen at Caraboo’s Website

Episodes of Caraboo Loops will also be broadcast on Noods Radio.

I was brought onboard to provide editing and mixing support for the Global/Universal Music podcast Ricky & Tony: Pop Detectives.

Kaiser Chiefs' frontman Ricky Wilson has taken up a new role, as broadcasting legend Tony Blackburn's apprentice, in Ricky & Tony's Pop Detective agency. Our intrepid investigating duo will be debunking pop myths and solving musical mysteries from their office just above a takeaway on the Holloway Road.

You can hear all episodes of Ricky & Tony: Pop Detectives on the GlobalPlayer website.

The Long Note is artist Helen Cammock’s Turner Prize winning film. I worked with Helen on the final sound edit and mix, as well as installing the work at the Turner Gallery, Margate.

Commissioned by Void, The Long Note is a film which explores the history and role of women in the civil rights movement in Derry Londonderry in 1968, a period generally acknowledged to be the starting point of the Troubles - the Northern Ireland conflict that spanned the 1960s through to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

The Long Note sets-out to expand and complicate narratives around this period, placing women's voices at the fore. The film weaves together various archive materials, newly produced footage and a series of interviews Cammock made with women active in the movement, as well as those affected by it.

An eclectic mix of upbeat, feel-good and contemporary electronic pop music bursting to life with dreamy pads, bubbling synths, thumping beats and deep bass lines. Hot Freak is perfect for light entertainment, reality-entertainment, advertising, and sports VT's.

You can listen to and license tracks at https://londonsyncmusic.com/albums/hot-freak

I edit, mix and provide production support for the RGS’s Ask The Geographer podcast.

This award-winning podcasts bring the latest in geographical research to your classroom from a host of experts.

You can listen and subscribe here: https://www.rgs.org/schools/teaching-resources/ask-the-expert-podcasts/

Atmospheric synth-based cues from dark, dramatic and suspenseful retro synth soundtracks to wondrous and inspiring contemporary pop songs. Perfect for TV and advertising.

I was really pleased to be asked to work on this album for Bibliotheque music. The starting point was taking inspiration from retro synth and drum sounds then building more modern tracks around those elements.

Many of the synths sounds I used on my tracks were routed through a vintage reel to reel tape recorder to give an unpredictable character to the sound, and I think that adds an authentic quality to the recordings. For many of the drums I used samples from old analogue drum machines such as the Roland TR-707 and TR-808.

You can listen to the album in full and license tracks for use at Bibliotheque Music

Dark, Broody, Desolate Meets Epic Rock Perfect For Hard Hitting Dramas And Nordic Noir.

I wrote and produced this album for library music legends Twisted Jukebox after hearing and loving Mogwai’s score for Les Revenants, and realising that within the drama score genre you rarely get arrangements based around a traditional band setup. I decided to set to work on combining elements of Scandi Noir, British Drama and epic post rock to create something emotive and powerful, and hopefully quite unique.

The process was great, with the combination of genres allowing for lots of experimentation with textures and melodic elements. I ended up using quite heavy drum sounds for the most part, which gave a sort of trailer-ish feel to the rhythm section, but that was softened by ambient guitar and piano work, as well as using extended techniques for the strings to give more interesting and unsettling textures.

You can listen to this album and license tracks for use at Twisted Jukebox

“Since you left Bedminster pigeons flew in and took over our town. They run every corner of this neighbourhood and are eating all our food and shitting everywhere. Even Princess Caraboo is fed up and packing her bags.

Journey through backdoors, secret tunnels and get local tips of East Street as you try to find the Princess before she leaves town...”

Pigeon Town is a game created on Bitsy by artist Jack Friswell. The retro visuals of the game demanded an equally retro soundtrack so I used software that emulated old video games systems’ music chips, and combined it with modern effects and tape sounds to give a nostalgic, ambient feel.

https://caraboo.itch.io/pigeontown

Javasu is an exhibition by Bristol based artist Savinder Bual, featuring occasional works by artist Sarah Boulton.

Javasu draws upon various points in history in which sea monsters, the pineapple and moving panoramas triggered the public’s imagination to wonder what it was like to journey to faraway lands that were inaccessible to them.

The exhibition is a tribute to Bristol resident Mary Baker, who in 1817 convinced the public that she was ‘Princess Caraboo’ from a fictitious island called Javasu. A fascination with the exotic and a curiosity to discover more about faraway lands had duped the public into believing in Caraboo’s authenticity. They imbued her with mythologies constructed from their limited knowledge of the world.

Javasu will include video, interactive kinetic sculptures and text works. A series of events will accompany the exhibition, including two unique musical collaborations by The Pineapple Orchestra with Pete Bennett, musician and researcher in human-computer interaction at the University of Bristol, and Blues singer/musician Joe Strouzer. Sarah Boulton will host a creative ‘happening’ and there will be an artist film evening with works selected from an open call exploring the idea of ‘imagined faraway lands’.

I was commissioned to create a podcast for the exhibition that explored the themes therein. I recorded a conversation between Sarah Boulton and Savinder Bual which I edited together with ambient recordings and finished up with musical composition created using sounds recorded in the gallery including some recordings of Savinder’s amazing pineapple instruments. This podcast, along with the first podcast I did for Caraboo Projects, can be found at Apple podcasts.

The pineapple project is a series of visually striking instruments played with spinning pineapple tops. When played the pineapple top spins and its leaves pluck the strings to create sound. Made with gourds, wood and strings from different world instruments, they encourage a playful and experimental approach to music.

Colston Hall, one of the most acclaimed music venues in Bristol, is going through a contentious name change, by disassociating themselves from Edward Colston and opening with a new name in 2020. Although Colston did great things for the city he was a noted slave trader.

The instruments intend to form a playful and disarming entry point into discussions around this matter and about inclusion in our current society in general.

We will be bringing together a group of community members formed by those who would not ordinarily get involved in the discussion. Participants will be introduced to the project and invited to collaborate to create a musical performance, scheduled for the 22nd of November 2018. There will be a lead up of 6 rehearsals prior to the performance. The process and discussions during the rehearsals will be documented and made into a short film.

I was asked by Savinder Bual to come onboard the project as composer, and was presented with a series of unique challenges that have proven a lot of fun to work with. The limitations of the instruments themselves and of working with mostly non-musicians has pushed me outside of my comfort zone as a composer and forced me to constantly adapt my approach throughout the practice sessions.

https://www.colstonhall.org/shows/the-pineapple-project-pineapple-band/

Caraboo Projects’ second exhibition Sightings brings together six artists who are exploring themes such as shamanism, divination, witchcraft and Victorian spiritualism. The imagery and subject matter that these artists collectively move between borrows from the mystical and the everyday.

I was asked to produce an audio project incorporating interviews, music and sound design to be played during the exhibition and to be released as a podcast. The work aims to connect personal, local histories and the themes explored in the exhibition.

Established in 2018 Caraboo Projects is a contemporary art organisation situated in the heart of Bedminster, Bristol. They strive to build an inclusive and collaborative platform with artists, curators and local members of the community, for experimentation and the development of cross-disciplinary arts in Bristol.

https://www.carabooprojects.com/

A lonely Boxer confronts his demons.

I was asked to produce an original score for The Boxer, an award winning short film by writer/director Nicholas Jessup. The film has enjoyed a successful run at a host of international films and features great performances from Jamie Andrew Cutler (Kick-Ass 2), Adele Keating (Karen Carpenter: Goodbye to Love) and Joseph Baker (Arcadia).

https://vimeo.com/123647728

Faced with serious financial troubles and the prospect of losing their home, a young married couple are thrilled when they are invited to participate in a potentially lucrative behavioural experiment. Things quickly turn sinister, however, when they realise the horrifying nature of what they have signed up for.

I was asked to collaborate with one of the writers of Bodies to produce an original piece of music that would feature in the opening sequence of the film. Reminiscent of British wartime songs, the track had to sound authentically of that period in both composition and production.

I was asked to provide an original piece of music to be used on the Guardian’s online video covering the 2017 PSA awards, hosted by actor Sally Phillips. The PSA awards celebrate innovation and achievement in public service.

See video on the Guardian website.

I created a kitch organ soundtrack for the splash page of Bristol arts collective Caraboo Projects. In keeping with the video they required something lo fi and fun.

I also added incongruous sound effects over the video, which was so much fun to experiment with!

Fed up with negative press – including a Guardian story – calling their city the 'Brexit capital of Britain', the residents of Stoke-on-Trent challenged the media to dig deeper. The Guardian accepted, and so began an astonishing journey into a remarkable place.

I was asked to work on the sound mix of this series for the Guardian, helping to combine the music, dialogue and field recordings into a soundtrack that supports the remarkable stories covered.

Watch Made In Stoke on the Guardian website.

THE HOUSE OF SILENCE is an independent British feature film from the mind of filmmaker Lawrence Parmenter.

Jane is the new live in nurse for wheelchair-bound composer Adrian Bartleby. Isolated in the countryside in a grand and empty home Jane is haunted by visions of past and future murder. Not knowing whether these ghosts are real or her imagination a fire begins to burn. As she searches through Adrian's past traumas her own become manifest. Maybe the ghosts aren't in the house but in her.

Shot on location in the house and grounds of the stunning and atmospheric Charlton Park estate in Kent this psycho-sexual thriller draws its inspiration from classic British horror and the works of Henry James in the hope of creating A TURN OF THE SCREW for a new generation.

I was asked to produce an original score for The House of Silence. I mixed orchestral elements with heavy processing and worked hard to produce a signature sound for this soundtrack to help convey the disintegration of the lead character’s psyche. I also created a palette of creaks and rattles that were added to the score to bolster the feeling that the house was alive and somehow sentient. These were created from recordings I made of… an old toaster. Creepy.


Trailer on Vimeo