Obscurities Revisited
March 15, 2016When I originally wrote ‘Obscurities’ it seemed logical to give it a cover that matched the album the story sprang from, but with a little hindsight, what worked for the album never really felt right as a book cover. The multiple images on the album are unrecognisable on most online ebook websites and something simpler and more meaningful would have a bigger impact. So today I have released the novella with a new cover, provided by Katharina, that takes a couple of items that form a central part of the story and presents them in a much more elegant and…
The Grandmothers at Porgy & Bess, Vienna
This concert was billed as “The Music of Frank Zappa performed by Original Members of the Mothers of Invention”, which is a bit of a mouthful, but the band are basically the latest incarnation of ‘The Grandmothers of Invention’. Bunk…
Patchwork Scriabin
The wonderful Composer Quest podcast is celebrating the life of composer Alexander Scriabin (who died 100 years ago this week) by producing a version of his Prelude in A minor, Op. 11 No. 2 that features 68 different forms of…
Highly Socksual
Our last SpinTunes song received a much better reception from the judges, though it still resulted in some widely different scores (which is a good thing, I think). This time around we came up with a piece that sounds like…
Schnipp, Schnapp!
Our new song, for SpinTunes round two, has now hit the net: [bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1931011232 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2188628] I was very pleased with the reviews we received for our first round song, both from the official…
Gag me with a spurtle
The deadline for round 1 of SpinTunes 10 has finished and we have a new song! Despite having two weekends to complete the challenge, this one was submitted at the last moment as it took us a while to come…
Moving Time
The Ice Spire
My latest piece of music is a long ambient piece that was inspired by a prompt at the Naviar Haiku project. They provide a weekly prompt of a haiku, set within a suitably atmospheric photograph, to which various musicians create…
The Unexpected Guest
It’s SpinTunes time again and though I have not joined in as a competitor, I did offer up my services to the Boffo Yux Dudes, who have an ongoing tradition of carpet-bombing the last round of SpinTunes with ‘shadow’ songs…
A Tasty New Year
Anyone who visits here with any sort of regularity will have noticed that I am partial to the odd challenge now and again. From the latest String Quartet to Every Photo Tells… or SpinTunes, challenges are a great way to…
Sid Smith’s String Quartets
The new year brings a new musical challenge, this time in the form of a string quartet inspired by a series of rainy windows. Music writer Sid Smith has been taking photographs of the patterns rain makes on his office…