Born in Hamburg 1959 as David Christopher Simon Freeman, of mixed British and German heritage, David Motion won his first music competition at the age of 6. He has now embarked on yet another project that excels his talents and artistic flair. He releases his new album ‘Neo-Classic’ at the end of the year, a product of experience and style captured from an interesting lifestyle of music, advertising and fine wine! Music has been a continuing passion for Motion. In 1977, he arrived in London with the common dream of wanting to be a pop star. The first venture was his band called ‘Home Service’. Think new-wave techno-pop without the machinery, with the whole-set up, including their own label, assembled within a Tottenham flat. They scored gigs at the Blitz and the Moonlight, and even got airtime from John Peel. Originally a 4-piece, Home Service became a more studio-orientated techno duo and released “Only Men Fall In Love” on Situation Two/Beggars Banquet. Both remaining members became avid producers and engineers with a shared love of techno-pop. Engineering became an interest, one he excelled at. Given breaks by various industry people, he found himself at Air Studios, at first as a mere Tape Operator. It enabled him to watch top producers at work and gain knowledge of compression, sampling, time codes and multiple tape machines that would become invaluable in his later career. Motion quickly graduated to Producer and became billed as the new Trevor Horn, producing the likes of Strawberry Switchblade, Red Box, Tom Robinson, Bucks Fizz, Tommy Page and Carmel. As Motion will explain, his knowledge of compressors became somewhat broad. He started with a Trident, central to the sound of the Strawberry Switchblade album, and his extensive collection grew from there. What led from this success were trips to New York to work with a man named Michael Brauer, then a remixer and a fellow compression enthusiast. This led to worldwide trips as a producer, taking him to Japan, Italy, Germany and Denmark. As he says ‘I was an 80s Record Producer with big glasses!’ An exciting period. A break in another direction took Motion into the world of advertising. A commercials producer form JWT walked into Unity Records, Soho, asking around for contacts. Motion was recommended. He ended up composing the music for a Kodak ad, directed by Frank Budgen. This led to a number of other offers, including Sharwoods, the original ‘Every Little Helps’ campaign for Tesco, BMW, Audi, Vauxhall Frontera, Johnnie Walker, Ford Mondeo and Shell/Ferrari to name but a few. More recently, Orange used his track ‘Hands’ and Transport for London’s ‘My other car’s a bus!” used Motion’s “Chamber Music IV”. I’m an advertising composer- not a jingles writer as Motion argues! “It’s Art!” One of the major highlights of Motion’s career has got to be his work on the music for the Virginia Woolf adaptation ‘Orlando’ (1991) starring Tilda Swinton. Composer Arvo Part was set to write the film score. Complications arose, resulting in Motion and director Sally Potter writing it themselves within the tiny basement studio Motion was currently working from. It was something Motion could really get his teeth into and apply his music and technology skills to the maximum. As the story ran from Elizabethan times through to the present day, it seemed to tick all of Motion’s boxes- in-your-face, grunty, abrasive reed instruments, classical, drifty moody atmospheres, long sampled lines played at different speeds and registers with all of those fragile timbres. Dance music with the magical voice of Jimmy Somerville over the top, the soundtrack became one of the more intricate parts of the film and musically liberating for Motion. 1991 was also a year of dance music discovery. Moving into the ‘lucky’ flat in London’s Westbourne Park, Motion found himself living below Joe Bonington, an enthusiastic clubber and dance music fanatic. This meant Motion also experienced the techno sounds through the ceiling, as it played through the night. It sparked more creative ideas and Joe and himself decided to make their own record. Joe came up with the name ‘Pure Sesso’ and it was well received. It allowed Motion to delve more into the techno scene and he then hooked up with two guys who ran Unity, the record shop in Beak Street. They set their sights on a darker sound and mixed sounds of the London underground. The record became known as ‘Underground Turbulance.’ More recently Motion joined up with DJ Mark Moore of S-Express fame, releasing the 12-inch “Dirty Mother” as UltraViva and remixing Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round” and Billy Ray Martin’s “Rollerskates”. An extra project that brought success was with ‘library music,’ music that is “off-the-shelf” and behind the scenes on TV, radio and corporate DVDs. Bob Last, Motion’s manager at the time, scored a deal with ‘Extreme Music’ in 1996 and David released his first CD “Creation.” It allowed him to be diverse in his work, incorporating neo-classical, world, dance and pop. It was so well received, they asked for “Creation 2K” and soon a third will be released on Motion’s own label. Both Creation albums are still widely used today. In 1996, Motion also became a Wine Merchant, buying The Winery, a former Victorian pharmacy in Little Venice. Originally a hobby gone mad, now, in its twelfth year, a respected and flourishing independent, scooping up prestigious awards such as Which Wine Guide’s first “Most Innovative Wine Merchant” Award. Michael Brauer, now producing Coldplay, brought Motion in to work on an album he was producing for Dame Evelyn Glennie. This became the “Shadow behind the Iron Sun” album. A UK tour followed and Motion then went on to co-write the score for Linda La Plante’s “Trial and Retribution 8” with Glennie. Sound Designer and synth geek, Jesper Siberg from Denmark, contacted Motion in the winter of 2005 with the idea of making an album together, funded by the Danish Songwriters’ Guild, of which he was a member. Together they created a kind of Neo-Classical Electronica- or Ambient Classical Trip-Hop. They entitled it ‘Music to eat and lie down to’. Entirely a self-produced album, Motion and Siberg were very happy with the end result. “There’s something pure and undiluted about making every decision ourselves.” And so now in 2007, David Motion is set to release his new album ‘Neo-Classic,’ his own description for the kind of classical music that he writes. Modern, atmospheric and approachable, influenced by composers from the early 20th century and some left-field pop. His ideas were followings on from the filmic style he produced for ‘Orlando’ but his creation based around his own musical identity as if a soundtrack to his own life. He used different musicians from various stages of his career to come and record. Most of the writing took place between 1997-1998, with the exception of Twin Towers, written on the Friday after 9/11. The ghostly images and media sensation surrounding the tragedy had a profound effect on Motion. His emotions provoked a piece written for strings, and he completed it by the following Monday. On the second anniversary of 9/11 Motion was interviewed by John Brunning for his Classic FM programme. “Hands” was a commission for a commercial for Orange, originally just a piano piece but later with the added sound of a cello, and then “Chamber Music IV” used on the advert of Transport for London. Neo-Classic is released December 2007