Thomas Dolby lectures in US

Thomas Dolby is coming to the U.S. for an eight-city mini-tour to talk about his social network transmedia game, The Floating City, and to promote his upcoming album A Map of the Floating City which is due October 25 via Lost Toy People Records.

Each show will include Dolby talking about how he recorded the album on his solar-powered lifeboat with the help of such luminaries as Mark Knopfler, Imogen Heap and Regina Spektor.

He will also go into detail on his game which he describes as "a Dieselpunk dystopia . . . weary survivors of a global climate catastrophe bartering and trading to stay alive in the face of techno-piracy and mutant squid attacks!" Earlier this year, over 5,000 people participated in the 12-week game, grouping in nine "tribes", with the winner receiving a free live concert by Dolby and his band.

Dolby will retell the player-created stories that unfolded during the 12 weeks of gameplay, highlighting key characters' profiles, and the "patent applications" they filed to protect themselves against the unpredictable freak events reported by The Floating City Gazette. And he'll share behind-the-scenes insights into the production process, which took place over the course of an eight-month period using a team of developers in different time zones who never met face to face.

After Dolby completes his U.S. dates, he will return to the U.K. for a full concert tour and will be back to the U.S. in 2012 for a theater and performing arts center tour.

The October U.S. tour:

10/03 - Sirius XM The Loft - Washington, D.C.
10/05 - 92 Y Tribeca - New York, NY
10/07 - Martyrs' - Chicago, IL
10/10 - Triple Door - Seattle, WA
10/12 - KINK-FM Concert - Portland, OR
10/13 - Bimbo's 365 Club - San Francisco, CA
10/14 - Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery - Los Angeles, CA
10/17 - Grammy Museum - Los Angeles, CA

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