The Music of Dave Sturt


Jade Warrior fans are probably most familiar with Dave Sturt through his work on Jade Warrior's two most recent albums Breathing The Storm and Distant Echoes.  His co-production, and performances on fretless bass bring a distinctive sound to these two albums.

Dave's involvement with Jade Warrior is only one of his many musical endeavors.  Dave's an accomplished session musician, engineer, and programmer, and has composed music for film and TV.

Cipher

The band Cipher consists of Dave Sturt, and renowned saxophone player Theo Travis.  Cipher's music could perhaps be described as "dark ambient", combining Sturt's fretless bass, electronics, and sound loops with Travis's saxophone and flutes.

Cipher has completed two albums.  The first is 1999's "No Ordinary Man" (Hidden Art Hiart 5, currently unavailable – it will be re-released later this year). It includes performances by Richard Barbieri (Japan, Rain Tree Crow) and Rabbi Gaddi Zerbib and is co-produced by Stephen Wilson (Porcupine Tree).

The second Cipher album, 2002's "One who whispers" (Gliss Records glisscd7) is a broader-based effort.  Daevid Allen (Gong) contributes his "glissando" guitar textures to six tracks, while Richard Barbieri adds his keyboard and synthesizer textures to one track. The new album is available through the Planet Gong web site, and should be available via other retailers in the near future. It is also co-produced by Stephen Wilson and mastered by Andy Jackson (Pink Floyd’s Grammy nominated engineer)

Some of Cipher's music also appears on an excellent compilation album 'The Sky Goes All The Way Home' which also features Peter Hammill, Rick Wakeman, Anthony Phillips, Gordon Giltrap, and The Enid.

Cipher have composed and performed music for several silent films. They will be performing in the UK with Pabst’s Pandora’s Box in Nov/Dec 2002 and Mernau’s Faust in 2003.

The Fraser Sisters

Dave has recently been recording and performing with folk musicians The Fraser Sisters.  Dave plays both acoustic and fretless bass on their latest album 'Going Around', released in 2001 on the No Masters label.  

The Fraser Sisters will be touring in Holland and Belgium in October 2002.


Thee na Shee / The Crack

Thee na Shee (formerly The Crack) is a Celtic band Dave founded several years ago.  The band has released two albums, 'To Wake the Stone' and 'Strange Horse'.  Both of these albums are available directly from the band - send enquiries to tns@davesturt.f9.co.uk

Some of Thee na Shee's music appears on 'The Sky Goes All The Way Home'.

Thee na Shee is currently inactive.

Isaac Guillory

Dave toured and performed with acoustic guitarist Isaac Guillory, both as a duo and as part of a five-piece band, up until shortly before Guillory's untimely death from cancer. The band also included drummer Tony Hicks (Back Door, Pacific Eardrum) and Tim Stone on guitar (Rick Wakeman, solo artist). Unfortunately, this band lineup was never recorded.

You can hear some of Guillory's music here.

Dave has also been developing a MIDIBASS for John Birch Guitars. This allows Dave to trigger whole washes of sounds, beats or abstract noises. There will be a demo video of Dave playing the MIDIBASS on the John Birch site soon.