PEOPLE : THEY MAKE MUSIC

This song today, please.

 

Maybe it's from living with musicians and music students - where anything is an instrument, and where their awareness of  the potential of any sound makes you hear things in a different way. Or maybe it's because I'm not musical at all, but am fascinated by the alien territory of how things - any things - can be woven together to make this...magic...this musical goodness.

 

I kind of miss living with musical folks.

BUT WILL THERE BE TURKISH DELIGHT?

post-easter hills before the snow had all shuffled off

Oh hello, blog-thing. Still here, eh?

 

Things have been plodding along in the usual manner. The outside world finally thawed* and stopped being Narnia where it was always winter but never Christmas. It was Easter, though, so I'm not too sure how that plays into it all and whether or not Turkish delight would still be involved. A little part of me hopes so, but only if it's the pistachio kind and not the sort that tastes like perfume. I'm quite partial to the odd bit of pistachio Turkish delight.

 

And along with the thaw came longer days, because the Rulers of Time made us all turn the clocks forwards, which although initially painful is actually appreciated in the long run, because now I can embark on evening stomps without getting lost in a forest when the sun suddenly evaporates.

 

Truth be told, there hasn't been much stomping these past few months, and it's been missed. It's nice having a mini stomp post-work, or a long ramble after a day of sitting on my arse (well, technically crouching on the floor like a monkey) drawing.

 

So yes. There you have it. Things have indeed been plodding along in the usual manner: working and stomping and drawing. There have also been pregnancies and the growing of offspring that are already born, and the odd engagement, but none of those are mine so we'll keep quiet about those.

 

* Ok, ok...it thawed a little while ago, but as usual I'm just really behind on things, and for that I have absolutely no excuse other than just being a disorganised fool with time issues.

QUIET STUFF

 

This appeals to my inner puppet geek alongside my ears and stomach. I stumbled upon this guy in yet another YouTube musical wormhole (I promise I do other things with my life than just mooching around wormholes). I have my suspicions I'll be adding his music to my ever expanding collection sometime around next payday. It gives me itchy feet, in that want-to-go-stomping-in-a-chilly-pine-forest-alone kind of way. Slightly melancholy songs are the best sort for forest walking. It's one of those things that makes me happy.

 

Did I mention he draws stuff, too? His exhibition sounds like the sort of thing that I would've actually attempted to brave London for, if I'd known about it before it was over. I guess it falls under the category of what I suppose I vaguely call 'quiet stuff': stuff  that isn't over the top and bombarding you with neon "Look at me! Look at me!" signs; stuff that you're more likely to accidentally fall over in a scuffed up corner of a room instead, and there might not be much of a surface level explanation but you find yourself just wanting to get lost it.

 

I really like quiet stuff. 

IN THE SPACE OF THREE DAYS

friday snow falling

saturday snow sitting

sunday snow gone

MUSICAL WORMHOLES: NICOLAS JAAR AND DARKSIDE

I'm just sneaking this in here for safe keeping. I finally stumbled upon it early this morning (via Apparat, via Deptford Goth, who is my current musical can't-get-enough-of-this obsession), when I got sucked into one of those link-hopping musical YouTube wormholes while procrastinating getting ready for work. Fifty-three minutes and fifty-six seconds of Nicolas Jaar performing at Sonar last year. I think it was this particular performance I heard on the radio one night -  courtesy of either Huw Stephens or Gilles Peterson on Radio 1 (I forget, but one of those sometime-between-midnight-and-2am shows), causing me to go on a Nicolas Jaar hunt on YouTube, swiftly followed by a minor addiction to Space Is Only Noise. 



 

And, after a little bit more poking around the interwebs, I've discovered his Darkside collaboration with guitarist Dave Harrington.

 

 

It just makes that space between my ears a little bit giddy.