Let musician Tony Levin introduce the Project with this quotation: “[Progressive music is] not reproducing something that was radical 30 years ago, but the more difficult route of putting aside old ways of playing to try to come up with meaningful new music. It’s a noble quest, whether you achieve it or not.”

In The Long Play Project I tell the stories this noble musical quest leaves in its wake. When we listen to meaningful new music, we also learn about ourselves.

“As a major champion of the art of music writing without soundbite-sized straitjackets, The Long Play Project is a winner.” Kris Needs, Freelance Music Journalist

What you’ll find here

The Long Play Project (sometimes simply called LP) is about musicians, their noble quest, and our human selves.

I explore albums that changed careers, artists who refused to repeat themselves, and ideas that grew beyond their original boundaries.

My first book, Pete Townshend’s Lifehouse, tells one such story: an ambitious creative vision that became much more than the next Who album.

Whether I’m writing about a classic or contemporary artist, I’m asking the same question:

What happens when musicians pursue a noble progressive quest?

“If we want to resist a world of music dictated by AI, then we need to support our musical curators. Ian is one of them.” Tony Fletcher, author of Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon

About me

I’m a music writer and the author of Pete Townshend’s Lifehouse. My next book, A Tale of the Trick, an immersive living biography of the Genesis album A Trick of the Tail, is currently in preparation.

I also write features, reviews and interviews for music publications.

Join The Long Play Project

The albums that stay with us rarely came from artists playing safe. They came from people willing to question themselves, take risks and keep reaching.

If you’re interested not only in great records, but in the creative journeys behind them, and what they do to us, the listeners, I think you’ll feel at home here.

Subscribe, put on an album that changed a life and join me in exploring where creative ambition can lead. What are you listening to now?