Dave Bessell / Polypores (Double Bill)

As well as being a classically trained musician with a doctorate in classical orchestration, Dave Bessell has enjoyed an extensive career in popular music contributing to albums by Killing Joke and Suede. He is also a founder member of synth supergroup Node (alongside Flood, Mel Wesson and Ed Buller). 

Underlying his work is a deep musicality with surprising chord changes, distinctive melodies and exploratory sound design, all coming together to make a satisfying and unique musical whole.

Dave has released a string of electronic music albums, both solo and in collaboration with other artists, on the DiN label. His latest album, Chromatic Lightning Cage (DiN84), was released in March this year to positive critical acclaim:

"‘Chromatic Lightning Cage, is a masterpiece of electronic orchestration. And that makes sense because the clear influence on this album is Vangelis, himself a master of electronic orchestration." - John Dilliberto

"A quite unique approach of electronica and modular synth music. Like the soundtrack of all sci-fi and dystopic movies merged into one inspiring and colorful collage." - Frank Hadlich 

"...full of dreamy and ethereal atmospheres and textures and beautiful otherworldly melodies..." - Bakis Sirros (Parallel Worlds)

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From the bucolic drift of 2019's Flora, or the jagged fever-dream timbres of Chaos Blooms Stephen Buckley's Polypores project has never ceased to innovate, weaving intricate textures and motifs into effortlessly anxiolytic electronic music for some of the most respected labels in the electronic music sphere including (but not limited to) Castles In Space, Polytechnic Youth, Woodford Halse, DiN and Frequency Domain.

It’s not just via the recorded medium that we get an insight into the Polypores world though, with his live performances ranging from highly textural modular synth tapestries, slowly unfurling into threads of sound (and cleverly woven back together again), to nigh-horizontal mesmeric drone monoliths and meditative simmering sound baths wrought through a baffling array of hardware synths and effects.

Myriad influences shine through in his recorded work, the crackling bitcrushed stomp of the SNES-inspired Terrain for example providing an uncharacteristic rigidity compared to the lysergic drift and new-age glide of Azure or the subterranean, simmering wooze of Shpongos. 

While there is undeniable beauty in his more unhurried compositions, it's the effortless flow between sound worlds that makes the Polypores sound such an identifiable sonic presence. Every album provides another layer of influence, and each additional layer feeds back into the ecosystem, providing a self-sustaining, endlessly rewarding listen