Exploring Sounds, Spaces
and Everything in Between
Bob Holroyd and Simon Painter set to release a New 5 track EP, due out on the Real World X label on July 29th
'Close Up And Far Away'
Bob Holroyd and Simon Painter announce a new five-track EP called ‘Close Up and Far Away’ to be released on Real World X on 29 July, 2026. The title track is available to hear now.
These five instrumental pieces are a reflection on mortality. Life experiences seem to stretch out into the distance, yet as you live through more of them, time seems to compress. The moment we are in right now is so fleeting and then it is gone, unattainably consigned to the past even though it happened just a second ago.
Together, Bob and Simon have co-written numerous pieces that blend ambient space, emotional depth and thoughtful sound design from reflective underscores to richly layered soundscapes. Alongside their studio collaborations, Bob and Simon have spent recent years developing audio-visual performances, combining Bob’s evolving compositions with Simon’s bespoke video creations. These live works explore the relationship between sound, image, space and emotion, allowing music to be experienced both intimately and expansively.
XRW81 – Close Up and Far Away
Release date: 29 July, 2026
- Close Up and Far Away
- All Over Again
- A Tear in the Sky
- Unquiet Mind
- A Change of Perspective
NEW SINGLE - OUT NOW
'Bob Holroyd - Freeform (Ecstatic mix)
'Bob Holroyd - Freeform (Bliss mix)'
This new single has 2 mixes, one, a deliberate nod to the heady NYC 'Body and Soul'/'Dancetrax' days, the other a fluid style ambient version more in keeping with my current work.
Jaye Ward - 'Love both tracks- deeep!'
Nick Warren - '5* 2 lovely versions'
Nathan Detroit -
'PUMPED! 5*'
LATEST ALBUMS
'I HEAR VOICES'
I have co-written an album called I Hear Voices with Simon Painter for 7Style Music which consists solely of live and sampled vocals, which have been looped and processed to construct a contemporary other worldly sound.
'RHYTHMIC STEALTH'
Simon Painter and myself have also written a new album for Grey Man Production Music called Rhythmic Stealth, a collection of urban underscores and drones with minimal beats and sound design aimed principally at dark documentaries and crime dramas.
NEW SINGLE - OUT NOW
'Hidden Voices Unveiled (parts 1 and 2)'
The pieces are both ultimately meant to be inspirational – symbolic of the hope for change in the future.
NEW EP - OUT NOW
'GLINT'
4 Track EP
which combines lofi beats and more conventional organic instruments including guitar, piano and bass guitar.
NEW ALBUM - OUT NOW
'Football Chants and Nursery Rhymes'
The album title
‘Football Chants and Nursery Rhymes’
derives from a conversation I had with a musician friend who commented on what type of music people say they like in relation to what they actually buy. This sentiment also extends to record labels who imply they are looking for something new and different yet seemingly release the same kind of music. “Although they think something different, all people actually want is football chants and nursery rhymes”.
'limited edition'
‘Football Chants and Nursery Rhymes’ has a limited edition double, coloured vinyl version available.
There are only 250, and they have a white vinyl as one record, and a red vinyl for the second one.
"From the gentle touches of piano on ‘Beige’, to the post-rock rumblings of ‘The Day Before’ and the haunting fragility of ‘Big Fields’, Holroyd looks to explore sounds, spaces, and everything in between. ‘Football Chants and Nursery Rhymes’ is an album of emotion – a tender, touching album full of feeling and sentiment. There’s a reflective beauty to the emotive ‘Straight Jacket’ while swathes of affecting electronica dictate the flow of ‘Cart Blanche’. Elsewhere, ‘Capture’ flickers on the edge of melody and ambience and the minimalistic classicism of ‘Ship Sailed’ and ‘Mangled Pianos’ show a musician capable of remarkable tenderness"
Dubiks - Connecting Music Lovers
