It's not far off 12 months since I last wrote anything here at the Radio Orchestrar page. Oh dear. But since I am writing, surely that must mean that you have some news?
( YES! )
So what if anything is happening in the world of the Autocrat? Hmm. Christmas of sorts. I've started working on an EP, although the final length is not yet clear but here as some slight seasonal offering is an acoustic demo of one of the songs:
A Flaneur in Wood Green
Wood Green is an area just to the north of where I live and there's a shopping centre there, amongst which one may find a branch of discount clothing store TK Maxx. For some reason, possibly deeply psychological, the original American version is called TJ Maxx. Go figure.
In my head, I'm singing this song like George Jones and it is has a big Billy Sherrill production all over it. You'll regret not downloading this version once the overblown one makes its appearance. You might regret this one also.
At the kind invitation of Smokefriendly England, I shall be playing at the following. As it says on the flyer (Photobucket seems not to be uploading photos for me at this precise moment).
GUNPOWDER, REASON & PLOT
Monday 5th November
The English Maid Barge [opposite Parleyment-ish], Albert Embankment, SE1 7TP
Other Attractions include:
A Heated Smoking Deck!
A Performance by Annouchka Bayley [familiar to visitors here]
Guy Fawkes d.j.ing [sic] by Rev Norm [Lord only knows, but we're both huge Kate Bush fans] and Penny Metal [Unhinged Soviet folk and the like]
A Guy Fawkes speech by Count Nikolai Tolstoy-Miloslavski [He loves to count...]
A lecture by Kate Williams [recent biographer of Emma Hamilton]: Sex, Scandal and Terrorism: Guy Fawkes' Women
Guy Fawkes songs by:
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
Sofizelle
Dean Tunkara
Bass/Sax Duo of Alexi the Ossetian and Gordon [my italics!]
The only drawback I can see to this fun-filled night is the princely sum of £20, but then you do get to chug up and down the Thames (I hope!) for a bit. While smoking.
I guess this means I need to actually write a Guy Fawkes tune. Any suggestions of material to cover (especially 17th century broadsides and the like) welcome. I did recently get hold of a Tenori-on (the result of a collaborative project between Toshio Iwai and Yamaha), but whether I'll get the hang of doing something with it when not sat on the toilet awaits to be seen. There seems to be some discomfort amongst musicians that it's too much like fun and not enough of a hackable interface like the Monome (which has no onboard sound of its own). It's a toy! They say. All the better, I think. My disappointments with it are:
1. It would be great if the sampling was onboard à la Casio SK-1 and you could just sing or whatever into it in real time rather than somewhat arduous uploading of one-second samples via SD card. Since the thing costs £600 if you bought it, this hardly seems beyond budget. I mean, he managed it on Elektroplankton for the DS.
2. Some form of randomiser would be great.
3. It really isn't cheap for what it does. I suppose you are getting a limited edition piece by Iwai for your money, but I'm not sure I'd pay that much for it.
4. Coloured lights please! In fact, what would be nice is a very lo-res camera that would convert your snapshots into 16x16 musical pixelations.
5. Much better effects.
6. Some sort of expressive input for pitch bending, volume, filtering, etc.
7. In fact, with regard to the above and more, the lack of USB port seems rather an oversight, since even if you can update the firmware on it via SD card, there's no apparent means to expand the functionality of it. Why not put one in, even if you have no idea at the time of release what you might yet do with it?
8. Insufficient waterproofing for use in the bath.
GUNPOWDER, REASON & PLOT
Monday 5th November
The English Maid Barge [opposite Parleyment-ish], Albert Embankment, SE1 7TP
Other Attractions include:
A Heated Smoking Deck!
A Performance by Annouchka Bayley [familiar to visitors here]
Guy Fawkes d.j.ing [sic] by Rev Norm [Lord only knows, but we're both huge Kate Bush fans] and Penny Metal [Unhinged Soviet folk and the like]
A Guy Fawkes speech by Count Nikolai Tolstoy-Miloslavski [He loves to count...]
A lecture by Kate Williams [recent biographer of Emma Hamilton]: Sex, Scandal and Terrorism: Guy Fawkes' Women
Guy Fawkes songs by:
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
Sofizelle
Dean Tunkara
Bass/Sax Duo of Alexi the Ossetian and Gordon [my italics!]
The only drawback I can see to this fun-filled night is the princely sum of £20, but then you do get to chug up and down the Thames (I hope!) for a bit. While smoking.
I guess this means I need to actually write a Guy Fawkes tune. Any suggestions of material to cover (especially 17th century broadsides and the like) welcome. I did recently get hold of a Tenori-on (the result of a collaborative project between Toshio Iwai and Yamaha), but whether I'll get the hang of doing something with it when not sat on the toilet awaits to be seen. There seems to be some discomfort amongst musicians that it's too much like fun and not enough of a hackable interface like the Monome (which has no onboard sound of its own). It's a toy! They say. All the better, I think. My disappointments with it are:
1. It would be great if the sampling was onboard à la Casio SK-1 and you could just sing or whatever into it in real time rather than somewhat arduous uploading of one-second samples via SD card. Since the thing costs £600 if you bought it, this hardly seems beyond budget. I mean, he managed it on Elektroplankton for the DS.
2. Some form of randomiser would be great.
3. It really isn't cheap for what it does. I suppose you are getting a limited edition piece by Iwai for your money, but I'm not sure I'd pay that much for it.
4. Coloured lights please! In fact, what would be nice is a very lo-res camera that would convert your snapshots into 16x16 musical pixelations.
5. Much better effects.
6. Some sort of expressive input for pitch bending, volume, filtering, etc.
7. In fact, with regard to the above and more, the lack of USB port seems rather an oversight, since even if you can update the firmware on it via SD card, there's no apparent means to expand the functionality of it. Why not put one in, even if you have no idea at the time of release what you might yet do with it?
8. Insufficient waterproofing for use in the bath.
I'm off to China on Wednesday for a fortnight and then back, just, in time to provide the music for another play by Annouchka Bayley at the Horse Hospital on Saturday 29th September. Entitled The Queen of the Whores, this play draws from some of her experiences working via the English Collective of Prostitutes with some of London's refugee community, as well as various personal interviews and the such. I think! Don't quote me. Given my involvement has only just been confirmed following a date change, I've not much idea currently what it is that I'm doing, but much of it I'll have to do in China, which could prove useful for various sounds. Not those sounds, vicar, sounds like the Singing Sands of Dunhuang, calls to prayer, birds of prey...
Details for the performance are up at the Horse Hospital site. There also appears to be a showing of Lukas Moodysson's A Hole in My Heart. I don't know which is first or second.
I'm sure China will involve the purchase of a musical instrument or two...
Details for the performance are up at the Horse Hospital site. There also appears to be a showing of Lukas Moodysson's A Hole in My Heart. I don't know which is first or second.
I'm sure China will involve the purchase of a musical instrument or two...
I've posted some pictures from the album launch on my Flickr page and the slideshow is here. There'll be a few more in due course!
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
plinth (of Directorsound) has very kindly posted a link to an mp3 of their performance on the day. Despite his misgivings about the alcohol kicking in towards the end (for which you can blame me as I was mixing the drinks), it's a wonderful memento of the day. STOP PRESS! HELLO NEW YORK!
Unless the event falls through, I have been booked to play the Asian Song Society (ASS) in Chinatown on the night of February 14th, 2008. It's a bit soon to have much more detail than that, but I'll be appearing thanks to the very kind invitation of Wynd (and his NYC cohort Alex) as part of Loss: A Night of Exquisite Misery. This makes me feel oddly like
imomus, except without the talent!I'll be performing the second (and much improved!) iteration of my Japanese torch singer and should probably come up with a name in the meantime. I might see if I can get a Cantonese or Korean song under my belt as well....
Residents of the Five Boroughs and beyond are most welcome to attend and chances are I can get some of you in on the guest list. I'll let you know in due course.
Nick West takes third place at the ON ICE album launch and wins a prize. In this case, a haphazard conceptual piece called Eyeless In Gaza involving a butane cannister, a box of Ferrero Rocher, a bust of Wagner and a tiny metal tankard all taped together.
( Click here for other news and a download link for the album )
As it says on the tin really. There might be a few surprise guests subject to confirmation. I met Russell James Palmer on Saturday and agreed that I would clear his small financial debt with me provided he was able to recite from memory a poem by William Blake lasting no less than five minutes in length. However, if he fails in this challenge, I'm hoping that Cecil Sharp have some stocks out in the garden. Either that or he's gored by the antlers that hang on the walls of Trefusis Hall...
Today I went with my, err, stylist (surely that should be friend? You don't merit a stylist even if you might need one), so rather, friend Sputnichka to Afro World of Dalston to pick up a wig for my performance at Loss. It needs some further work cutting and styling, as I'm trying to go for a Keiji Haino tribute with the hair and currently I'm more of a bearded Anna Wintour. The beard and eyebrows are being dyed too. Thanks for all your help Sputnichka, I'm sure I will look more fabulous than I have in years.
The MAJOR NEWS though is that I have fixed a date for the album launch and that will be the afternoon and early evening of Saturday July 21st (and, yes, 2007). I still don't know where, there's emails bouncing around here and there and I should be able to confirm the location and line-up for the event very soon.
Other news of note is that I have been invited by Piers and Dave from Turning Worm to play the Constitution in Camden (42 St Pancras Way) on Friday 25 May where I'll be supporting Jim'lls Brain and Sonic Dragolgo. Both those Myspace pages are actually worth a listen for once. Err, dunno, a fiver I imagine. This looks to be a very promising night of music and tomfoolery, although possibly wig-free on my behalf.
The final furlong for the CD is in sight. The main challenge, to muddy the metaphor, is that I'm still waiting for a considerable sum of money owed to me which is necessary to proceed. It's in hand, or rather clutched by the knotty fingers of a team of opposing solicitors, so here must I stand (remember, I'm a horse), panting, sweating, adjusting faders and knobs, waiting for the flag to go up so I can get the printing and duplication sorted, fix a launch date, work out what sort of snacks I can offer. Something like that. Meanwhile...
My first gig as a solo artist in about a year will be at Loss; An Evening of Exquisite Misery on the night of Friday, May 18th. The venue's yet to be formally announced. This is an evening run by my good friend Viktor Wynd (pictured abjectly above in miserable company whilst at the event) and he somehow got the Daily Mail (of all papers) intrigued enough by the concept to write a review. The evening is a sort of offshoot from The Last Tuesday Society of which Viktor is President. I particularly enjoy some of the classic Daily Mail sort of comments from readers:
"Fashion is all about mindless conformity, the attempt to find some identity at the hands of others. They ought to try going to Africa if they want some real misery, but of course this is all a silly game for pointless people, the last thing they want is reality of any type. - Dino Fancellu, epsom"
Or:
"It's time to move I think. Britain is just becoming stranger and stranger. I'm beginning to think that I have no point of contact! - Judy, Liverpool"
Even:
"When things get this wacky you know its time to head for the hills. Remember how wacked things were before the crash in '89 - forget analysing the stock market, it is stuff like this that tells you the party is nearly over (basically when people lose the plot and their sense of reality). If there are more rather than less of these stories its time to cash in those stocks. - Tc, London"
And a poignant typo:
"Crying over global warming... I wish. My bay son died 6 months ago and all I do is cry. Every day. - Anon, Ex U.K"
I imagine I'll be doing a set specific for the evening. I've got a fair number of miserable songs myself, but my first idea off the cuff is to perform a set of covers in different languages I can speak(ish) or at least pronounce half-competently: English, Russian, French, Japanese, Georgian. Maybe fairly heavy on the enka...
My first gig as a solo artist in about a year will be at Loss; An Evening of Exquisite Misery on the night of Friday, May 18th. The venue's yet to be formally announced. This is an evening run by my good friend Viktor Wynd (pictured abjectly above in miserable company whilst at the event) and he somehow got the Daily Mail (of all papers) intrigued enough by the concept to write a review. The evening is a sort of offshoot from The Last Tuesday Society of which Viktor is President. I particularly enjoy some of the classic Daily Mail sort of comments from readers:
"Fashion is all about mindless conformity, the attempt to find some identity at the hands of others. They ought to try going to Africa if they want some real misery, but of course this is all a silly game for pointless people, the last thing they want is reality of any type. - Dino Fancellu, epsom"
Or:
"It's time to move I think. Britain is just becoming stranger and stranger. I'm beginning to think that I have no point of contact! - Judy, Liverpool"
Even:
"When things get this wacky you know its time to head for the hills. Remember how wacked things were before the crash in '89 - forget analysing the stock market, it is stuff like this that tells you the party is nearly over (basically when people lose the plot and their sense of reality). If there are more rather than less of these stories its time to cash in those stocks. - Tc, London"
And a poignant typo:
"Crying over global warming... I wish. My bay son died 6 months ago and all I do is cry. Every day. - Anon, Ex U.K"
I imagine I'll be doing a set specific for the evening. I've got a fair number of miserable songs myself, but my first idea off the cuff is to perform a set of covers in different languages I can speak(ish) or at least pronounce half-competently: English, Russian, French, Japanese, Georgian. Maybe fairly heavy on the enka...
As you can see from the photo above, the Autocrat loves to push the boundaries of physical exertion when performing. It was taken during rehearsals and my main memory of the place is how cold it was in the place. Brrr.....
There are five mp3s here linked to in the bold title. They're tagged as being by the Autocrat, but they should be giving credit to Annouchka Bayley who wrote the piece after all. The title (Apokalypsis - meaning "the lifting of the veil") was one chosen by the curator and it should be noted that her preferred title would have been The Four Horsemen and a Fish.
I'm not sure how these recordings stand without the rest of the performance.
Update: As there seem to be some issues with the first mp3, I've stuck everything into a zip file.
ENTRANCE
Fans of
plinth should note the first of a number of debts here. Sneaking in under the horse sounds, lap steel and music box are the tones of one Winston Miller. A search on the computer for songs with "horse" in the title came up with "Horsey, don't you stop...". It proved hard to resist.ONOSKELIS
The title and much of the text for this section is drawn from the Testament of Solomon, a pseudoepigraphical work from around 200AD. Apparently. Miss Bayley is playing the gong in addition to the vocal work. I'm still bowing/plucking a lap steel.
FEVER
Just before this section, there was a moment where a music box played and Annouchka performed a sort of carousel section. I've not put this in as it's just a straight music box piece that lasted about twenty seconds and it doesn't make sense without the visual cue. The use of the music box is another inspirational debt to Plinth and the celebrated DORSETSOUND. Mucking about with some recordings led to the music box track in the first mp3. Anyway, this is the Fever you know, love or hate. It's a ringtone dragged into GarageBand.
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES
Another horse song the computer chucked up. I wasn't too sure about this at first as I thought the Current 93 use of the song was bit of an obvious quote (David Tibet and Steven Stapleton exhibited some pictures at the Horse Hospital not long back) but Miss A. was keen. And, yes, I do get the words "wrong" ("bees and butterflies" for "birds and butterflies" and slightly make up the tune. It's a folk song, it changes over time with borrowing and mistakes... Annouchka has just poured wine over her legs and is walking over a flour pathway at this point.
SHISHIMURKA RIVER
As it's spelled here. It should be Shishiri-muka . There's a rather hefty irony in this track, given that this Ainu tale is one of a river freed and life being restored (the final image of the performance was a fish being raised into the air). Known as the Saru river in Japanese, this is the site of the controversial Nibutani dam which despoiled this area of vital importance in Ainu culture. No internet at the time so I didn't realise this.
What with the computer being repaired and then moving home, I've been without domestic internet access for almost two months. It's been refreshing in some ways. I've got a recording of the Horse Hospital event, but I'm waiting for a few pictures that should be with me later today. In the meantime, here are some Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, err, videos!
Just as I've been packing and resorting objects, I've also been doing the same with the computer. These two pieces are both from the Okinawa EP. For "Morning", I stripped the audio from the video I shot of approaching dawn and then sampled/treated it. I've finally now stuck the two halves back together.
The second is for "Evening". Here the audio was all taken from American forces television that's shown on the island. The video is from the train in Osaka going back (or is it going to?) the airport. The static shot is of a tomb entrance. The mosaic-rich prawn snippets on the hotel tv might make it borderline NSFW, although there's really nothing to turn off... I could claim I'm making some statement about the nature of American eroticism/imperialism and Okinawan culture and history, but it would be as honest to say there wasn't that much video I shot on the camera while there and this seemed to work.
That said, having uploaded the videos late last night, I awoke to see there'd been zero views of the first and 61 of the second. That frozen shot from midway makes all the difference.
Just as I've been packing and resorting objects, I've also been doing the same with the computer. These two pieces are both from the Okinawa EP. For "Morning", I stripped the audio from the video I shot of approaching dawn and then sampled/treated it. I've finally now stuck the two halves back together.
The second is for "Evening". Here the audio was all taken from American forces television that's shown on the island. The video is from the train in Osaka going back (or is it going to?) the airport. The static shot is of a tomb entrance. The mosaic-rich prawn snippets on the hotel tv might make it borderline NSFW, although there's really nothing to turn off... I could claim I'm making some statement about the nature of American eroticism/imperialism and Okinawan culture and history, but it would be as honest to say there wasn't that much video I shot on the camera while there and this seemed to work.
That said, having uploaded the videos late last night, I awoke to see there'd been zero views of the first and 61 of the second. That frozen shot from midway makes all the difference.
I went to What's Cookin' last night. That's a great Wednesday and Saturday music evening that's run by a great couple called Ali and Steve. The music mostly tends towards country and rock'n'roll and I've played there a few times both solo and when I was a member of the Dog Roses.
They've recently had to move to a new venue for Wednesday nights at the Ex-Servicemen's Club in Leytonstone. It's a great improvement as the upstairs social hall is a time-capsule example of 70's design with original fixtures. Imagine a lush Phoenix Nights. The look is more than complimented by Ali's wonderful stage design. A sort of Mexi-Hawaiian look with huge plastic flower garlands all around the stage and mic stands together with a wonderful hand-painted stage backdrop of the (recently) late Freddie Fender. There's some idea of the look in the previous venue here.
It's a great club to play as they're always welcoming and enthusiastic to everyone who comes. The event is free to get in, but there's a jug passed around towards the end and somehow this method, together with the ethical attitude of the promoters of dividing all money between performers and keeping none for themselves, means you walk out with more, and somehow cleaner, money (as a performer!) than you get at your usual £5- and-in night. Friendly atmosphere, blah, blah...
I met up with quite a few familiar faces last night. It was great to see Mike from the Dog Roses after a long period without contact. They're the band I used to play dobro and mandolin with and I would post details about their forthcoming gig with the rejuvenated line-up but they don't appear to have updated their website! It either Wednesday or Thursday 15/16 at the Dog House at 293 Kennington Lane. It'll be in Time Out or similar.
We were expecting to see the Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Rutledge (who incidentally had Mary Margaret O'Hara sing on his last but one album) but the gig had to be cancelled midway through the evening as a man had a massive heart attack at the back of the room and died. We traipsed downstairs to the main bar for the rest of the evening in something of a state of shock. I felt a certain sense of guilt as he'd collapsed just as I was on the way to the toilet. Somebody seemed to be dealing with the situation very adequately so I left them to it and avoided putting my 10 pence in. By the time I came out of the toilet, it was clear (to me anyway) that he was dead. I worked in casualty for two years a long time ago. Admittedly just as a receptionist with first aid training, but it means I'm very experienced at dealing calmly and methodically in situations where people are spurting blood over you or threatening you with a knife if you don't hand over some fucking painkillers there and then. Downstairs I heard the woman who'd been dealing with it saying she actually didn't really know what she'd been up to. One of those "what if..." situations. It now turns out there was a nurse on the audience. Nevertheless, what if I hadn't carried on through to the bogs and instead had taken charge of a bunch of people who were maybe flapping about the place...
The music stopped pretty soon after, but I later asked Nick West what he'd been playing. The last track he recalled was The Deserter by Fairport Convention. When I got home, I made a phone call to someone I love and trust to talk over this somewhat unsettling evening. The woman who I was engaged to until the start of this year. We talked. I felt better. I put the phone down and listened to The Deserter. But I noticed the preceding track on Liege and Lief was Farewell, Farewell. Here's the mp3:
Farewell, Farewell - Fairport Convention
The what ifs...Had Nick's finger on the CD player nudged one time less, this is the song he'd have gone out on. Preferable to The Deserter I'd say in those last moments of earthly consciousness (and let's not get into the set of reels and jigs if he'd nudged once more!). Earlier in the day I'd had a rather unpleasant, but fortunately brief, argument with a close friend about Israel where I found myself becoming enraged about his position. Not really over whether he favoured one group over the other, rather that he'd bought into some romanticised rhetoric of violence being somehow a correct means to establish a lasting peace. I'm half-Irish by blood, with family there in the north and south, and I've got a short fuse about that sort of deathmaking bullshit whether from the mouths of Republicans or Loyalists. Fucking men (and it is men) and their...
The situation I'm thinking of is sitting in a pub in Kilburn back in the day. You've been in the pub awhile. Maybe four or five pints in. A couple of chasers on the side. The band's playing. I don't know, The Fields of Athenry, say. Fine, a song with historical context of two lovers forced apart during the Potato Famine. But then you notice they're sticking these extra bits in. You look over it. Another song starts, a real rebel song, the crowd start getting worked up, tears gather in eyes, more drink flows. There's a man in the corner who is weeping uncontrollably. Someone knocks over a table. Scuffle. Take it outside. The band plays on. There's a tune about Bobby Sands. You're being swept along with it. It's a powerful magic. But it's dangerous. It invokes the power of gods who no longer walk among us and they no longer speak with their own voice. Keep it alive. And what do we keep alive? The desire to bring death into the world.
Music is a very powerful thing. With its contemporary ubiquity, it has lost much of that wonder. But sometimes it still peeks through. The right combination (mood, chord change, booze, turn of phrase, whatever) and it can make a man bay for another's blood.
Last night I'm reminded of this power. I'm playing back an alternative version of this argument I've had earlier, one in which I stress what is revolutionary about the power of love, I've just spoken to the woman I am still bound to even if we have separated, a man dies before me. And Sandy Denny sings this most wrenching song about desertion in love. And I play this song twenty times over before making it to bed. And the tears roll down my face whether I'm sitting in the chair or waving around the room singing harmony.
I started writing a long piece about Farewell, Farewell in my head. I'll spare you that. But one word that sticks out is brevity. This song is around 2:45. It repeats nothing that doesn't need to be. Just because a hook is great, you don't need to milk it a third or fourth time. Sometimes someone just needs to sing the word farewell for the ground to open before you. Kiss. Rather than snog.
The man's name was Philip. Memory Eternal.
They've recently had to move to a new venue for Wednesday nights at the Ex-Servicemen's Club in Leytonstone. It's a great improvement as the upstairs social hall is a time-capsule example of 70's design with original fixtures. Imagine a lush Phoenix Nights. The look is more than complimented by Ali's wonderful stage design. A sort of Mexi-Hawaiian look with huge plastic flower garlands all around the stage and mic stands together with a wonderful hand-painted stage backdrop of the (recently) late Freddie Fender. There's some idea of the look in the previous venue here.
It's a great club to play as they're always welcoming and enthusiastic to everyone who comes. The event is free to get in, but there's a jug passed around towards the end and somehow this method, together with the ethical attitude of the promoters of dividing all money between performers and keeping none for themselves, means you walk out with more, and somehow cleaner, money (as a performer!) than you get at your usual £5- and-in night. Friendly atmosphere, blah, blah...
I met up with quite a few familiar faces last night. It was great to see Mike from the Dog Roses after a long period without contact. They're the band I used to play dobro and mandolin with and I would post details about their forthcoming gig with the rejuvenated line-up but they don't appear to have updated their website! It either Wednesday or Thursday 15/16 at the Dog House at 293 Kennington Lane. It'll be in Time Out or similar.
We were expecting to see the Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Rutledge (who incidentally had Mary Margaret O'Hara sing on his last but one album) but the gig had to be cancelled midway through the evening as a man had a massive heart attack at the back of the room and died. We traipsed downstairs to the main bar for the rest of the evening in something of a state of shock. I felt a certain sense of guilt as he'd collapsed just as I was on the way to the toilet. Somebody seemed to be dealing with the situation very adequately so I left them to it and avoided putting my 10 pence in. By the time I came out of the toilet, it was clear (to me anyway) that he was dead. I worked in casualty for two years a long time ago. Admittedly just as a receptionist with first aid training, but it means I'm very experienced at dealing calmly and methodically in situations where people are spurting blood over you or threatening you with a knife if you don't hand over some fucking painkillers there and then. Downstairs I heard the woman who'd been dealing with it saying she actually didn't really know what she'd been up to. One of those "what if..." situations. It now turns out there was a nurse on the audience. Nevertheless, what if I hadn't carried on through to the bogs and instead had taken charge of a bunch of people who were maybe flapping about the place...
The music stopped pretty soon after, but I later asked Nick West what he'd been playing. The last track he recalled was The Deserter by Fairport Convention. When I got home, I made a phone call to someone I love and trust to talk over this somewhat unsettling evening. The woman who I was engaged to until the start of this year. We talked. I felt better. I put the phone down and listened to The Deserter. But I noticed the preceding track on Liege and Lief was Farewell, Farewell. Here's the mp3:
Farewell, Farewell - Fairport Convention
The what ifs...Had Nick's finger on the CD player nudged one time less, this is the song he'd have gone out on. Preferable to The Deserter I'd say in those last moments of earthly consciousness (and let's not get into the set of reels and jigs if he'd nudged once more!). Earlier in the day I'd had a rather unpleasant, but fortunately brief, argument with a close friend about Israel where I found myself becoming enraged about his position. Not really over whether he favoured one group over the other, rather that he'd bought into some romanticised rhetoric of violence being somehow a correct means to establish a lasting peace. I'm half-Irish by blood, with family there in the north and south, and I've got a short fuse about that sort of deathmaking bullshit whether from the mouths of Republicans or Loyalists. Fucking men (and it is men) and their...
The situation I'm thinking of is sitting in a pub in Kilburn back in the day. You've been in the pub awhile. Maybe four or five pints in. A couple of chasers on the side. The band's playing. I don't know, The Fields of Athenry, say. Fine, a song with historical context of two lovers forced apart during the Potato Famine. But then you notice they're sticking these extra bits in. You look over it. Another song starts, a real rebel song, the crowd start getting worked up, tears gather in eyes, more drink flows. There's a man in the corner who is weeping uncontrollably. Someone knocks over a table. Scuffle. Take it outside. The band plays on. There's a tune about Bobby Sands. You're being swept along with it. It's a powerful magic. But it's dangerous. It invokes the power of gods who no longer walk among us and they no longer speak with their own voice. Keep it alive. And what do we keep alive? The desire to bring death into the world.
Music is a very powerful thing. With its contemporary ubiquity, it has lost much of that wonder. But sometimes it still peeks through. The right combination (mood, chord change, booze, turn of phrase, whatever) and it can make a man bay for another's blood.
Last night I'm reminded of this power. I'm playing back an alternative version of this argument I've had earlier, one in which I stress what is revolutionary about the power of love, I've just spoken to the woman I am still bound to even if we have separated, a man dies before me. And Sandy Denny sings this most wrenching song about desertion in love. And I play this song twenty times over before making it to bed. And the tears roll down my face whether I'm sitting in the chair or waving around the room singing harmony.
I started writing a long piece about Farewell, Farewell in my head. I'll spare you that. But one word that sticks out is brevity. This song is around 2:45. It repeats nothing that doesn't need to be. Just because a hook is great, you don't need to milk it a third or fourth time. Sometimes someone just needs to sing the word farewell for the ground to open before you. Kiss. Rather than snog.
The man's name was Philip. Memory Eternal.
In the Orthodox calendar, this Sunday marks the start of Lent. It's also known as Forgiveness Sunday. There's been precious little news, or indeed apparent development, of the long-standing promised album. Probably the best policy would be to say nothing about the project at all and then just announce it once it was finished. Occasional notices about it getting there are as comforting as train announcements of approaching delays. Apologies anyway. I could claim that it's taking so long because I'm so busy with so many other things. The truth is more probably located somewhere around laziness and sadness.
So here's some small evidence of development. This song made an appearance on the Okinawa EP and it'll be on this eventual album. I've been finally struggling with mixing the songs (as opposed to non-vocal pieces) so I can take them over to a friend's where I'll be doing the vocals and ultimately some basic mastering. I could do the vocals at home, but I find it a right pain in the arse to be honest. Easier to do it elsewhere so I don't have to keep running between the computer and where the microphone is.
I put some vocals on this demo version so I could start working out possible harmonies for later inclusion. There might also be a sprinkling of guitar. I'm sitting here listening to that earlier version and it's so less cluttered than this one. Rather than just voice and guitar, this time around it's all piano and orchestra. It's been fairly laborious doing this on a relatively underpowered computer since the parts have to be constantly mixed down to one track. This laptop doesn't really like playing more than 3 or 4 tracks at one time. The wind section is already 4 tracks of oboe, cor anglais, flute and bassoon. Then that wind section is mixed down with similar tracks of piano, brass and strings.
Blah, blah, blah. It sounds good on its own, but listening to this new version with the vocal, it's going to be a challenge to get the two to sit together to my (eventual I hope) satisfaction. Anyway, here it is along with an earlier guitar-based version for comparison. I'm not sure whether I don't prefer it in its less decorous version. It's certainly more intimate.
Ancient History Demo (includes kitchen sink and the rest)
Ancient History (just voice and guitar)
So here's some small evidence of development. This song made an appearance on the Okinawa EP and it'll be on this eventual album. I've been finally struggling with mixing the songs (as opposed to non-vocal pieces) so I can take them over to a friend's where I'll be doing the vocals and ultimately some basic mastering. I could do the vocals at home, but I find it a right pain in the arse to be honest. Easier to do it elsewhere so I don't have to keep running between the computer and where the microphone is.
I put some vocals on this demo version so I could start working out possible harmonies for later inclusion. There might also be a sprinkling of guitar. I'm sitting here listening to that earlier version and it's so less cluttered than this one. Rather than just voice and guitar, this time around it's all piano and orchestra. It's been fairly laborious doing this on a relatively underpowered computer since the parts have to be constantly mixed down to one track. This laptop doesn't really like playing more than 3 or 4 tracks at one time. The wind section is already 4 tracks of oboe, cor anglais, flute and bassoon. Then that wind section is mixed down with similar tracks of piano, brass and strings.
Blah, blah, blah. It sounds good on its own, but listening to this new version with the vocal, it's going to be a challenge to get the two to sit together to my (eventual I hope) satisfaction. Anyway, here it is along with an earlier guitar-based version for comparison. I'm not sure whether I don't prefer it in its less decorous version. It's certainly more intimate.
Ancient History Demo (includes kitchen sink and the rest)
Ancient History (just voice and guitar)
I do play gigs from time to time, although it's been a long while since I've done a gig that's me on my own and it'll be a while until I do again. I first met Luke Brennan at a performance by Annouchka Bayley where I was doing some banjo plinking and occasional bits of noise manipulation. He was extremely impressed by what we'd done. In fact, I'd like to know what it was we'd managed to achieve so I could be more certain to please him this time around as well.
He invited the two of us to play the opening night of his exhibition "The Society of Eight: Neophyte of the Outer" at The Mummification Centre of St Albans (the house where he lives) where he stuck the two of us in a small garage which had been decorated with various bits of animal skeleton and similar. Later the doors opened and we played to a small crowd that had assembled just there by the bonfire. There was a two page piece about the exhibition in the Christmas Fortean Times, but it's not not online.
Obviously that must also have gone reasonably well because he's now invited us to play an evening on Friday March 9th that he's curating at The Horse Hospital. For those who don't now it, this place is tucked around the corner from Russell Square in Bloomsbury.
( LUCKY PRESENTS )
He invited the two of us to play the opening night of his exhibition "The Society of Eight: Neophyte of the Outer" at The Mummification Centre of St Albans (the house where he lives) where he stuck the two of us in a small garage which had been decorated with various bits of animal skeleton and similar. Later the doors opened and we played to a small crowd that had assembled just there by the bonfire. There was a two page piece about the exhibition in the Christmas Fortean Times, but it's not not online.
Obviously that must also have gone reasonably well because he's now invited us to play an evening on Friday March 9th that he's curating at The Horse Hospital. For those who don't now it, this place is tucked around the corner from Russell Square in Bloomsbury.
( LUCKY PRESENTS )
Yes, Radio Orchestrar follows the Julian calendar in the calculation of all Christian festivals and this slippage of time may well explain this musician's perpetual tardiness and pontification. However, here's some music. These first two demos are by The Master and Margarita:
Feed the Birds
Dark End of the Street
Yup, that's the Mary Poppins song and then a Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn one. This is a project in progress (actually a brief hiatus as the singer is in America currently). I've also my concerns about the Master and Margarita name as I heard on a radio show a week or so ago that Andrew Lloyd-Webber is currently working on a musical treatment of Bulgakov's novel which means the name is associated with a forthcoming Lloyd-Webber project. I'm not sure that works for either us or ALW. Or Bulgakov for that matter. I can certainly see ALW's lawyers putting the kibosh on us using the name since they've probably snapped up the rights somehow or another. Although I'm sure the Soviet origins of the work should prove a legal quagmire if anything did ever happen that way. Hmm, or not... Of course, this assumes something other than public obscurity! Another name might be in order even if the products are readily distinguishable.
Over the heterodox Christmas period, I've been doing some work for a local charity and as part of the project made some quick and easy incidental music for a man called Mark who was filming a short western:
Opening Theme
A Young Man's Lament
The other track on the film was an instrumental version of the following. Friends of mine in the south of France recently had a son and gave him the names Stanton Jean. I decided to send him a song in place of the usual congratulations card. It obviously comes with certain apologies for its inspiration via A Boy Names Sue, with a touch of Roxy Gordon in the vocals and sadly not enough of Hasil Adkins in the music. I've no idea who I'm trying to channel in the French bit at the end.
The Ballad of Stanton Jean
Feed the Birds
Dark End of the Street
Yup, that's the Mary Poppins song and then a Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn one. This is a project in progress (actually a brief hiatus as the singer is in America currently). I've also my concerns about the Master and Margarita name as I heard on a radio show a week or so ago that Andrew Lloyd-Webber is currently working on a musical treatment of Bulgakov's novel which means the name is associated with a forthcoming Lloyd-Webber project. I'm not sure that works for either us or ALW. Or Bulgakov for that matter. I can certainly see ALW's lawyers putting the kibosh on us using the name since they've probably snapped up the rights somehow or another. Although I'm sure the Soviet origins of the work should prove a legal quagmire if anything did ever happen that way. Hmm, or not... Of course, this assumes something other than public obscurity! Another name might be in order even if the products are readily distinguishable.
Over the heterodox Christmas period, I've been doing some work for a local charity and as part of the project made some quick and easy incidental music for a man called Mark who was filming a short western:
Opening Theme
A Young Man's Lament
The other track on the film was an instrumental version of the following. Friends of mine in the south of France recently had a son and gave him the names Stanton Jean. I decided to send him a song in place of the usual congratulations card. It obviously comes with certain apologies for its inspiration via A Boy Names Sue, with a touch of Roxy Gordon in the vocals and sadly not enough of Hasil Adkins in the music. I've no idea who I'm trying to channel in the French bit at the end.
The Ballad of Stanton Jean
"That's sure pretty, what is it?", you're probably wondering. Well, that's the artwork for the cover of Disco 1,000. It's by Stanley Lieber (of this parish, as they say) and has been sitting on the hard drive for many a month now while I laze around and procrastinate the recording process. I got an email from Mr Lieber the other day asking if he could include the image in a digital portfolio. Since it's now out there, here's a quick gander for all. And, above all, a reminder to me to pull my finger out! Here's some Disco 1,000 facts:
1. Over 12kg of espresso coffee has been consumed at home since recording commenced. I know this because I keep the tins. This excludes Turkish/Lebanese/Greek coffee. About 3kg there.
2. Don't ask me how many fags I've smoked.
3. The shape of the artwork gives some clues about the eventual packaging. Yes, it's going to be in some lush DVD-style case or wallet. I haven't decided where (if anywhere) the writing is going over this picture.
4. Although this image is holding its age well, Bush will cease to be President sooner or later. Hmm, and surely that should be X-Box 360 by now. Fuck it, may be I'll plaster Wii there instead. I'm optimistic of beating the European PS3 launch.
5. I've finished Zettai Unmei Mokoshiroku. I didn't receive any contributions. No sweat! Even non-existent contributors who voiced an interest will be recognised (that's you,
silenceinspades (on tambourine chorus), plinth (geese farts), lodestone (please advise!). It sounds great!6. Console launches aside, it's essential that the CD is launched prior to the UK ban of smoking in public places on July 1st.
7. If anyone reading this doesn't have these recordings, I put them up on Rapidshare for a friend. Help yourself, they're free to pass around. I forgot to include any artwork:
Moscow or Tennessee
Saoshyant
Okinawa EP
8. I've started a side duet called The Master and [the] Margarita. I mostly play a high-strung guitar banjo. What's one of those? I'll explain more next week when there'll be some tracks.
(Slight mumbling: Isn't it "The Master and Margarita"? What's the extra "the", isn't it a name? Yes, it is. The extra "the" is a Myspace issue of previous registration as all other permutations were gone. Those names taken. We could have gone with the Russian but didn't. So, the mistaken, yet democratising, extra "the" remains. I hope that's clear.)
