Hello, and welcome to DGMFS. I'm Simon Hopkins, a guitarist and composer based in Brighton, on the UK's beautiful south coast, and DGMFS is the platform through which I share all my work.
Since 2012 I've been making electro-acoustic work under two main project names. Boom Logistics draws on many of my musical loves - 70s jazz, ambient, free improvisation, electronica and contemporary classical - and comprises pieces built on improvisations by both me and a revolving cast of regular collaborators. Abyssal Labs began life as a series of pieces to accompany contemplation practice, but I've recently revived it to present long-form dark ambient and soundscape work. I release all my finished work through Bandcamp and present pre-mastered previews and work in progress on both SoundCloud and YouTube.
In 2023 I was awarded a Master's degree by the University of Surrey, where I studied composition under Tom Armstrong, Milton Mermikides and Cameron Graham. During my studies I began composing formally notated music and have since been building a small but growing body of chamber work. Scores and score videos of all my work can be found here. Several of my pieces have been performed at concerts by New Music Brighton. I'm continuing my composition and music theory studies with the composer Peter Copley.
I studied jazz guitar in my teens and graduated from Los Angeles' Musicians Institute in 1987. Throughout my 20s and 30s, in parallel with a career in digital media, I played guitar in a wide range of improv and electronica settings, performing live throughout the UK, Europe and Japan. I made the pivot to classical guitar in 2014 under the tutelage of Brighton's Gregg Isaacson. I currently play with the Brighton Guitar Quartet, which since its inception in 2018 has performed concerts all over Sussex. I'm a member of The Bach Band, a baroque ensemble based in St Leonard's and founded by Steve Gordon. I occasionally perform with the Brighton Guitar Group and in a duo with Paul Dallaway. I’ve played in competitions adjudicated by Graham Anthony Devine and Richard Durrant, and participated in ensemble workshops led by, among others, Gerald Garcia, Stephen Gordon and Vincent Lindsey-Clark.
In my 20s I worked extensively as a freelance music journalist, writing reviews, interviews, liner notes and profiles for print publications, online ‘zines and record companies including Motion (the groundbreaking online music 'zine I helped found in 1998), The Wire, Hi-Fi World, Charlie Records, Virgin Records and BBC Music. In the 90s I curated the "AMBT" series, a 25-strong set of releases for Virgin that covered a range of experimental music, working with musicologists and music journalists including David Toop, Kodwo Eshun and Kevin Martin.
As the BBC’s first Head of Music Online, I led the team that developed and delivered the first online services around the BBC’s key musical output, including The Proms, BBC Orchestras, Radio 3 and Music Learning. In 2007 I co-founded my own consultancy, delivering technology and innovation strategies for a wide range of clients in the arts and media including The Barbican Centre, Glyndebourne, The Wales Millennium Centre, Ofcom and the BBC. In the late 2010s I was Chair of the music education charity AudioActive, and in November 2024 I was appointed Chair of New Music Brighton.
In my "real", non-music life I'm the co-founder and COO of Angel Academe, along with my wife and soul mate Sarah Turner. Now in its 10th year, Angel Academe seeks to address the lack of funding going to female-founded technology startups. To date we've invested in 53 companies through multiple rounds, catalysing over £150m in direct and co-investment from angel investors and venture capitalists.
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