Biography
Erol Alkan joined forces with Richard Norris to pursue shared explorations under the name Beyond the Wizards Sleeve, a vehicle they described themselves as “part-folk astronauts, part-electronic neo-romancers.” Distinct from their separate endeavors and from Norris’s activities with the Grid, the project channeled their mutual fascination with psychedelic rock. Launched anonymously in order to run alongside their established careers, the venture soon lost its secrecy and the pair openly acknowledged their involvement.
The pair first connected in 2007 after repeated encounters on the club circuit and a joint appearance on a radio broadcast, where their common enthusiasm for psychedelia quickly surfaced. Their earliest release, the 2005 EP Birth, assembled cut-ups and re-edits drawn from the Monkees, the Turkish psych-rock group 3 Hürel, and the Hollies; they deliberately selected recordings whose pronounced left-right stereo separation allowed them to isolate bass and drums on one channel and guitars and vocals on the other, yielding a clean base for reconstruction. The follow-up, Spring, appeared in 2006 and applied the same approach to material by the Rolling Stones, Illés, and Rescue Co. No. 1. Two further EPs, George and West, both surfaced in 2007, after which the four were gathered on the 2008 compilation Ark 1.
Throughout this period the duo remained sought-after remixers of current acts, and a 2009 collection titled Re-Animations, Vol. 1 gathered their reworkings of tracks by the Chemical Brothers, Franz Ferdinand, Goldfrapp, Midlake, and Simian Mobile Disco, among others. Beyond the Wizards Sleeve also moved beyond re-edits and remixes. Following a short break, the vinyl-only single Black Noise/Door to Tomorrow arrived in 2012 and sold out almost at once. They next undertook a complete remix of English psychedelic rock outfit Temples’ 2014 debut album Sun Structures. Additional original material emerged in spring 2016 with the full-length The Soft Bounce, which included contributions from Mystery Jets’ Blaine Harrison, Euros Childs of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, and Jane Weaver.
The pair first connected in 2007 after repeated encounters on the club circuit and a joint appearance on a radio broadcast, where their common enthusiasm for psychedelia quickly surfaced. Their earliest release, the 2005 EP Birth, assembled cut-ups and re-edits drawn from the Monkees, the Turkish psych-rock group 3 Hürel, and the Hollies; they deliberately selected recordings whose pronounced left-right stereo separation allowed them to isolate bass and drums on one channel and guitars and vocals on the other, yielding a clean base for reconstruction. The follow-up, Spring, appeared in 2006 and applied the same approach to material by the Rolling Stones, Illés, and Rescue Co. No. 1. Two further EPs, George and West, both surfaced in 2007, after which the four were gathered on the 2008 compilation Ark 1.
Throughout this period the duo remained sought-after remixers of current acts, and a 2009 collection titled Re-Animations, Vol. 1 gathered their reworkings of tracks by the Chemical Brothers, Franz Ferdinand, Goldfrapp, Midlake, and Simian Mobile Disco, among others. Beyond the Wizards Sleeve also moved beyond re-edits and remixes. Following a short break, the vinyl-only single Black Noise/Door to Tomorrow arrived in 2012 and sold out almost at once. They next undertook a complete remix of English psychedelic rock outfit Temples’ 2014 debut album Sun Structures. Additional original material emerged in spring 2016 with the full-length The Soft Bounce, which included contributions from Mystery Jets’ Blaine Harrison, Euros Childs of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, and Jane Weaver.
Albums
Singles
