Coping with Winter

With a fresh, George Clooney hairdo, I scramble into another year. My ears thankfully my ears are always open to new things. I am still constantly surprised & impressed.

Brian Harnetty, whose 'American Winter' is a favourite album of this writer is now working with Bonnie Prince Billy on 'Silent City'. I do look forward to hearing this.

Stone Breath's 'Songs of the Moonlight & the Rain', Twin Sister Moon's 'Hollow Mountain' & Trembling Bells - 'Carbeth' have me twitching in a corner.

I am also grooving to Novemthree' s 'Of my Mother's Weary Wanderings', although sadly this title conjures up the meanderings of my own ma.

Also on constant repeat at the moment I have Robert Haigh's 'Written on Water. The music sounds just like the title & it is a perfect soundtrack to what is occurring out the window: the wind & the rain & more rain & more wind & the rapidly disappearing light.

Late November

Watching old, black & white, Bollywood movies, while sporting Kurdish trousers & reading Iranian, Jewish novels by Dalia Sofer on a steady diet of hommos, olives & pistachios............in..multicultural Scotland.

For Derek

This is what we is listening to in the Ghetto

Uton/Matthew Valentine/6 Organs of Admittance/fursaxa/grouper/plankton wat/second family band/natural stone buildings/starving weirdos/harappin night recordings/chora/part wild horses mane on both sides/master musicians of bukkake/iditarod/hunter gracchus/hunting rituals/Kiss the anus of a black cat

Bollywood & Birayani

Saturday night & a lamb birayani from my Kurdish/Palestinian pals & an old, Bollywood Black & white movie 'Andaz'. What more could you want? World peace?

Favourite Album Titles at the Moment

Virgil Moorefield - Temperature in hell is over 3,000 degrees

Eli Radish - I didn't Raise my Boy to be a Soldier

The latter seems so apt for these times of 'Military Madness' (G. Nash)

So Far Out & Way Ahead: Surfing the Cosmos

The new edition of 'The Wire' finally caught up with my listening tastes over the past 6 months.

I have been rambling on here & on Twitter about the superb Singing Knives label from Sheffield.

It was great to see the article by David Keenan on Chora, Hunter Gracchus, Harappian Night Recordings, Part Wild Horses Mane.

Fast Sounds for Slow Listeners

Japanese modern horror films are taking me to strange places. It all started with 'The Ring' & 'One Missed Call' & other movies by Takeshisha Miike are so totally off the wall, you are open jawed at the end.

Do not watch the Western remakes, they are so inferior.

Rainbow, Rain & Paradise

The Only Lake in Scotland

I do not visit this beautiful loch often enough. Yesterday with the protracted days of bright sunshine seemed the ideal opportunity to return.

It always looked so busy in those old photos of the winter curling on the frozen water. Yesterday was so clear & Ben Lomond shone brightly & sharp reflections of trees & hills decorated the water.

Skulking Around at the Back, as Usual

Tir Na Nog, the Angels, Golem, Treebeard & the Heebeejeebies

I finally got around to stopping @ Tir Na Nog on the way between Drymen & the crossroads forking to Stirling or Aberfoyle.

You know the shops have soup, angels & lots of outstanding art, many objects are made from natural substances.

They even had a manual heebeejeebie, but I now have the manual as well as the electric variety.

If you been at the Findhorn Centre then you will be at home here.

From Woodstock to Milngavie (Again)

Artists from Woodstock turning up on frozen evenings @ Fraser Centre in Milngavie is becoming a regular occurrance.

This is the 2nd time I have seen Robin Williamson there & it is such an intimate evening.

My childhood friend Peter was enlightened & he was there too. My wife was singing along & I guess I may have been doing likewise.

40 years since he played Woodstock & he keeps getting better.

Is Not Nature Wonderful?

Life under the flightpath, pt 786

As I search for sleep, I hear the thumping blood, circulating through it’s dodgy, pump & the drifting outdoor sounds are mashed alongside.

I feel as if I am living inside the Alan Splet soundtrack to ‘Eraserhead’.

Although much is in my head, I hear creaky, old buildings with loose floorboards & dying plumbing & heating systems, ill –fitting doors & windows & leaky, dripping taps long past the need of washers.

Town sounds bleed into the mix; planes, cars, wheelie bins being emptied or somersaulting in the high winds, football in the park, drunks singing Irish rebel songs or just shouting, the constant screaming of the alarms of emergency vehicles, that conjure up images of NY, or a riot.

I wonder why so many young people with to listen to silly music on their iPods, when there are so many more interesting sounds around.

Perhaps it is a control thing: you may wish to use your own choice of music to cover up these environmental sounds?

Life Under the Flightpath pt 111

Perhaps there are unconscious benefits from a life under the flightpath?

Something drives me to go out on my own to wide open spaces, where you only hear the natural sounds of the countryside.

There are no better sounds than a trickling stream or a raging waterfall or birds hovering or the wind in the long grass or the treetops.

Maybe this is what prompted me to give up making my own music & to concentrate on recording the environmental sounds around me.

There is also something very relaxing in the drone of machines.

Recently I have also been listening to some superb soundwalks & I would wish to recommend the outstanding Chris Watson’s work, Resonance Fm – Framework series as well as Touch Radio.

There are lots of great examples of phonography around & some of the websites are great works of art…e.g. check out Punck’s work or as mentioned in early dispatches the ‘Devil’s Plantation’ site is inspiring.

Tracing My Childish Dreams

These long weekends I have before the end of the year give me the opportunity of following in my own childish footsteps & living the dream.

Last week I tried to find the places where I caught newts & frogs after school & the what to me was an inaccessible pinacle, but what now seems tame & it is hidden in the undergrowth.

Further on, on the way to Craigton, I was annoyed to discover those daily routes after school, have now been diverted to make room for an increasingly large quarry.

Is this alongside the landfill or in place of?

It is shocking for me to see something that was essential for my wellbeing is being eroded to pave the way for industry.