FORTY years after he first started performing in bands in his native North West, Butterfly Mind is the most unexpected release yet from Warrington musician Tim Bowness.
From the short, sharp shocks of Always The Stranger and Only A Fool to the long-form ambition of the sensuous Dark Nevada Dream, the cinematic Electro-Ballroom of Glitter Fades and the dystopian paranoia of Say Your Goodbyes Parts 1 and 2, Butterfly Mind, releasd on August 5, delivers a thrilling fusion of Art Rock invention, Post-Punk energy and epic soulful ballads.
Tim’s seventh solo album – his sixth for InsideOutMusic/Sony – features the stellar rhythm section of Richard Jupp (in his first major session since leaving Elbow) and Nick Beggs alongside a spectacular generation and genre-spanning guest list including Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Dave Formula (Magazine), Peter Hammill (Van Der Graaf Generator), Martha Goddard (The Hushtones), Gregory Spawton (Big Big Train), Mark Tranmer (The Montgolfier Brothers / GNAC), Saro Cosentino (Franco Battiato), Italian Jazz musician Nicola Alesini, US singer Devon Dunaway (Ganga), Stephen W Tayler (Kate Bush) and, marking his first studio work with Tim for nearly three decades, former No-Man violinist Ben Coleman.
Produced by Tim Bowness and Brian Hulse (Plenty), the album was mixed and mastered by Steven Wilson.
Unsettling and haunting, yet shot through with flashes of optimism and hope, Butterfly Mind is a vibrant offering that shows an artist unafraid to play with the possibilities of his music.
Tim is primarily known as vocalist/co-writer with the band No-Man, a long-running collaboration with Steven Wilson.
In addition to releasing seven studio albums and a documentary DVD with No-Man, Tim has worked with popular Italian artist Alice (on the Italian Top 20 album Viaggio In Italia), Mercury Prize nominated Banco De Gaia, Robert Fripp, Peter Hammill, Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson and many others.
Tim recorded the album Flame (1994) with Richard Barbieri (Porcupine Tree/ex-Japan), co-produced/co-wrote the acclaimed Talking With Strangers (2009) for Judy Dyble (ex-Fairport Convention), and has had a long-term collaborative partnership with Peter Chilvers (Brian Eno/Karl Hyde).
His recent quintet of solo releases on InsideOutMusic/Sony have entered the official UK Top 5 Rock, Progressive, and Vinyl charts, as well as the official Scottish charts.
Since 2020 Tim has co-hosted the internationally successful (top 10 in over 20 countries) podcast The Album Years with Steven Wilson.
He started performing in bands as a teenager in April 1982 and was first signed – with No-Man – in 1990 (to Hit & Run Publishing, One Little Indian Records and Talk Talk’s manager Keith Aspden).
