Bathed In Sound

Bathed In Sound is a song about trying to imagine myself as a whale floating in the ocean, immersed in a liquid medium full of sound, surrounded by plankton and the immense wild wetness of the ocean.   Continue reading “Bathed In Sound”

Frames of reference

Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath

Here’s a turn up! Previously lost footage of Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath on French TV in 1973. Fifty years ago!
Lineup includes Dudu Pukwana, Harry Beckett, Elton Dean, Lol Coxhill, Louis Moholo, Harry Miller, Nick Evans, Mark Charig, Radu Malfatti. And Chris McGregor at the piano.

Big thank you to Riccardo Bergerone. Tracks: Do It, Nutcase, Andromeda

Frames of reference

It Is Not My Music

There’s a celebration of Don Cherry at the Barbican tonight (Don Cherry Tribute). Sadly I can’t go. So I’ll put this video here as a consolation. And today I’ll rummage through my CDs and I’ll shake the Cherrytree. Its fruits have many flavours and taste of many places. According to Richard Williams, “he collapsed the distance between the supposedly primitive and the supposedly sophisticated more effectively than any musician I can think of.”

This film from 1978 is about Don and Moki Cherry and others who lived with them in the school house in Tågarp, Skåne, Sweden, in the 1970s and onwards. It includes sequences from SoHo, New York, and Moki Cherry’s textiles on the walls in Hästveda and Long Island City. With Rashied Ali, James Blood Ulmer, Nana Vasconcelos, Denis Charles, Huss Charles, etc. A film by Urban Lasson.

If you enjoyed this you might also like to see For Don Cherry.

Frames of reference

Playing Places

A short immersive documentary that takes you into the woods at spring with artist Cosmo Sheldrake. Working with his own field recordings of the dawn and evening chorus, he talks us through his process of interpreting these sounds into music and playing them back to the places he recorded them. More here – www.cosmosheldrake.com

Frames of reference

Lay All Your Love On Me

Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion perform ABBA’s “Lay All Your Love on Me,” from their album, ‘Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part’.

Adam Sliwinski’s marimba duet with Shaw is an interpretation of the ABBA song “Lay All Your Love on Me.” She explains, “It’s really a Bach chorale. Also, the idea of someone singing ‘Don’t go wasting your emotion / Lay all your love on me / Don’t go sharing your devotion / Lay all your love on me,’ over and over again very slowly, there’s a certain tragedy in it. And then Adam did some absolutely exquisite layering that built this stunning world from the marimba.”

Frames of reference

(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding

For old times sake – Old Kent Road – A2 – New Cross – The road to Maidstone – A20 – The World Turned Upside Down – London Transit Centre – Gas – Take Courage – As I walk – This wicked world – Searching for light in the darkness of insanity – I ask myself – Is all hope gone? – Is there only pain, hatred, and misery? – And each time I feel like this inside – There’s one thing I want to know – Oh what’s so funny ’bout peace, love, and understanding? – Brinsley Schwarz – 1974 – Nick Lowe’s best song

Frames of reference

Dervish Dance

Club d’Elf: Dervish Dance (traditional Sufi, arr. by Mike Rivard)

Sand animation by Kseniya Simonova

Musicians:
Brahim Fribgane: oud, hand drum
John Medeski: keyboards
David Fiuczynski: guitars
Mister Rourke: turntables
Mike Rivard: double bass, tamboura
Dean Johnston: drums

Club d’Elf / Kseniya Simonova

Frames of reference

Lock-keeping In Jig-time

I don’t know what took me so long. I should’ve found these boys long ago.

Ye Vagabonds are brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn.

This is us putting ourselves through a lock near Digby Bridge, Co.Kildare along with the tune Buried my Wife & Danced on Top of Her.   Continue reading “Lock-keeping In Jig-time”

Frames of reference