The Touré-Raichel Collective

This is a lovely story of a chance meeting that led to the creation of some beautiful music. Vieux Farka Touré and Idan Raichel explore their common ground between Mali and Israel. I’ve been playing The Tel Aviv Session non-stop in my workshop; a gorgeous, improvised soundtrack to our recent heatwave. It’s almost as good as the magnificent Talking Timbuktu, the 1994 collaboration between Vieux’s father, Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder. There’s also a new album by Vieux Farka Touré, Mon Pays, and I’m looking forward to seeing him perform live at this weekend’s Open East Festival.

Frames of reference

Gnawa Studies

ess1

The 16th Gnawa Festival in Essaouira on Morocco’s Atlantic coast is a largely free four-day celebration of the music of the Gnawa, what is perhaps the oldest trance music in the world, the root note of inner transportation and sufi trance that attracts hundreds of thousands of Moroccans and intrepid international visitors to Essaouira each June, over the weekend of the full moon. Continue reading “Gnawa Studies”

Frames of reference

Jerusalem, Topography & Typography

jerusalem

Last Christmas I was given two books that I found inspirational in different ways: Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi’s Jerusalem and Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Jerusalem the Biography.

To summarise briefly, the first book has become my cooking bible, and is a testament to inspirational cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians, and the second book reveals the city’s complex history and the sources of controversy that have plagued her continuously. Continue reading “Jerusalem, Topography & Typography”

Frames of reference

Maggi Hambling At Kensington Place

March wave breaking

We are very proud to announce that The Art Wall at Kensington Place is now showing March Wave Breaking by the distinguished contemporary artist Maggi Hambling. This is one of her celebrated and continuing series of North Sea paintings, last seen in the exhibition The Wave at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in 2010. It’s a huge and overwhelming painting and poised to engulf anyone who dares to sit beneath it! Continue reading “Maggi Hambling At Kensington Place”

Frames of reference

The Wayfarer

This is a short film by Sarah Thomas. It was made in Iceland, the music improvised in an empty fish oil tank at an abandoned herring factory. It is the winner of the Penguin Books Wayfarer competition. As a result, Sarah will spend the next two months travelling around Britain, recording her experiences for A Journey On Foot. She has also written Journeys In Between, both blogs worth a look, both distinguished by captivating photos and enthralling stories.

Frames of reference

The Fields Of Fyfield

001

I’m getting behind. Too many posts and not enough time. This one’s long overdue. We walked this way a month ago or more. It was another suggestion from Christopher Somerville. We printed out the map and the directions only to find when we arrived in Fyfield that I’d left the map at home. The directions were good but occasionally a map would have clarified things. It led to a few differences of opinion and a few trial and error wrong turns and turnarounds. 7½ miles turned out to be more like 10. Continue reading “The Fields Of Fyfield”

Frames of reference

The London Group

David Wiseman Rivers Edge, Horner Valley, Exmoor 100 x 76 acrylic (2)

I was delighted this week to have been elected to The London Group, one of the oldest standing artist led organizations in the world and this year celebrating its 100th anniversary. The present membership is around 90 and new members are elected only after being proposed by an existing member and presenting their current work and previous artistic achievement to a committee. Continue reading “The London Group”

Frames of reference

Singing Paint

American-born artist John Hubbard talks about his life and work in rural Dorset over the past five decades. This film, produced for his exhibition Littoral at the Luther W Brady gallery in Washington DC from May 15 – June 28, 2013, includes insights into the process behind his extraordinary abstract impressionist paintings, as well as a selection of songs he learned as an art student in New York in the 1950s. www.johnhubbard.com

Frames of reference