Tim Robertson - Outer Planetary Church Music LP

The following is Tim's story, and how a good friend of mine met him:

It happened about a year ago, during the last trip i did to Barcelona to visit my girlfriend. She lived there for a couple of months while finishing her studies, so i flyed there frequently and knew some hidden spots. I was in this thrift store around the neighbourhood of Gracia. I knew it was run by some religious organization, but I never asked what they were about. I basically like it there cause they have random tapes, instruments and old furniture. Everything's cheap. I hadn't been in town for a while so thought that maybe there was something new. The main room was dissapointing so I moved downstairs where they have the big (and broken) stuff. That place is also known as the damp basement for obvious reasons. It's quite rare to find something interesting but I always check, just in case. You never know when it'll be your lucky day. At first glance, nothing. But when I was just about to leave, in one of the corners, staring at me, was this dusty Hammond Organ. I stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out if it was working or not, and if it was worth buying. I had a lot of doubts. At one point I heard a voice coming from behind talking in perfect spanish (but with a non-native accent) 'It doesn't work, it's just decorative'. I had been so concentrated that I had not realized there was another person down there. I turned around, and I saw a tall man with long blond hair looking to be in his late 40's. He wore an orange shirt and some khakii trousers. 'Oh, it's a shame.' I replied. 'Yes it is, i used to play this bastard every day.' he answered back. Well, I won't go into more details cause this is starting to get long. I suppose that at this point you will all asume that the man I was talking with was actually Tim Robertson. 

The conversation went on for about half an hour. He was confident, spontaneous and outgoing, so it was easy to discover many aspects about him. He was born in Honduras, but moved out of there at a young age to several other countries such as Perú, France and Norway. His parents were devoted to some religious organization and they were spreading the word all around. The last place they where sent to was Barcelona, hence the reason he was there. He learned to play the keyboards as a kid and performed in church. He didn't give me much more details about his life as a youngster. He focused more on the time he decided to commit to his faith and left for Africa. He told me his life changed after spending some years in Niger and Ethiopia. He returned from that experience totally renewed and decided to somehow capture all the ideas he had during his stay in Africa. He bought an old 4 track recorder and started jamming around the simple but complex idea of how church music in space would sound. 

During the next two years he got obsessed with creating the compositions of the future temples on Saturn and Neptune. He recorded hours and hours of music. In the end, feeling totally frustrated, he decided to throw to the bin all those tapes. Well, not all of them. Happily he kept two as a gift to his parents. Sadly, his parents passed away some years later. While cleaning their apartment he found the tapes and with the passing of time he decided to keep them as a memory of that crazy time. I was really curious about those tapes so I asked him if it would be possible to listen to them. He said 'no worries', and that he would bring them to work the next day. So 24 hours later I was there with my walkman, anxious to start listening to those mysterious cassettes.  After a couple of minutes I was totally captivated by them. It was so strange. The kind of repetitive music with cheap keyboard presets. So rough, basic and fragile. It was then I told him that i felt more people had to listen to those recordings. It was a bit difficult to convince him. One of the main reasons is because he doesn't like internet as it is full of pornography and punks. After quite a bit of arguing, he finally accepted. 'At least i’m sharing the word of God with more people', he said. As soon as i came back to Belgium i shared the tapes with my friend Pieter (Aguirre Records) because he would totally be into it and maybe even release it. 

So 20 years after they where originally recorded I'm proud to share with everyone out there these seven tracks with no name. No name, but a story behind them. A man that had a strange vision: compose the perfect soundtrack for the buildings where future space travelers would praise the lord. You can now judge with your own ears if he achieved his goal or failed. Peace!

° Limited to 300 copies
° white milky vinyl
° remastered from the original tapes
° artwork by Tim Robertson
° lay-out by Jeroen Wille
° mastering by Anders Peterson