I Start Counting / Fortran 5 / Komputer - Konnecting - CD

Catalogue Number: CDMUTEL20
Release Date: 09 September 2013

Konnecting... is a 15-track collection of electro-pop sings bringing together for the first time the works and three guises of electronic pioneers David Baker and Simon Leonard - I Start Counting, Fortran 5, Komputer.

Konnecting... tracks the duo?s output from the first Mute release, Letters To A Friend (I Start Counting, 1984, produced by Daniel Miller), through to the club hit, Heart On The Line (Fortran 5, mixed by Vince Clarke), the Midnight Cowboy sampling Time To Dream (1993, Fortran 5) through to Komputer's paean to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space (Valentina, 1997) to the very British electronic pop/folk music of Headphones And Ringtones and Like A Bird, from Komputer's 2007 release, Synthetik.

Simon Leonard and David Baker originally met at Middlesex University where they DJed together and, in 1982 began to collaborate on an electronic pop project, I Start Counting. Both had an abiding affection for pop music as well as a deep love of music in general, although Leonard specialised more in technology and David's bias was on the musical side. I Start Counting released two albums, and, in 1987, supported Erasure on a European tour.

In 1990 the new material they were working on was sounding quite different from their electro pop roots and it was decided that a new name, Fortran 5, would give the new dance/techno style a completely fresh start. The duo also began to collaborate with a number of other artists including DJ Colin Faver, Thrash of The Orb, Rodney Slater of the Bonzos and Neil Arthur of Blancmange. Remixes were provided by the likes of Vince Clarke, Moby, Joey Negro, David Holmes and Pascal Gabriel, while the duo supplied remixes for other artists including Erasure, Inspiral Carpets and Laibach.

David and Simon then reacted to the tedium of mid 90's indie guitar music by returning to their Kraftwerk inspired roots which again provoked a name change.

Komputer's first releases, the 'Komputer EP' and the subsequent album 'The World Of Tomorrow'; were a respectful homage to the duo's German electronic heroes. Later material saw Komputer absorbing a much wider variety of influences and creating their own unique style of English electronic pop/folk music.

The duo never performed live as Fortran 5, but from the earliest days as Komputer, live shows were very important, leading to many performances all over Europe, most recently appearing at the Short Circuit presents Mute festival at London’s Roundhouse.

The release of Konnecting... I Start Counting, Fortran 5, Komputer celebrates the duo's revisiting of their previous incarnations in the live set, and looks forward to a forthcoming Komputer release.

1. Letters To A Friend (I Start Counting) 
2. Million Headed Monster (I Start Counting) 
3. 3Heart On The Line (Fortran 5) 
4. Time To Dream (Fortran 5) 
5. Valentina (Komputer) 
6. Looking Down On London (Komputer) 
7. Love Baby (Fortran 5) 
8. Lose Him (I Start Counting) 
9. Headphones And Ringtones (Komputer) 
10. Still Smiling (I Start Counting) 
11. Like A Bird (Komputer) 
12. Empty Room (I Start Counting) 
13. Look To The Future (Fortran 5) 
14. Persian Blues (Fortran 5) 
15. Layla (Derek Sings Derek) (Fortran 5 with vocals by Derek Nimmo)