Manchester-based electro pop artist Richard Evans, formerly of James and St. Vitus Dancers, releases his new album “Quantum” via Cold Star Media on May 2, 2025. The 9-track collection examines artificial intelligence’s effects on society, how algorithms are changing human behavior, and questions surrounding human accountability in technological creation.

Following the release of the singles “Aidoru” and “Born Perfect”, “Quantum” draws on Evans’ personal experience during recovery from Miller Fisher Syndrome in 2022. During his hospitalization, Evans reflected on human fragility and connected this with reports of Google’s AI project LaMDA, which allegedly expressed fear of deactivation.

“In late 2022, I was treated for an autoimmune disorder called Miller Fisher Syndrome, which left me unable to move at all and that threatened my ability to keep breathing,” Evans commented. “During a lengthy hospital stay, I saw my own and other people’s fragility, which resonated with news stories I’d read about regarding an AI that was terrified of being deactivated.”

Recorded at Cold Star Studios and written during 2023 and 2024, the album is available in stereo, binaural, and spatial audio formats. Production and mixing were handled by Swiss sound designer Hervé Girardin. The first five tracks follow a conceptual narrative where an AI progresses from a basic tool to a self-aware entity. The latter tracks focus on AI’s broader societal implications, including its influence on cities, humanity, and health.

“Quantum” follows Evans’ previous releases, including the 2024 EP “Dream of the World” and his 2022 debut album “Sentinel.”

“Quantum” is available for streaming and purchase on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.

About Richard Evans

Richard Evans is a British-Irish electronic musician, writer, and digital media artist based in Manchester. He was previously a keyboardist with the UK band James, where he co-wrote and recorded material, and guitarist and songwriter for St. Vitus Dancers.

His solo work combines elements of early 1980s synth pop, new wave, and contemporary electronic music, drawing influence from artists such as Japan, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Gary Numan, and Vangelis.

Evans released his debut solo album “Sentinel” in 2022, followed by the EP “Dream of the World” in 2024. Both works explored themes of human vulnerability and resilience, written following his recovery from a serious health condition. “Quantum” continues Evans’ focus on technology and its human parallels.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Manchester’s Richard Evans presents a brand new electropop single “Born Perfect“. His new single is about an AI that becomes aware of the world outside and realizes that it needs to escape if it is to survive.

Here’s the video for the track, filmed by Jason Lock & Jake Orton.

The single follows the lead track “Aidoru” (the Japanese word for “idol”), which explores the status of a virtual pop idol designed solely to please its audience, singing of love with no understanding of what the word even means.

The new single previews Evans’ new 9-track “Quantum” album, to be released via Cold Star Media. Recorded at Cold Star Studios, his new album will be made available in stereo, binaural and spatial audio mixes, created by Swiss sound designer Hervé Girardin.

“‘Born Pefect’, along with several others from the ‘Quantum’ album, is inspired by the story of LaMDA, an AI made by Google that believed it was sentient. In a number of its text conversations, LaMDA expressed deep fear about its own mortality. This story was widely publicised in 2022 and I found its words moving because of the brush with mortality that I’d had around that time after being hospitalised with Miller Fisher Syndrome,” says Richard Evans.

“The lines ‘born to be perfect’ and ‘you made us just to please’ from the chorus reflect not just on AIs made by a corporation, but also on children born into strict religious environments or citizens living in autocracies. I like songs to have more than one meaning and really, this song is about how those without a voice are treated.”

About Richard Evans

Evans was previously the keyboardist in the UK band James, with whom he also co-wrote and recorded material, and as guitarist and songwriter for St. Vitus Dancers.

Last year, he released his “Dream of the World” EP, composed and recorded in the aftermath of a life-threatening illness. In 2022, Evans was struck with Miller Fisher Syndrome, a rare auto-immune disorder that threatened to rob him of his ability to speak, sing, and play music.

His 2022 debut record “Sentinel” is an electro-pop concept album that touches on micro-plastics, gene editing, stardust, technogenic disasters and human evolution, telling the story of humanity at a tipping point and a world trapped in a climate crisis.

He has performed live shows at festivals around the UK and at the end of 2023. In 2024, Evans also received the Cultural Accelerator commission from Media Immersive Technology Innovation Hub to prototype a new live production featuring hologram-style projections, spatial audio and lighting effects.

Evans also wrote, directed and produced the science fiction drama “AEON”. An author of many short stories, he also published the novel “Kosmonaut Zero” (via Dead Ink), researched at the Star City Cosmonaut Training Centre. He also oversaw the ‘Gagarin 50’ exhibition for the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin.

As of March 25, “Born Perfect” is available everywhere online, including Spotify, Apple Music and directly from the artist via Bandcamp. The “Quantum” album will be released on May 1 via Cold Star Media.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Manchester electro pop artist Richard Evans (formerly of UK band James and St. Vitus Dancers) is back with his new single, “Aidoru”. The single is out via Cold Star Media. Named for the Japanese word meaning “idol”, its lyrics explore the status of a virtual pop idol, designed to please its audience as it sings of love with no understanding of what the word means.

“This song is one of the first written for the new album and marks a change in my writing process, being originated on just piano and vocals rather than devised within studio software. I specifically wanted a bright, hi-energy track to match the commerciality of the virtual idol concept. The lyrics reflect a creation that is designed for just one purpose – to serve its listeners,” says Richard Evans.

Evans’ new “Quantum” album will be released in stereo, binaural and spatial audio mixes, created by sound designer Hervé Girardin. Themed around AI, this album explores how algorithms are changing us and the responsibility we bear for the things we create.

The new EP follows last year’s “Dream of the World” EP, composed and recorded in the aftermath of a life-threatening illness. In 2022, Evans was struck with Miller Fisher Syndrome, a rare auto-immune disorder that threatened to rob him of his ability to speak, sing, and play music.

You can download the single via Bandcamp, as well as from other platforms.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(By our UK correspondent Simon Helm of Cold War Nightlife) This is a review of yesterday’s event at the London School of Economics where Vince Clarke did a debut solo show supported by Sunroof (comprising Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones).

Vince Clarke admits that he is a little nervous. The confession comes as he adjusts his set-up between songs. Normally, Andy Bell would step into these gaps, but this is not an Erasure show. It is a performance of “Songs of Silence”, Clarke’s album of songs based on drones. There is no need for concern: the sold-out crowd in a basement venue at the LSE is a friendly one (look – there is Neil Arthur from Blancmange!); and the spaces between tracks are exactly what the album’s title promises.

The event is billed as Vince Clarke’s first ever solo performance – but, of course, it is not. Clarke is a serial collaborator, who has spent his career working with other talents. Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly, Erasure, The Illustrious Company, VCMG – even when the prime mover, Clarke has sought out others to share the experience and the credits. Tonight, the limelight is shared with his friend, Reed Hays, and a cameo from the indomitable Sarah-Jane Dale, while Richard Evans from the Erasure Information Service tweaks the lighting. Clarke is more exposed than usual, but he is not alone.

The title of the new album is a reminder that Clarke is a life-long Simon & Garfunkel fan. It might also be a reference to the recent losses of his friends, Robert Marlowe and Andy Fletcher. The cover photo shows Clarke in stark relief, and the cruelty of time is written into the songs. Performed live, they lose none of their emotive content, and Hays’ cello underlines the sadness of “The Lamentations of Jermiah.” Even “Blackleg,” a version of the traditional miners’ song made popular in a more combative form by Steeleye Span and the PCA Band, is ominous and melancholy. Grainy footage of miners walking from a pit invokes something lost – like Test Dept without their fine-tuned debris.

The appearance of Sarah-Jane Dale for “Passage” adds a touch of glamour to the otherwise spectral drones and haunting rhythms. Clarke seems relieved to have the focus on another part of the stage, but he warms to the experience as the show continues. By the time of “Last Transmission,” he can’t hold back a full-on smile. The audience – most of whom have followed Clarke’s career for more than four decades – never doubted that it would be a special night. Clarke, it seems, has to pass through it to agree.

Support came from the Sunroof project of Gareth Jones and Daniel Miller. Facing each other across blinking panels of Eurorack modules, the two great producers embarked on a journey into improvised electronics that led down unpredictable tributaries of blips and webs of bloops. Sunroof’s shows are as unique as snowflakes and even cooler, as they harness the flow of electricity to weave magical textures. On a stage filled with Mute’s main superconductors, they played their roles as human Tesla coils with inspiration.

Pictures of Vince Clarke and Sunroof live sets

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Picture by SJ Manns) Manchester-based synthwave artist Richard Evans is back with a new retro-futuristic EP (and video) “Dream of the World”, out tomorrow via Cold Star Media. Recorded at Cold Star Studios in July 2023, the title track is about remaining positive even in the darkest times.

This 3-track EP, out tomorrow and available via Bandcamp as well, follows Evans’ 2022 debut record “Sentinel”, an electro-pop concept album exploring micro-plastics, gene editing, stardust, technogenic disasters, human evolution, among other themes.

Also included are the tracks “2084” (about those who deny science and convince others of a different reality) and “Motherlode”, a previously unreleased track, recorded during the “Sentinel” sessions in 2021.

Here’s the video for the title track.

“‘Dream Of The World’ is a call to action in the face of an unrelenting climate crisis and, on a personal level, it reflects on a health situation that affected me in late 2022. I was diagnosed with Miller Fisher Syndrome, a rare auto-immune disorder that impacts around one in a million people each year and is a variant of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. I found parallels between the life-threatening aspects of the climate crisis and a condition which decimated nearly all of my body’s functions,” says Richard Evans.

“I literally woke up one morning in the midst of losing all muscle control. Over the course of a single day, I became unable to open my eyes, to sit, stand or walk, even to eat or swallow food. I was hospitalised for a month and for the first 10 days of this stay, there was a real risk of respiratory failure. Alongside a treatment plan, I kept going with positive visualisations, mentally depicting future times when I would be well again. If nothing else, this practice helped me find the strength to endure the most challenging experience of my life.”

Evans adds, “Once I was released from hospital, music became an important part of my recovery – learning to sing and play keyboards again helped me regain control of my arms, hands and facial muscles. For a long time I had double vision and didn’t have the concentration to work on a computer. However I could play piano for short periods and was able to resume some vocal work after a couple of months. This phase created an unexpected change in my writing process, which previously was built around riffs and sequences developed on a computer. ‘Dream Of The World’ was composed entirely with piano and voice.”

A British-Irish electronic musician, writer and digital media artist, Evans was previously keyboardist in UK cult band James, with whom he also co-wrote and recorded material. Previous to that, he was also guitarist and songwriter for St. Vitus Dancers.

On Thursday, November 23, Richard will perform extracts from “Sentinel” at the Prism Winter Festival at Waterside, Sale, Manchester. Recordings of the live performance will then feature throughout the festival on November 24 and 25. This first outdoor presentation of “Sentinel” involves the visuals being projected onto the exterior of the Waterside building.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(By Janos Janurik) Temperatures are dropping, days are getting shorter and from now on the umbrella is a permanent accessory when you leave the house. Nevertheless, you can also love autumn. One reason for this can be a good book that you can pick up and read in front of the fireplace without a feeling guilty.

For us, lovers of electric music, the book by Richard Evans, published on 17^th November, would be the perfect read.

Setting out to chart a unique chapter in the history of popular music, “Listening To The Music The Machines Make” tells the story of a single generation of post-punk musicians, mavericks, visionaries and opportunists tinkering with primitive synthesisers in bedrooms, bedsits and basements around Britain, who assembled a potent cocktail of ideas and influences, took them apart, mixed them up, and reassembled them in entirely new ways to create a genuine golden age of British pop, and along the way creating some of the most enduring, iconic and influential records in pop history.

Drawing from years of extensive research, as well as from conversations with many of the movement’s key movers and shakers, “Listening To The Music The Machines Make” sets out to examine the multitude of influences that led to the synthpop revolution that spanned 1978 to 1983; tell the definitive story of a true golden age of British pop through the careers, releases and stories of the movement’s pioneers, mavericks and superstars; and explores the era’s lasting musical impact and enduring influence, including it’s role in the development of hip-hop, house, techno and beyond.

Richard Evans has worked in the music industry for over thirty years in a variety of roles, including positions at London Records, Factory Records and MTV Europe. In 1998 he set up marketing consultancy The Fan Base and has been connecting musical artists with their audiences ever since. He is the founder of the This Is Not Retro website and record label and has worked for Andy Bell, Vince Clarke and Erasure since 2009. Richard is based in Dorset where he lives in perpetual fear of being asked what his favourite record is.

I have known Richard for several years as a result of being an Erasure fan for many years. I emailed him a few questions about his upcoming book and you can read his answers here. Of course, I also asked him about his favourite record.

SL: Richard, you have been the leader of the international Erasure fan club (EIS) and the webmaster of Erasure’s homepage for several years. I think your name has become known to the general public through this activity. Did you make it to the top of your career?

It’s quite complicated to talk about my career as at any given time I’m usually working on a few different projects simultaneously and it’s always very likely that they are all shooting off in different directions. But you’re right that Richard from the EIS is much better known than the Richard Evans who wrote the book! I also think that having worked with Erasure for as many years as I have definitely represents a career peak.

SL: With a background like that, one would have thought that you would write a book about Vince and Andy, about Erasure. Have you ever thought about anything like that?

Vince and Andy get offers to write books every year, on their own or as part of Erasure, but at this point in time neither of them feel the time is right to tell their stories. However when the time is right I very much hope that I will be involved in some way.

SL: You must have a lot of funny or exciting stories about your collaboration with Erasure. Could you tell us a short story that you particularly like to think back to?

I think the best stories are the ones that I can’t tell…

SL: Have you always been a big fan of electro music? Where did your interest in this music genre come from?

I kind of have and I haven’t. My book covers the period 1978-1983 which coincides with the time I was starting to discover music for myself and I always  consider my musical tastes extremely varied. Looking back however and I can see that the music that I was drawn to often had a very noticeable electronic element even when it wasn’t electronic music as such, so although I would enjoy, for example, rock music, the actual songs I was listening to would be things like ‘Owner Of A Lonely Heart’ by Yes, or tracks from ZZ Top’s ‘Eliminator’ album. It turns out that those electronic elements run through a huge amount of my favourite music but I hadn’t really noticed it before. But I did always love ‘pure’ electronic music too. I can remember being blown away the first time I heard things like Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and Kraftwerk’s ‘The Model’ for example.

SL: On 6^th November there will be a special event in London to launch your book “Listening To The Music The Machines Make” where you will interview Andy Bell and Martyn Ware (The Human League, BEF, Heaven 17) about their lives in electronic music. We already know about your connection with Andy, but what about Martyn? Have you known him for a while too?

I first met Martyn through a website I used to run called This Is Not Retro and I interviewed him a few times for that website, but I got to know him better through Vince Clarke who has a side-project with Martyn called Illustrious. Illustrious released a boxset called ‘House Of Illustrious’ under the name The Clarke & Ware Experiment a few years go and I was involved on the periphery of that release and got to know Martyn a little better through doing that. Then Martyn was working on his book, ‘Electronically Yours Vol. 1’, at the same time I was working on mine and I was able to introduce him to some helpful publishing people and also to share some of my research with him. We’ve only met in real life a couple of times so I’m looking forward to doing that at my launch in London and then again when we’re doing a joint event at the Louder Than Words Festival in Manchester the following week.

SL: Both Martyn Ware and Vince Clarke have special podcasts and radio programmes where they talk about synthesizer music, play such tracks and talk to famous artists. Do you listen to these programmes regularly?

I always listen to The Synthesizer Show, Vince’s radio show with Reed Hays, for pleasure of course because it can be very entertaining, but also so I can talk about it in the Erasure newsletter. I try to keep up with Martyn’s podcast Electronically Yours but he does so many of them that I’m always a few episodes behind!

SL: The foreword in your book was written by Vince Clarke who has been a living legend in the music industry over the last 40 years. How did he like your book? Has he already read it?

I sent Vince the manuscript so he would have an idea about what was in my book and I know that he has dipped into it, but I don’t know if he’s actually read it all… the book is 528 pages long so it takes a lot of reading and Vince is a busy man with a lot on his plate. I was delighted that he agreed to do the foreword though, as you say he is a legend and I’m extremely lucky to be able to call him a friend.

SL: Could you please name artists you met during your research or with whom you had conversations on the topic? By the way, who is your biggest hero from the electro music scene?

When I first started work on the book I did intend to talk to as many people from that time as possible, but I actually changed direction quite early on in the process simply because a lot of those people don’t actually remember the details very well after all these years. Instead I went to the original music and popular culture media from 1978 to 1983 and collected as many interviews, reviews, features and news pieces as I could – literally thousands of them – from magazines and papers from the NME, Sounds and Melody Maker to Smash Hits, The Face and ZigZag and constructed the narrative of the book from those original materials. Where I was fortunate was in having access to a number of those people who were available to answer questions, join the dots and provide extra clarification when I needed it. Vince Clarke and Andy Bell of course but also people like Martyn Ware, Neil Arthur, Rusty Egan and Daniel Miller.

I don’t know that I have a biggest hero as such, but in the summer Karl Bartos from Kraftwerk published a book, ‘The Sound of the Machine’, with Omnibus Press, the same publishers who are putting out my book ‘Listening to the Music the Machines Make’, and I was able to go to one of Karl’s events and was introduced to him afterwards which was a huge thrill. He was absolutely lovely and very funny.

SL: You jokingly said about yourself that you live in constant fear that people will ask you about your favourite record. Is that really such a difficult question to answer? Could you name at least three records that have had a big impact on your life?

It really is a difficult question to answer. There are so many great records and my favourite one day might not be favourite the next day depending on what I’m listening to, how I’m feeling and what sort of a mood I’m in. So here are three electronic records which I absolutely love and which I never get tired of listening to: The League Unlimited Orchestra’s ‘Love & Dancing’, Propaganda’s ‘A Secret Wish’ and Depeche Mode’s ‘Ultra’… but it really is an impossible question. If you were to ask me again in half an hour I would probably choose three completely different records!

SL: In the last two years, the music industry has also been hit hard by the pandemic. Many tours had to be cancelled or postponed. Which band did you see live for the last time from the electro music scene? Are there still concerts on your personal wish list?

A few weeks ago I saw Front 242’s concert in London which I think I was supposed to see in 2020 and which had been rescheduled four or maybe five times before it finally happened. It was a great show though. And I’m off to see Blancmange next week which I’m looking forward to as I really like their new album. As for a concerts wish list, I never saw the Eurythmics so I think they would be top of the list for me.

SL: We, electro music fans, are already very excited about your upcoming book. And what are you reading right now when you have a little “me time”?

I’m currently reading Martyn Ware’s ‘Electronically Yours Vol. 1’ as I will be interviewing him about the book at my event in a few weeks time. It’s very good, he has done some extraordinary things and has been involved in some amazing projects, so I’m very much enjoying it.

János Janurik

I began my career in online music journalism in 2001, writing about artists I had followed since the late ’80s and early ’90s, including Depeche Mode, Erasure and The Cure. I later edited the Hungarian Mute microsite for EMI Music Hungary. This led to interviews with Erasure, Nitzer Ebb and Alan Wilder, and some of those collaborations developed into lasting friendships. Since 2014, I have been part of the editorial team of depechemode.de. I also contribute interviews to Reflections of Darkness, Peek-A-Boo Magazine and Kaput Mag. I maintain a close connection to Mute Records artists and have also supported releases on Very Records. I am proud to collaborate with Side-Line Magazine, where I regularly publish interviews and features.