TUM11 forms part of a series of music releases by Thought Universe, a solo music project from composer and performer Mark Pilkington.

61 (2015) starts with a dub style groove interspersed with abstract electronic sounds. Live drumming is played over altered scales, jazz chords complemented by a driving bass line. Taking inspiration from electro and jazz fusion - it’s a bouncy and playful excursion into a sound world of classic keyboard synth sounds - melodic keyboard lines carefully overlaid to Latin jazz grooves. The mid section plays homage to turntable scratching techniques using a keyboard to create pseudo scratch sounds. The texture of the material is prominent, The piece ends on a steady electronic groove with mellow organ chords over layered with distorted keyboards parts.

62 (2015) is electronically generated music with all the tweets and bleeps. A chorused synth line repeats a catchy riff. Tuned electronic percussion drives the music forward over interlocking melodic phrases. Motor beat gives the music a Krautrock feel as the drums are fed through analog circuits of modular synthesisers.

Ryho (2017) is inspired by the breakbeat music of the 1980's. Drums, percussion and driving bass lines. Samples of retro drum machines create changing rhythmic patterns. Adopting a ‘cut up’ process similar to scratch DJ’s and connected with the writing technique of William Burroughs. The sounds are edited to form a hyper real experience. Playful and uplifting never settling into a specific form of radical rhythmic time shifts. The sound material consists of retro synth keyboards, syllables of fractured voices and electronic bleeps mixed with live percussion. A hyper ballad of contorted gestures / fragments made from the remnants of electronic youthful excursions into a world of sound. Paying homage to techno and electro artists from the last 30 years. There is fun and humor playful, the music is light and at times grinding and aggressive. Capturing the energy of electronic beats.

Smooth (2018) is a mix of scratch sequences handcrafted without the use of turntables only using a combination of retro synthesisers, tape echo and mixing desk. The sounds are built from the bottom up without an over use of samples of records. Made from electronic sounds created on the fly to match the groove of the underlying sonic material. There is a focus on texture, ripping through the fabric of the loudspeaker are angular edit cuts that twist the inner ear. Specially detuned tones play childlike melodies. The sound world captures the feeling of being trapped in an alternate cartoon reality. Metaphysical feelings of objects transcend the fabric of life. A soundtrack to scenes played out in a short animated movie. A scene akin to witnessing the coming to life of toy figures in a child's playroom. Assembled to perform synchronized dance routines in playful harmony. Secretly seen and heard through a crack in the door.

Tracks 61 and 62 originally composed for an audio-visual piece called 60 celebrating the 60th anniversary of St Ambrose Barlow RC High School School in Worsley, Manchester UK in 2015
Commissioned by the Ideas Foundation (TUM11 forms part of a series of music releases by Thought Universe, a solo music project from composer and performer Mark Pilkington.

61 (2015) starts with a dub style groove interspersed with abstract electronic sounds. Live drumming is played over altered scales, jazz chords complemented by a driving bass line. Taking inspiration from electro and jazz fusion - it’s a bouncy and playful excursion into a sound world of classic keyboard synth sounds - melodic keyboard lines carefully overlaid to latin jazz grooves. The mid section plays homage to turntable scratching techniques using a keyboard to create pseudo scratch sounds. The texture of the material is prominent, The piece ends on a steady electronic groove with mellow organ chords over layered with distorted keyboards parts.

62 (2015) is electronically generated music with all the tweets and bleeps. A chorused synth line repeats a catchy riff. Tuned electronic percussion drives the music forward over interlocking melodic phrases. Motor beat gives the music a Krautrock feel as the drums are fed through analog circuits of modular synthesisers.

Ryho (2017) is inspired by the breakbeat music of the 1980's. Drums, percussion and driving bass lines. Samples of retro drum machines create changing rhythmic patterns. Adopting a ‘cut up’ process similar to scratch DJ’s and connected with the writing technique of William Burroughs. The sounds are edited to form a hyper real experience. Playful and uplifting never settling into a specific form of radical rhythmic time shifts. The sound material consists of retro synth keyboards, syllables of fractured voices and electronic bleeps mixed with live percussion. A hyper ballad of contorted gestures / fragments made from the remnants of electronic youthful excursions into a world of sound. Paying homage to techno and electro artists from the last 30 years. There is fun and humor playful, the music is light and at times grinding and aggressive. Capturing the energy of electronic beats.

Smooth (2018) is a mix of scratch sequences handcrafted without the use of turntables only using a combination of retro synthesisers, tape echo and mixing desk. The sounds are built from the bottom up without an over use of samples of records. Made from electronic sounds created on the fly to match the groove of the underlying sonic material. There is a focus on texture, ripping through the fabric of the loudspeaker are angular edit cuts that twist the inner ear. Specially detuned tones play childlike melodies. The sound world captures the feeling of being trapped in an alternate cartoon reality. Metaphysical feelings of objects transcend the fabric of life. A soundtrack to scenes played out in a short animated movie. A scene akin to witnessing the coming to life of toy figures in a child's playroom. Assembled to perform synchronized dance routines in playful harmony. Secretly seen and heard through a crack in the door.

Tracks 61 and 62 originally composed for an audio-visual piece called 60 celebrating the 60th anniversary of St Ambrose Barlow RC High School School in Worsley, Manchester UK in 2015
Commissioned by the Ideas Foundation.