The Gray Field Recordings

I listened through the Gold Leaf Branches compilation once and enjoyed all I heard, but I guess I didn't pay too much attention because on my second listen I just realised how wonderful The Gray Field Recordings are!

"The Gray Field Recordings was formed in 2001 by R. Loftiss who creates music with a wide range of instruments such as bowed acoustic guitar, mountain dulcimer, flute, oboe, toys, synths, and potentially anything that makes a sound."

'Misanthropic Alloy in the Memory Box' (free for download from umbrellanoize.com)
1. Angel Machines, Devices Some Say
2. Dissident Angelic Jazz Club
3. Labyrinthine Path
4. Misanthropic Alloy in the Memory Box
5. Our Lead

from 'As One Cast Down by Sadness'
2. Glintering
5. Ill Will
6. Rune of the Moon and Endymion

from 'Sing 99 and 90'
6. Green-going
9. Swan's Lake

from 'Hypnagogia'
10. Passiflora

The Gray Field Recordings & Techix live on BSR 'Phoning it in' 01/09/05


R. Loftiss of The Gray Field Recordings played on the CD-R 'A Discreet History of Bone' by Anvil Salute.
1. More Power to the Party People
5. Jive Talking


grayfieldrecordings.com

a tree

Fire crew

I can't actually remember what this statue was commemorating (I should learn to read the inscriptions). It depicts three firemen, one of which is pointing towards St. Paul's Cathedral, all in a state of emergency. Around the plinth on which the statue stands are names, presumably of those fallen during one of the Great Wars, perhaps of the firemen that gave their lives fighting fires during the bombings of the Second Great War (wikipedia).

Queen Anne

Contrary to the title of this post, that picture isn't of a statue of Queen Anne, it is merely one of the figures that adorns a statue of her outside St. Paul's Cathedral.

Islaja

Last night I went to the incredibly cramped basement of the CB2, an internet cafe in Cambridge, to witness the joy that was the spellbinding power of Islaja, (or Merja Kokkonen as she's known to her friends).
And so, here are all of the media bits relating to Islaja that I could find! (though, admittedly, most of it is lifted from the fonal website)

from Meritie
1. Kristallipallosilmät (clip)
4. Kämmen, kynsi, kieli
7. Sata naakkaa sitten
13. Aallot ja äänet

from 'Palaa aurinkoon'
1. Laivat saapuu (clip)
2. Rohkaisulaulu
7. Sateen tullessa


new Quictime video for the song 'Rohkaisulaulu'
low quality (6.6Mb)
high quality (41.9Mb)


Finnish Free Folk-Psych Attack! on WFMU
(featuring Islaja, Kuupuu, Lau Nau, Tomutonttu, Taikuri Tali, and Hertta Lussu Ässä)
performed 24/08/05, broadcast 30/08/05
Islaja tracks:
Uni pöllönä olemisesta
Pete P
Kämmen, kynsi, kieli

WNYC Spinning on Air with David Garland
(featuring Kuupuu, Lau Nau, Islaja, and Pekko Käppi)
broadcast 19/02/06, recorded at the St. Lawrence Arts & Community Center, Potland, Maine during 'TIME-LAG RECORDS PRESENTS: two nights of finnish psychedelic folk, with friends', 30+31/08/05.
Islaja tracks (performed 31/08/05):
Sateen tullessa
(new song - I don't know the title)
Pete P

--------------------------------

Merja is also a member of Hertta Lussu Ässä

from the 'Maan Matoset' compilation
1. Meri on maailman veri

Live at Potlatch 1
Live at Potlatch 2

--------------------------------

Merja is also a member of Kemialliset Ystävät

from 'Alkuhärkä'
2. Antihistamiinimatkaaja
4. Kiimaniityn kutsu (clip)
6. Gelsomiinan naama
9. Koirien kasvattama (clip)
12. Kirppusaari

from 'Kellari Juniversumi'
2. Kellari juniversumi
3. Taivas ja meri, yhteensulautuneina
4. Utuaurat
7. Planeetta kaukainen muo kutsuu
10. Kuuma tomu
12. Kummitushiiri
14. Pallo
16. Soihdun tuhkaa

from 'Latvasta Laho'
1. Verta Hiuksissa (clip)
2. Black Holes (clip)
3. Haisee Kissojen Trivaalta (clip)

from 'Lumottu Karkkipurkki (Vapaa Systeemi)'
2. Metsä (clip)
13. Systeemi 4 (clip)

--------------------------------

Merja is also a member of the collective Avarus

from 'Jättiläisrotta'
2. Donkkaavaräppäävä Kaalikoira (clip)
3. Iso Lääkelaiva (clip)
6. Amurin Hiuskolmio
7. Ahdistava Haisemisen Loordi

found on tumult.net, no idea where the tracks have come from!
one
two
three
four

from 'On the Brink'
9. Piece #1
10. encore
(rest of album free to download here)

from 'The Green Wah Tape'
1. Namo
(rest of album free to download here

full Avarus live album, 'Arus' free for download at lostfrog.net


fonal.com for more Islaja information

this evening

snuggly dogs

my sister's dogs, taken about a year ago, but I just enhanced it a bit in Photoshop and I liked the matching warm colours and the warm subject.

Cambridge Musem of Zoology

some antlers and some rodents:

Suckle

"Suckle were formed in 1998 around ex-Vaselines singer Frances McKee.

Following a hiatus from her Nirvana-inspiring band, Frances got together with sister Marie to form Suckle. Frances's near brutal lyrics are entwined with a beautifully delivered orchestral backdrop that leans towards the Velvet Underground and Joy Division.

Augmented by cello, violin and flute their music coalesces to form a dark, dense futuristic folk. It would be impossible to describe Suckle without using words such as "unsettling", "brooding" and certainly always "compelling"."
(from chemikal.co.uk)

I first read about these guys a few years ago and was thoroughly impressed by the description that chemikal gave, but I never got around to seeking out the album.
The entire Suckle catalogue is available to stream here (click on the album covers on the right). The naughty secret is that the tracks are saved to your temp folder (though only at 55kbs). I don't usually like the over-used word 'haunting', but it seems perfect for Suckle's music.

Apparently Frances McKee will also be releasing a solo album, 'Sunny Moon', on the 10th of April - more info here - analoguecatalogue.com

flower in a cube

Yesterday I put together a very crude cube frame (some parts are held together with staples(!)), and suspended a flower within it. I made sure to pierce the flower closer to the head, because I had forgotten to take into account that plants wilt when they begin to die, so the first one (in the square frame), has it's head flopping down.

Today I made a more substantial cube frame - still not perfect, but there are no staples in this one! I'll see if I can find some cheese wire, or fishing line, to make the suspended flower look a bit more like it is floating - at the moment I'm just using green garden wire, which looks far too obvious.
I'd also like to have a go at attaching each of the leaves to the frame by wire, so that they stand proud.

Because the Easter break is fast approaching I will have an extra couple of weeks to observe the life span of the skewered plants, to determine how long before the final exhibition I will need to make the final work.

garlic

Major Project

Ha ha! At last, after seven weeks of pottering around, doing pointless sketches and chatting with tutors, I have finally found out what I'm going to do as the final piece for my degree show!
Last week I honed my theories down to the juxtaposition between the organic shapes of plants, and the straight edged shapes created by mankind.
Today I just quickly whacked together a square wooden frame and suspended a flower in the centre, and that is my starting point (it's half way through the semester and I'm only just starting!).
I have intentions to move the simple frame on to become a cube - I'm even having far too grand ideas of building a large cube frame (7'³) and having flowers suspended all over the place(!)

St. Paul's Cathedral

the landing

I may have one of the cheapest instant digital cameras, but I'm enjoying some of the results I'm getting.

natacha's recordings soundsystem

"Simon and Léon are friends since 1992.
The fall of 2001 was in full effect and winter was threatening, gently, to happen. Shows happened in the undertow of short bursts of motivation and four-track cassettes were building heavy stacks for themselves next to our favorite records. Natacha's was born from one of those rendez-vous where one and the other, carried by the glorious stride of making, both thought it possible to get together and have amusement, to go see a show as one goes to a zoo and not a hockey game. Natacha spoke to the lazies and won."
(from natacha's recodings)

dans nos cheminées (exerpt)
"...(this) is a recording of the famous bicycle show we did opening for Xiu Xiu in early 2003 at the Suoni Per Il Popolo fest in Montreal"

regional touch flame (exerpt)
"...(this) is the not so famous but equally lovely matinée show we did for the Brave New Waves 20th anniversary shindig in Toronto in March of 2004"


neverprint.com/natacha

Lionshare

(picture sneakily stolen from lionshare.org.uk)

I wish I had gotten into the local music scene earlier - I've only just discovered this local folk-type band, Lionshare, who have played shows with the likes of P.G. Six, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Mi and L'au, Alasdair Roberts, and they even supported the Incredible String Band!
Oh yes, and they're really good!


session for Totally Radio's 'Crooked Stylus' show
1. Raise the Field
2. Dance for Me
3. A Man's Love is Wholly
4. Grasshopper

from 'Outside of Town'
3. Dark and Diamonds

unreleased
Taxi


I seem to be a bit confused as to who Haeti are exactly, but as they have mp3s on the Lionshare site, I will assume that they are perhaps some sort of Lionshare side-project (sorry if I got that completely wrong!) Regrdless of what they actually are, they're still very good!

from 'Fall, Dakota Harvest'
Julien Donkey Boy

from 'Improvisation'
A Man's Attitude

unreleased
William, Henry and Joe


lionshare.org.uk for more info and some live videos from the Green Man Festival

'fresh'

a picture of my bathroom (obviously), taken under the theme of 'fresh' (link).

Quite simple really - the bathroom is where you clean yourself; it is where you are at your most fresh.

discarded flowers

I found these flowers in the rain today on the side of a closed ice-cream kiosk.

You shall have to excuse the slightly washy, colourless look to the picture, but it is a scan of a print, and I can't seem to get the strength of the original without losing the subtle fades in the depth of field.
As I said before - a new/better scanner is what I need!

Odd Nosdam

I came across this guy while browsing Jessica Bailiff's various affiliations (she appears on the 'Burner' album).
There's all kinds of trendy musical links involved with this artist, which I shan't even pretend to understand, but I like the way the music sounds, and that's enough for me!
(instrumental electronic stuff)

dumb this down instrumental <-- (if nothing else, d/load this one, it's brilliant!)

from 'Burner'
untitled one
untitled three

from 'No More Wig for Ohio'
wig 12

from the 'why? & odd nosdam split EP'
en tape collage

from the 'your american bonus' 7"
american bonus pt 8

Rachel Whiteread

Last night I had a dream about Rachel Whiteread's installation in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, EMBANKMENT.
I dreamt that it was in the back of a restaurant, and it was really poorly made - instead of it being the pure white boxes, it was made of regular carboard boxes with a few misplaced bits of white A4 paper glued to the faces. I don't know if one is actually allowed to walk within Whiteread's piece, but in my dream there were countless people running around and moving the boxes, and there was an usher who was in charge of a rope positioned horizontally across the entrance, and he wouldn't let me in.
Although I wanted to, I didn't actually go and see the real thing during my London trip the other day. So I suppose the dream was quite self explanatory!

I'm planning to go back within the next two weeks - there's also a Tino Sehgal 'exhibit' that I wanted to see, but I ran out of time. It's the second of three, and I saw the first one so would love to see this one!

Mole Harness

(picture sneakily stolen from moleharness.co.uk)

"Mole Harness is the instrumental project of James Brewster, combining layered guitar with intricate melodic structures and subtle electronic processing. It began in late 2001, in Bristol, when he bought a second-hand sampler. The purchase completely changed his life, and Mole Harness is the result."


from 'All Your Memories Return At Once'
2. All Your Memories Return at Once
3. Daydream of Dying

from the Japanese version of the 'Stray Dog Army' EP
1. Henvice

from the 'Stray Dog Army' EP
1. Living on Seaweed & Moths (exerpt)
2. Ripples on Underground Lakes

from the 'Suburban Rebels' compilation
Overtaking Waves (version I)

from 'A Present from the Future'
1. Parapet and Slipway
2. In a Strange Sea


moleharness.co.uk

PLEASE HELP!!

I went to London yesterday and saw lots of pretty exhibitions, I was going to do a huge write up of everything I'd seen, with some pictures I'd taken. But I'm too depressed to do that right now because I left some CDs on the train!

The train pulled in to a station on the way home and the driver announced that the rear 4 carriages were no longer in use and would be uncoupled from the front four, so I had to get off the train to move up to the front 4 carriages.
Just as the train was moving away I realised that I had left the CDs in a small bag on the other part of the train! I'm hoping that because the train was not in use, a cleaner would have found them and handed them in to lost property. The lost property office isn't open until Monday, so I can't call them, but I've left an e-mail.

I actually doubt that I'll get them back though.
I am such an idiot!

through a window

I scanned in a print and these are variations on that scan. I don't particularly like any of them (except perhaps the completely desaturated one); because my scanner is a bit old, the colours always come out looking slightly odd.
The actual print looks fine - I either need a new scanner, or I need a few million pounds to upgrade to a digital SLR...

dirty glass