Phosphene is the music project created by John Cavanagh after four years as a member of the duo Electroscope. John is also known as a broadcaster, writer and producer of records by other artistss.
John is currently working on the fourth full-length Phosphene album, which should be completed sometime in 2009. The Phosphene album has ended up on the back-burner for a while, thanks to much involvement in making records by Nalle, The Family Elan, Ben Raynolds and Pefkin. These are in the pipeline; the debut album by The Trembling Bells is now available on Honest Jons Records.
On the way soon: a 3" cd on the newly reactivated Finnish label Octane Grammophon. This will feature a piece John has performed live a few times with Raymond MacDonald, George Burt, Gayle Brogan and Aby Vulliamy.

Also on the way... a new website! For a long time there have been problems in uploading material to this one, thanks to the web host ensuring that the only way to do this is by going onto their own dial-up connection to access it.
The new site is currently "under construction" as the saying goes, so please excuse any out of date material you come across here as everything is due an edit and overhaul!

In November 2008, Reverb Worship released a new Phosphene cd... more details of this and all Phosphene music available on the Releases page.

Coming soon: a collaborative release with Finland's Sonic Temple assassins.
Here are a couple of recent-ish releases... the Phosphene and Friends 7" on Pickled Egg Records features quite a cast of friends.... the wonderful Bridget St. John, Isobel Campbell & Bill Wells on one side and the meeting of Phosphene & Nalle on the other. Hanna Tuulikki, of Nalle, has created beautiful artwork the sleeve and you can see more about this on, once again, the Releases page and it's available now from the Melodybar!
The 3" cd e.p. Phoenix Trees is available on Rusted Rail Records of Galway.
This is a 5 track 3" cd e.p, which features guest appearances from Gayle Brogan (aka Pefkin) & guitarist George Burt. It's available from the Melodybar, you can download it from the Rough Trade Digital shop or obtain it direct from the label. Keith Wallace has just updated the Rusted Rail site with some reviews of Phoenix Trees... please drop by and have a look.

There are three Phosphene albums already available. The most recent one is called The Plum, The Orange and the Matchbox and features collaborations with Lol Coxhill, Raymond MacDonald and other friends. The one which came before that, Projection, includes a guest appearance from John McKeown of the 1990s/Yummy Fur on guitar. These - and the first one, Long Meadow Felt Company - are detailed on the Releases page...
In September 2006, an interview with John was posted online at the Foxy Digitalis site. Thanks to Brad and Jani for this.
There is now an Electroscope myspace page! Lots of photos there now - music too. You can read more about Electroscope at this site and in "the past" section here.

John Cavanagh has re-issued two albums from the KPM 1000 series of library music lps, both from 1972. Iker Spozio created the sleeve design for Electrosonic, an album created by Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson & Don Harper. Vinyl editions of this album are now sold out. 2008 saw a cd edition, which is close to being sold out too.

The story of how this release happened is detailed at John's myspace page along with photos from the launch night.
The other Glo-Spot lp issue is Electrosound by Ron Geesin, available on coloured vinyl in a fine gatefold sleeve.

2005's 3 track 7" on Static Caravan Records, which sold out within a few days, is now available again, only this time as a download. Static Caravan reached their 100th release (congratulations to Geoff Dolman on this occasion!) and re-issued much of their back catalogue in this way to mark the event. The Releases page holds more news on the original 7" and all other Phosphene records. You'll also find sound samples there from all three full-lenghth Phosphene albums.

Whilst he continues his varied work for BBC radio, John also hosts a weekly music show on Radio Six International. This is an internet station which broadcasts from Glasgow, Scotland, but is now transmitting programmes regularly around the world. John Cavanagh's Soundwave can be heard at 06:00 GMT/UT each Sunday online and on 88.5FM from World FM, Wellington, New Zealand, where it fills a Sunday evening slot. The start of a new series of Soundwaves in September '06 finds the show on more stations than ever... on Mondays at 18:00 GMT/UT (that's 6pm UK time & 7pm in central Europe) it can be heard on 94.2 & 94.8 FM from Poprad & Kosice, Slovakia, also covering Hungary, Poland and parts of the Czech republic; on Sky channel 0195; and at 12.523 ghz horizontal from the Hotbird satellite.  Check the Radio Six website for news, details for other timezones and, of course, to listen to the show online. If you'd like to see what sort of music is featured, programme running orders are updated each week.

John's first book, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is available now in English and Italian as one of a series on classic albums published by Continuum Books. The Piper page will tell you much more.

Pefkin, aka Gayle from Electroscope, had a splendid debut album out on Digitalis Industries records - we think it may be sold out already - and you can read an interview with her at their website. The second Pefkin album release is available on Pseudo Arcana records and there are 2 very fine 3" cds by Pefkin, one on the Cook An Egg label, the other from Students of Decay.

Phosphene... John always found the word attractive and it's definition - the luminous spots you see if you close your eyes and press gently on the eyelids - fitted with his ideas on sound sensations too.

The Phosphene Sound isn't easy to pin down...

There are electronic and acoustic elements, some songs and some washes of sound.... They range from a melodic harpsichord track to a harsher more abstract remix for Japanese artist Aube...luminous spots of many different hues!