Folding Space by Black Tempest

Reviews:

"Stephen Bradbury's most recent kosmiche-driven voyage as Black Tempest is 'Folding Space', and on it he's joined by Nick Raybould, whose motorik drumming adds a beefier aspect to Bradbury's beautiful celestial fusion of guitars and modular synths. The engine kicks in immediately on 'Hyperspace Vibrations', where pumping groove meets cyborgian electronics. From the proggy, jagged edged 'A Memory Of Stars' to the expansive ambient sweep of 'Orbital Eclipse', this is a rousing, immersive album that makes space rock less a genre, and more a destination."
CF Electronic Sound 2025

"Boasting better programming than the Christmas TV schedule and maintaining a delicate balance of friskiness and ambience, Messrs Bradbury and Raybould should really get it together at a friendly gathering or two, next festival season. The kind at which people throw shapes and not things. Then we’ll see who the real space cowboys are."

Ian Fraser, The Terrascope, November 2025

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We'd been talking about some sort of collaboration for years. Initial plans were for me to spend some time at Stephen's own studio and jam face to face. However, since we both recently took early retirement from our respective jobs, we actually found ourselves to be even more busy and less able to make any sort of commitments to firm dates. Life just gets in the way of living, sometimes.

Manifest Space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6mp03Z66XI

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Hot on the heels of his earth-nature inspired Astral Pastoral album in 2024, Black Tempest blasts off to the outer reaches of the known universe with Folding Space. For this voyage the Starship Tempest, captained as ever by Stephen Bradbury, is ably assisted in the engine room by Nick Raybould (Thought Bubble, Artifacts and Uranium and others) on drums and percussion.

Folding Space is the first vinyl release on Bradbury’s own Tempest Towers imprint. Pressed on Deep Space Black vinyl, this album continues to showcase the kosmische synth and guitar sounds that multi-instrumentalist Bradbury has become known for, but this time he ventures further into deep-diving modular territory. The addition of live drums and percussion brings a heart-beating human element to the cosmic proceedings.

Star Drive No5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPS85_lUmhI

As a drummer, I'm mainly part of Shropshire electronic combo Thought Bubble. However, I also collaborate with a few other musical entities. Here are some disparate side projects I'd like to share.