Moving Time

Things have been quiet on this blog over the last six months, but not without reason. We have moved from a small flat in the city out into a house in the Austrian countryside, which has eaten into quite a bit of time thanks to dealings with estate agents, banks, lawyers and all the associated palaver that goes with such a move. Then we had packing and moving, as well as a couple of months of building works going on, before we could finally settle in.

Being outside of Vienna means access to the culture and amenities of the city takes a bit longer, so no more falling out of concerts straight into a tram that delivers us practically to our doorstep. However, that is only one (small) disadvantage. On the plus side, we now have a home with metre-thick walls and enough space to let us have music and writing gear permanently set up and ready for when inspiration strikes. In particular, the house an out-building that is now in the process of being converted into a dedicated recording studio.

As the photograph shows, it is going to take a while to sort it all out, but there is enough space in there for a three-piece band to practise and/or record quite comfortably. The room originally functioned as part of a butcher’s, hence the impressive-looking electro-mechanical system embedded into the walls, but this does mean it will take a bit of work to overcome the acoustic issues of having a tiled floor and concrete walls.

On the plus side, there are no parallel walls and the sound-proofing (those thick-thick-thick walls again) is pretty good. So far I have laid down an old carpet recycled from one of the rooms in the house and have some high-density rockwool panels to install as a first step in treating the sound, though more work than just that will probably be required in the longer term.

By way of motivation to get the recording space fully functional, we’ve signed up for the 10th SpinTunes, writing and recording as ‘Dreiviertel Drei’. Here’s the trailer:

I’ll be posting the new tracks and links to each round’s album here over the next month, along with some updates on progress sorting out the studio as it happens. Time for some new songs!