Swimming

Swimming is a five-piece art-rock band that are currently signed to Tummy Touch Records. They are singer and guitarist John Sampson (who has lived variously in Australia, England and Cocos Island), brother Peter Sampson aka The Petebox on drums and vocals, Joff Spittlehouse (guitars), Blake Pearson (bass) and most recently Sam Potter (samplers / keyboards) also of Late of The Pier

History

The band formed in Nottingham, England in 2004 making a series of 'ambient electronic post-rock' minidisk and cassette recordings for friends. Their first official release Pacific Title EP came out in 2006 through Brighton's Izumi Records. Shortly after the release the band went on hiatus while John recorded and toured as the keyboard player with Amusement Parks On Fire.
A second EP, Primary was released again through Izumi Records in 2008 as well as two singles, Panthalassa and Tigershark that got their first national airplay on BBC Radio1, XFM and heavy rotation on NME Radio. The band supported Chairlift, Pivot (PVT), Shearwater as well as their first festival appearances at Glastonbury and a world first fully binaural, headphone only gig with sonic artist Dallas Simpson at Dot to Dot Festival 2008.
The band's self-produced debut album The Fireflow Trade came out in May 2009 on their own label, Colourschool Records. Having a sound that proved hard to define, the band evoked comparisons to well over 50 different artists in the press around the release of the album. The Fireflow Trade was included in many best of-2009 lists including number 21 in The Fly Magazine.
The band toured Europe in Oct 2010 and signed to Tim 'Love' Lee's Tummy Touch Records the same month. The track 'Sun In The Island' was the first single off their second full length album, Ecstatics International and was chosen to be the first release on New York's East Village Radio's new singles club, EVRRecords in March 2011.
Swimming's Ecstatics International was released in Nov 2011 in the UK through Tummy Touch Records and made it into the top 10 debut's of the year in Clash Magazine.

Binaural Recordings

Swimming and Dallas Simpson have been collaborating on a series of live recordings and performances over the last few years. Many of these are available online as videos and in 2011 they produced a short documentary with award-winning director Simon Ellis called “Swimming: Beach” which premiered at the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge in February 2012. The band have recorded in various outdoor environments to match the songs they record. They have also given select live performances to diverse audiences from cinemas, art spaces, festivals and more conventional venues. This setup has picked up the attention of industry ‘sound recording bible,’ Sound On Sound magazine (circulation 18’000) who are running an in-depth feature in their Feb 2012 issue.

Binaural Recordings /Films:
2007: "Swimming: Woods" - remix of Tigershark remix at Ambergate, Derbyshire, UK
2009: "Swimming: Skyspace" live version of Sun In The Island in Skyspace, Kielder, Northumberland, UK
2011 "Swimming: Beach" Documentary of binaural recordings at Bamburgh Beach, Northumberland, UK

Soundtracks / Media

Swimming have scored original music to:
Subterranean Scene Filter (2008) by Simon Ellis
Tandem (2007) by the Turrell Brothers

The track "I Do (Come true)" was used for Film4's British Connection season, winter 2011.
The track "All Things Made New (Stand) " is feature on Sony's Playstation Nov 2011