Hello there, you've stumbled onto the Music from the Mountains home page! Music from the Mountains is the name of the company I set up in order to market my own music, so it and I are essentially the same thing. The Mountain in question is Mount Anelog, a small mountain on the furthermost tip of the Lleyn Peninsula of North Wales. Anelog is not a particularly large mountain, there are no craggy peaks or awkward climbs (no climbs at all in fact, you just walk up it) but it is a place of the most extraordinary tranquility. I have been visiting it, and writing music there, for nearly 40 years. As you might imagine, this has rather cut down on the opportunities for foreign travel.

My name is Mike Simmons and if you click here, you'll get to see what I look like. Yes indeed, an ageing hippy with a receding hairline. You can find out about my music on this site, and you'll also find a number of links to the places that inspired that music. The links accompany the details of each album, so you'll find links to the Lleyn Peninsula, for example, on the albums that were inspired by that area. You can also find a few more general links - mostly relating to the kind of music I play, and other musicians working in a similar field - at the bottom of this page. If you want to find out a little more about my musical background, then you can click here.

My music is a response to the environment in which I find myself. It's warm, textural music created with synthesizers and samplers. I build up layers of natural and artificial sounds to produce an atmospheric pattern of slowly interweaving textures. I use piano, flutes, strings, and other familiar sounds alongside the less familiar - sounds which can only be produced by electronic instruments. People use it for meditation, relaxation, massage, as background music and, sometimes, to get born to. They do not, as far as intensive research can report, use it for dancing to! If you'd like to see what someone else thinks about my music you might like to read a review that was published in The Borderland. As with links, you'll find album specific reviews on the album page that they relate to.

At the moment I have seven albums available. If you click on one of the thumbnails on the left you'll find out more about the music, and get to the links that relate to each album. I don't have a very hectic production schedule, and it's taken me more than ten years to produce the abums I have - it is, inevitably, a hobby - though also an obsession - that has to fit around the rest of my life. Things became rather more tricky when I decided to start learning to play the saxophone - something of a tangent bearing in mind the music I'd been playing - I'd really like to integrate that into the next album yet "subtle" isn't a word that many people use when they hear me playing the sax - something of a problem!

You'll be able to listen to excerpts from each of the albums when you visit that album's page. At the moment they're only available as Real Audio files. Why not mp3? Inertia, I'm afraid. I keep meaning to get round to it but life keeps getting in the way. If you don't want to worry with Real Audio could always call me up and I'll hum you a few bars over the phone!

PS You'll notice that some of the albums are avalable as CDs while some are cassettes. I do wonder how many people are playing cassettes these days - I'm certainly selling very few. If I'm going to get rid of all the ones still sitting in the cupboard I think it's time to try a special offer!

You can contact me here

Wind and Wire	An archive site for what was a great magazine. Whatever your taste - New Age, Celtic, Ambient, Space Music, Electronic - Wind and Wire covered it.
Sound on Sound	If you're at all interested in making music with Samplers, Sequencers and Synthesisers, then Sound on Sound is the definitive magazine.
Kevin Kendle	A great musician - if you get the chance to listen to his music, don't miss it.
Alternate Music Press	A huge range of reviews, news, letters, links and features edited by Ben Kettlewell.
The Synth Zone	If you want to find out more about a particular synth or sampler, or maybe pick up some advice or locate some new sounds, then the Synth Zone is a very good starting point.
PC Publishing	Some years ago I had a book out - "Creating a Music Website" - you can find out more about it here
Logic Pro	The sequencer I use is the mighty Logic Pro. Now in the safe hands of Apple I've been following this software back through it's origins with Emagic. I love it.
	The link to the RealPlayer. You'll find a "Plus" version and a free one - there's no reason to go for the "Plus" version just to get your toes wet!

You are visitor no

If you're viewing this page without frames you probably came here via a search engine. Click here to get some control over the navigation or you'll be stuck on this page forever!