Ranging from ambient minimalism to world music, modern classical to jazz, Bob Holroyd’s music is often hard to pigeon hole. With eight studio albums and six remix albums to his name, Bob’s eclectic and texturally cinematic work has been recognised and remixed extensively by Coldcut, Nitin Sawhney, Four Tet, Francois K, Mogwai, The Album Leaf, T. Williams, Lemonde, Loop Guru, Steve Roach and more, and has been used in mainstream TV and films such as The Dark Knight, Lost, True Blood, The Sopranos, Panorama, Coast and many more. Now Bob is set to release his ninth album The Cage.

Bob Holroyd has pioneered music that crosses musical and cultural boundaries, and as a result his music is influenced by a diverse array of sights, sounds from around the world. Bob’s music includes influences from extensive travels in Africa and Asia, and ranges from intense walls of percussive drumming – as on his cult club classic ‘African Drug’ – to delicate atmospheric soundscapes, such as the beautiful ‘Looking Back’ – a track recorded for the ‘Sanscapes’ project to highlight the plight of the Kalahari Bushmen, with whom he collaborated with. Similarly, he also recorded the Islamic Call to Prayer at Regent’s Park Mosque, writing a moving and dramatic piece around the haunting vocal by Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens).

Bob Holroyd on the video for “The idea behind “Enough”

is about really feeling emotion, and allowing that space to experience them, whether they are good or uncomfortable. The accompanying film is also the antithesis of the modern MTV type video! There is a lot of space in the track, and only one cross fade edit in the whole video – it’s deliberately NOT in your face.

Enough pain
Enough fear
Enough time
Enough greed
Enough anger
Enough love”

On The Cage:

“The Cage is where I have subconsciously imprisoned myself emotionally for years” says Bob, “By keeping out ‘negative’ emotions I have felt safe, but ultimately made myself unapproachable to others, and myself. I had the idea that instead of trying to escape this Cage I should enlarge it to include all emotions, feelings experiences and people – if EVERYTHING is in the Cage then I am more free than if I were keeping all influences out.”