James P. Bethell (SOCAN/BMI)

aka Dee Kaph

aka Starflower

aka Nebulous Projekt

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November 2011 Update:

I have recently moved into a new home with my children, constructed what is pretty close to my dream studio, and have been recording new material quite unlike what I used to do - still blends of electronic and acoustic, classical and newnewwave, pop and underground. As the tracks find completion I will post them, but busy as I am with all my kids and daily responsibilities, it may take time. I've also started writing again.

The short story is that I began producing music when I was 15 using a 4-track and my guitar, piano, hand drums and anything else I could find in my parent's basement.

As the first computer-based synthesizers became available, I hopped on board and began producing illbient and dance music which I then performed as Live PA (or "Living PA" as I called it) around the BC rave scene in the late 90's. Over the years I have added and abandoned various hardware synths, midi gear, modules, procs, boxes, doo-dads and almost every kind of goodoldfashioned instruments. To date I have recorded some 300 original songs and remixes under a dozen or so pseudonyms and on as many labels.

Besides being a composer and producer, I'm educated in Philosophy and English, am a writer and poet, actor and photographer, father of many children and have a day job I enjoy as a field engineer/account manager for a local technology company. My life is profoundly "ordinary" besides the intermittent brushes with greatness I've been blessed to have encountered. Besides producing music - which is what me keeps me chemically balanced - I love playing and watching hockey and reading science fiction novels and internet memes and video games and fishing and camping  kayaking and spending time with my children. I still make a wish when I see a shooting star even though I am up to speed on contemporary (read: "strange") physics, and I believe that Life is proof of Magick.

As the founder of Splendid Imaginings (aka SplendidWest Records) I began challenging the recording industry from within the infrastructure of multinational digital distribution. At length I came to realize that the music industry as it stands today is completely hopeless and I have changed my tactics.

My music is a blend of organic and electronic instruments, as the music that has influenced my life has been as such. Pink Floyd. Isao Tomita. Abba. Smashing Pumpkins. Misfits. Radiohead. Queen. All of the instrumentation performed in my songs is by myself, as are the vocals, except where otherwise noted. It usually starts with a melody on the piano, or a neat sound I'm tweaking on a synth, or a riff on a guitar and seeing how it feels in the air around me. Eventually jams are recorded, run through sequencing programs (I use Reason 6 almost exclusively now), then downmixed and layered, engineered and so on until it's done. It has been trial and error, as I have never had any formal training but have done alright despite that.

Today I spend my time with my children and friends fishing, camping, working, producing music and loving life the universe and everything. I don't go to stay-up-all-night dance parties anymore, but I dance almost daily in my studio with my children. Sometimes they help out in in the recordings.

Humble as I am, I do enjoy hearing from those who have enjoyed my work, or perhaps have projects they think that we might align on, so if you wish to contact me, please feel free to do so at:

Please note, this music was constructed at high volumes and has been sonically balanced to reflect critical details. You can not truly understand any kind of electronic music until you hear it at full volume with a big subwoofer. As such, I'd ask if you're going to take the time to listen to some of this music, for the love of zombie Jesus, hear it as it was meant to be heard.

Recommended Listening:

I produce a wide variety of different types of music, from folk to industrial, dubstep to trance, triphop to experimental, ambient to house, and all the fusions inbetween. If you are just familiarizing yourself with my work, may I recommend the following based on your musical tastes...

Uplifting Trance:

"The Island"

Ambient Tranzhop:

"Ockham's Razor"

"Sundrops 'n Rainshine!"

Drum 'n Bass/Triphop:

"Matter Does Not Matter"

Trance/Breaks:

"Shelter (Meltdown)"

Breaks/Trance:

"Process the Future"

Breaks/Triphop:

"Someone LIke U"

Glitch-Hop:

"Purebred"

Nerdcore:

"Not A Gangster"

Abstract Triphop:

"Forgiveness"

Fast Fusion:

"Coquette"

Ambient Triphop:

"Autonamous Anonymatons"

Chamber/Classical:

"In The Arms of Lost Hopes and Dreams"