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Contemporary experimental artist Peter Gregson will perform from his new album, Terminal, on a multi-course tour this April from London to San Francisco. Fusing antiquity with technology, Peter will push the boundaries of traditional live performance with his five string Eric Jensen electric blue cello, MacBook Air running Apple’s MainStage, and his GiO by Apogee to innovatively loop and layer parts.

Peter has performed widely in the UK and the US, at venues ranging from The Royal Albert Hall, London to The Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh; from the Twitter Offices in San Francisco to Trinity Church, Boston. He was recently commissioned by Bowers & Wilkins and Peter Gabriel to record an album of original music for acoustic and electric cellos for their Society of Sound label. His work has been recognized with the 2008 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for music and with membership to the Courvoisier Future 500. Peter is also the 2010/11 Creative in Residence at The Hospital Club, London, where he curates his year-long series, alt_classical.

Selected performances for 2010 include performances at the MIT Media Lab, The Roundhouse, The Future Gallery, The 92nd St Y, The Lab Gallery, The Queen's Hall and Kings Place.

Peter on the Apogee GiO: Perfecting the art of classical live looping

“All of the electric cello input on Terminal was done on an Apogee Ensemble and Logic 8. The clarity of the converters and the quality of the output is legendary; I was able to make studio-standard samples from my home studio in London and take them to my engineer at Real World Studios in leafy rural Wiltshire and know there wouldn’t be any issues or embarrassing glitches! I didn’t put too much thought into how it would be performed live; I was focused on writing and producing an interesting record. With the launch night looming and with eight concerts of my new material in the diary, all my available time has been focused on figuring out the best way to perform what is, effectively, a studio album, live on stage! Not an issue in the pop world, but in the classical world (where I’m from), it’s an alien concept. It’s no fun to play to a fixed backing, not for me and certainly not for the audience. With GiO, I can loop and sample myself live, trigger preloaded sounds, change my effects, all on the fly from inside MainStage running on my MacBook Air. This simple means I can focus on being creative all of the time, and am only limited by my imagination - not my tools.”

Peter on the Apogee ONE: Travel-proof recording

“This tour’s side project is a co-writing / solo cello role on an art film soundtrack. The music deadline is set for April 22nd, the same day I will be reclining at 36,000ft flying from JFK>SFO.  As a result, the majority of my input will be done in hotels and I’ll be using ONE to get my cello into the score through Logic. The portability and simplicity of ONE makes it a no brainer - it’s the smallest and most indispensable thing in my hand luggage! Crucially, it’s an incredible microphone, ideal for an acoustic cello and doesn’t require millimeter precision to get a great sound from it, and with my electric cello, it’s just the same as an electric guitar. As I can’t play both at the same time, it’s the perfect way for me to maintain my workflow and my travel schedule.”

Visit www.petergregson.co.uk for more info.

Check out Peter Gregson’s website to watch the live streaming or check in with Apogee to watch follow-up footage from these events.