Johann Johannsson: Drone Mass

Drone Mass

First impressions; I spontaneously picked this up yesterday while in Lichfield. After a morning coffee, I called in Stylus Records. After chatting to the guy who was playing Sinead O’Connor, a track I’ve not heard before; I got in the mood.

There is a small ‘Classical’ section with several things I like (Olafur Arnaulds, Max Richter) I found this, Drone Mass by Johannes Johansen. There are massed voices in layers, violins and a church like acoustic. The pace is slow but powerful.

I’m reminded of Ypres by The Tindersticks. In there is a tense melancholy of drone like sound that I found very powerful. So powerful that I can’t play it very often. It’s too intense, I can’t bear it. The days that I can, I well up.

Pan Daijing: Tissues

Tissues, released on Bandcamp.

I missed the chance to buy Pan Daijing’s Tissues on vinyl, Bandcamp have it on downloadable though. I love the pure voice and haunting repetition.

Link here

Soap & Skin

From Gas To Solid.

Olafur Arnaulds, live

Not my photo (we were not allowed).

Live at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. It was excellent, the sound quality and light show have really come on over the years. It’s refreshing to come out at the end without tinnitus!

Goldring 1042.

New stylus after many many years. I’ve lost track of how long. When LP was my main source I always had a good idea how much life was left, but not in recent times. Anyway, after many years, I got a replacement and upgrade at the same time.

Goldring 1042

From the word go, it sounds much better. The treble has much more going on and with sweeter clarity. The change is significant.

I have most of the previous used stylii in a box. Many have the date or length of time used written on. The shorted was just over a year in 18 months to a few years looks like an average. The op me I’ve just taken off, though, must have been there well over ten years.

Since I play CDs more, my next step is a CD player upgrade. I’m hoping it will bring up the quality up to match the LP12 Sondek.

End of year concert.

Ethan plays Chopin

Look, no score!

Portishead: The Rip

As she walks in the room
Scented and tall
Hesitating once more
And as I take on myself
And the bitterness I felt I realise that love flows
Wild, white horses
They will take me away
And the tenderness I feel
Will send the dark underneath
Will I follow?
Through the glory of life I will scatter on the floor
Disappointed and sore
And in my thoughts I have bled
For the riddles I’ve been fed
Another lie moves over
Wild, white horses
They will take me away
And the tenderness I feel
Will send the dark underneath
Will I follow?
Wild, white horses
They will take me away
And the tenderness I feel
Will send the dark underneath
Will I follow?

Cassandra Millar: Just So

CD from Another Timbre. Contemporary Music performed by a string ensemble. Unusually, I didn’t find this one via Hear And Now on BBC R3 but a mid-week show on the same station Late Junction.

The pieces that attracted me arenthe seriesnthat make up Warblework. The four sections that make up Warblework are developed from recordings of songbirds, specifically Thrushes. The tunes are very complex and somewhat atonal to my ear. The recordings in this set seem to have all the ingredients of music that will last for extended listening. It’s a feeling of a puzzle to solve.

You my listen to this and find yourself listening to birds in a new way. It’s a shame though that Thrushes are so rare in England now. They were quite common when I was a child. So common that they were one of the first birds I learnt to identify. Thrushes and sparrows are now quite scarce, especially the former. Much of the decline is attributed to slug pellets that gardeners use. Poisoned slugs poison the birds that feed on them. Not enough people know this. Dig a pond instead!

Getting to know Southport

12°C, sunny.

Recovering from a particularly stubborn cold, so I plodded in on the hack bike to town. Google lists 2 record shops which I fancied a browse. You get the best out of shops like that if you get to know the staff. The best ones will find records that think you’ll like. Today, both shops were shut. I’ll try again on Saturday.

I ‘bobbed into’ a couple of second-hand shops too. They were friendly places, one guy offered to make tea and made it clear that the offer was open to customers too.

As soon as I got home, I took fastballs out to the garden feeder, a sudden bursting flutter from the end of the garden is not familiar. The heron is back. That’s a very big bird to land in my garden, and a big bird to take wing to escape. It escaped between two houses heavily gaining altitude. How to Use protect my much loved frogs? Maybe a net over the pond? I’m not using anything that could injure that magnificent bird, but at the same time….

Appreciation.

4°C dry and sunny.

Drive south to collect stuff for my new house. The wait should be over early next month.

Music has meaning again. During the ugliest most stressful stage in my last job, I would listen to music. But it had lost something. I no longer got the shivers. My senses were dulled so much by the accumulated tiredness.

Anyway, I drove home with the iPod set on shuffle. It seemed to be in a good mood. It played interesting tracks with hardly any need to skip any. Even the difficult types of music showed its magic. Fred Frith came up a good few times as well as Zena Parkins.

I have only bought a few discs in the last 12 months but the desire is coming back. Hurry along the time I can set up my stereo.