Thighpaulsandra

United Kingdom

Thighpaulsandra (Tim Lewis) is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. As Tim Lewis, he began his career working with Julian Cope. Born June 19 in Pontypridd, Wales to a family of musicians. His grandfather being a conductor and mother, Dorothy Lewis an opera singer. He was frequently taken to classical concerts from an early age and studied French horn, church organ and piano. He had a strange band in school with odd combinations of instruments. Avant-garde was normal to him even though he didn't care much for the concerts he went to. He has worked as a session musician for unmentionable acts as well as a recording engineer and spent 8 years working in a psychiatric hospital as a staff nurse. He eventually quit the day job.

Beginning his career in the early 1980s with the hair metal band Temper Temper, Lewis next became the house engineer and studio manager at Loco Studios near Newport. Stuck in S. Wales, Lewis was at first unable to capitalize on his real influences, such as krautrock and improvised electronic music. Eventually, his work with Julian Cope provided the right atmosphere and Thighpaulsandra joined the band Spiritualized. He also joined Coil and performed on such albums as Astral Disaster, Musick To Play In The Dark Vol. 1 and Musick To Play In The Dark Vol. 2. His first three solo releases came out via the Coil label, Eskaton. John Balance provided vocals for Thighpaulsandra's first release Some Head EP, and Peter Christopherson designed the artwork for the I, Thighpaulsandra double album and for the following albums.

When asked to describe Thighpaulsandra's work to somebody recently, it was difficult to find the right words to serve any justice. Perhaps the best thing to therefore do is simply respond by illustrating this highly accomplished and visionary musician has been known for his assistance with groups and artists as diverse as Coil, Spiritualized and Julian Cope as much as his own albums during recent enough memory. Combining musique concrète, quasi-dimensional electronics, ravaged hums, atmospheric tones and all manner of different instruments nodding into focus makes him very unique and original artist.

​" ...the best example yet of Thighpaulsandra's seriously prodigious and sometimes preposterous musical talents."
– Russell Cuzner, The Quietus

"The Golden Communion is quality stuff that jumps through its own hoops and offers the listener too many rewards."
– Michael Rodham-Heaps, Freq

"Eccentric, maybe; challenging, yes, but it is rarely boring with every spin revealing hidden nuances within its unpredictable layering of sound."
– Compulsion online

"A masterwork of experimental outsider music..."
– Eric Evans, Quip Magazine

" ...the definitive album of the year, there is so much going on here that it will keep me guessing and listening carefully for years."
– John Kealy, Brainwashed

Thighpaulsandra - Did He Fall

Thighpaulsandra Live at Cymru Beats 2016

Thighpaulsandra - Black Nurse Live in France 2006

Coil live in Montreal (featuring Sleazy and Thighpaulsandra)