Bass Communion is a solo project of English musician Steven Wilson, best known for his lead role in the rock band Porcupine Tree. Records released under the name Bass Communion are in an ambient or electronic vein—lengthy, drone-heavy compositions. They come about as experiments made from processing the sound of real instruments and field recordings.[1]
Bass Communion has origins in Steven Wilson's earliest work as a musician. Taking influence from German experimentalelectronic music artist such as Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Conrad Schnitzler, Wilson, along with childhood friend Simon Vockings, formed the group Altamont in 1983. They experimented with primitive analog synthesizers, recording their performances, without the use of multitracking. These recordings were compiled on the tape Prayer for the Soul in September 1983 and released on the Acid Tapes label, then run by future Imaginary Records boss Alan Duffy.[1][2]
By the 1990s, Wilson began to notice an increasing amount of music shaped by the same experimental artists who inspired Altamont. Hearing artists such as Paul Schutze and Biosphere, Wilson felt that it was an ideal time to revisit experimental electronic music.[2] The first self-titled Bass Communion album, often referred to as Bass Communion I, was released in April 1998.
