'how shall we sing the lord's song in a strange land: five psalms' score for any instrument

the score can be downloaded as a pdf

'you look like your mother' scored for four voices

friends scoring music for proper musicians and vocalists has always made me a little envious and being unfulfilled with the idea of producing piano scores no one else could read i have long harboured a desire to produce a score for voice or voices.

talking to the composer alex temple about contemporary classical music and trans*/ gender queer and gender variant people within it's fold i decided to put into action my so far only half realised plans for just such a score.

over the last few months i've drawn various diagrams describing how individuals where to move and vocalise which where to be printed on transparencies and laid over texts (i have long planned to set the beautiful but unsettling lyrics of the psalms this way, perhaps i will some day) but have felt each one was to restrictive in how it instructed the individual performer and though i offer some restrictions in my piano pieces i leave it mostly open to the individual player to determine the sound of the piece.

as often with more ambitious work i fretted over this for a long time only to find a solution quite quickly (or rather in a moment of clarity.)

the nine pages of this score incorporate the text of 'you look like your mother (minus the introduction and afterword) and, as with the book, can be arranged in any order. the lines drawn on the page give the parts for each voice and each voice has two parts per page with a third part given to one of the four voices per page.

no durations or instructions are given.

thank you for your time.

anti-semitism, memory and music

there is no way that we can deny that anti semitism is on the rise across europe and it is a poison, a poison which we should not allow in a civilised society

i have addressed the history of the shoah and the kristallnacht several times and have also focused on anti semitism and it's place in european culture but sadly this is a have so deeply ingrained in our culture that it will come up time and time again.

i was speaking recently to artist, musician and film maker chris dooks regarding the rise of anti semitism in europe and he told me that his greatest worry is that this will make it harder to find graves of german family members who suffered during the shoah. the horror and sadness of this became the germ for a set of piano works based around a setting for the star of david (using a technique of scoring for piano i have discussed here before) but the work was not began as it is such a bleak subject (i had intended two ten minute piano pieces based upon the discussion with chris.)

recently the awesomely (and i mean that in it's true sense - the depth and breath of her work fills me with awe) writer, artist, musician and composer ela orleans spoke of growing up in poland around the site of auschwitz.

combining the two narratives allowed me to finally complete the work as ela orleans' narrative offered a sense of hope and rebirth

i know that this will not be the last time i approach this subject or feel the need to speak out on this issue. anti semitism is a cancer in our society.

ten annihilations (for tina

this lengthy poem is based upon a line from wilfred owen's 'futility' and is dedicated to the artist tina hibbins

john dowland, sorrow and the timelessness of music

i've been working with the artist jude cowen montague on a second ep of works based upon prepared texts derived from well known songs, in this instance songs by john dowland (the first was on folk songs)

immersing myself in the work of such a central figure in english language song has left me even more impressed by his achievements, even more in awe of the beauty contained within his arrangements. few works achieve such an elevated level, a point at which they produce a rush of joy and spiritual and emotional release. bach's setting of john's passion achieves this, cage's silence, byrd's consort songs also have moments which lift the listener out of their own body. all these works (and others) have a timelessness which i have tried to capture in my settings for jude cowen montague's voice.

while working on this ep (hopefully it will be completed soon) i worked on four one hour long organ pieces (all split into two thirty minute sections) for each of the songs we are working with.

i hope these hint towards the timelessness of dowland's work.

a few recent works

i tend to be lazy around this blog and wanted to write a non music one so i thought 'well it's supposed to be about music' so here's a run down of a few recent releases and the rational behind them.




this album remixes laica's 'id situation (a 10" of which can be bought here taking the idea of cctvs and surveillance and humanising the machines. the second track ends with the death of two cameras and the feedback from their dead circuits.



this album was written to commemorate the centenary of the opening of world war one.

the tracks do not use lo-bit sound but rather a form of processing i developed to mimic lo-bit but still allow higher frequency responses - there are still unusual sounds present that you could not get in a lo-bit file

this idea was to mimic the often ludicrous use of noise reduction technology in the remastering of early audio and film, to allow an ironic 'documentary' feel to the work which would act as a counterpoint to the subject matter.




for this release i used the data from the photograph which forms the cover to create the music so, in a way, it is literally a portrait (and an ironic take on growing older)

'you look like your mother' - complete text

i was unsure if i wanted to share the pages of the book without having the ability to shuffle them any way you saw fit but my commitment to an openness towards culture won out.

these images may be saved and reordered in any way you like, just reference me if you share or use them.

'you look like your mother' - describing alternative narratives.

as discussed before i have been writing an  auto-biography which contains multiple and largely false narratives.

my aim has been to question the often constructed narratives around trans* identity and the processes by which we construct the narrative thread of our own lifes.

i have spoken in the past about the seductivness of the 'i always knew' tradition of trans* identity in which having known you where a girl/ boy from childhood is treasured and viewed as more authentic. i wished to challenge this in the book and i also wanted to challenge common themes i have found in trans*autobiography relating to coming out, 'transitioning,' medication and surgery. as i state in the book

so many choices for the direction of biography not least of which is when to allow the great life changing moment too occur. there are various trusted approaches: rebirth upon surgery, rebirth upon taking hormones

some of these narratives grew out of the 'standards of care' which, for many generations of trans*women including my own, formed the basis of how we understood ourselves, changed how we constructed our own narratives. though this time has passed and a greater openness exists in the community to alternative narratives the old ideas of legitimacy and the old hierarchies hold true.

ofcorse the book goes beyond only discussion trans*autobiography to discuss the whole genera of autobiography, biography and even the idea of narrative itself.

though indebted to b. s. johnson's 'the unfortunates' i wished to move beyond the limited structure he offered (or even that offered by marc saporta) by destroying the order and sense of the page, offering narratives that collapse in upon themselves, eat their own tails.

this is an ending which will lead you back to the beginning, a circle, a narrative eating it’s own  tail. stop, begin, speak.  end

the book can be purchased along with two cds of music and a two hour film on my bandcamp and as a stand alone item here

trans*autobiography and the slippery nature of truth

i have written here before of the slippery nature of trans*narratives and autobiography and i have always wanted to write an autobiography without a narrative which can be unpicked or relied on.

i finally began work on this today.

the completed text will be printed with some passages cut out, sections cut from pages, pages printed on transparencies and any other trick i can think of to break the narrative.

this is the first draft of page one

the past comes back to haunt you

quite some time ago i parted ways with a label owner over their increasing drift towards far right politics. before this they had asked to publish my harsh noise work so my own bandcamp could be given over to drone and improvisation.

i will not go into the particulars of the dispute with this person and that is not the subject of this post.

when my work was deleted from their label i republished it as two separate albums - one dealing with drone and the other with harsh noise but, at the time, i believed three albums to be lost including one of the releases under my harsh noise wall side project green shadow.

thankfully two of those albums where found on an external drive and have been republished on my own bandcamp.

sadly one album, the deeply personal 'three christmas ghosts' (where i spoke about my brother's death and seeing the woman who had raped me several years previously) is lost and may be lost for good. perhaps it is fitting that an album about letting go of pain should itself fade away, a poetic end to it's life but still something in the back of my mind wants it to be preserved. alas it appears this is not to be so.

a few points on this album: the sound quality is not fantastic as it comes from mp3s converted to flac files and some of the files where uploaded as mono tracks even though i sent the individual stereo tracks. to get over this i i copied the mono track, panned each track to different channels and created a false stereo track much as you will find in early stereo releases (i myself have one of these in the shape of the rolling stones 'his satanic majesties request.') this should be thought of as an archive release rather than as part of any ongoing projects or thematic concerns.

in praise of knowledge (aka. 'your work is pretentious' yea, like i care)

i've been accused of pretension recently and it's hardly been the first time.

i don't mind, indeed the term has taken on a meaning for many, particularly anti-intilectuals, which makes it a badge of honour: it no longer means that you parade knowledge that you do not have but that you are not afraid to show what knowledge you possess.

while i have no desire to alienate people by talking over their heads i am not willing to keep my interests in history, philosophy, film, literature, music and poetry out of my work and will explain where my ideas have came from rather than (as an elitist would) assume knowledge.

i know a little about and am interested in the history of fascism in europe so i felt it was not pretentious to produce a three part work on the subject.

i have lived with the often obtuse text of t.s. eliot's 'four quartets' for most of my adult life so felt i could produce work around that subject

i have read quite a bit on early 20th century exploration of the north and south poles so felt i could produce work around that subject

i have both read about the marian cult and was brought up catholic so i felt i could produce work around that subject

i have read much anglo-saxon poetry and prose so...well you get the picture.

i see no problem with handling complex issues and i have no problem with people having greater knowledge than me. likewise i have no problem with obscure and difficult musical forms such as drone, minimalism and free improvisation so why should i produce work other than that which interests me?

the academy often seeks to limit access to culture and learning to those outside it's circle and this is met by an equal but sadly not opposite force outside the academy which seeks to shame those who look to gain knowledge. i will have no part of either.

when i was growing up my parents would do what they could to feed my interest in literature and felt a great pride in my growing intellect. i still remember my father taking me to buy two bookcases and proudly telling everyone in the shop that i 'liked to read.' no one should be ashamed of knowledge either having knowledge, seeking knowledge or having little knowledge in a field but wanting more.  

my work is pretentious? yea like i care.

twenty great, interesting and odd english language movies (part two)

part two where we begin with the queer films...

go fish

very much of it's time and very indicative of lesbian communities we all knew from the 90s and early thousands.


think of it as 'dykes to look out for: the movie and it's as political, angry, funny and heart warming as the comic




the angelic conversation

jarman's dreamlike realisation of Shakespeare's sonnets via some beautiful photography and even more pretty men





blue

in for a penny, in for a pound...

a third jarman film and the second in a row this is his meditation on image when he had gone blind. which becomes not a maudlin confessional or diary of illness but a meditation on life, art and love

simply one of the most moving films ever (and yes,  it's a blue screen with no image)

For accustomed to believing in image, an absolute idea of value, his world had forgotten the command of essence: Thou Shall Not Create Unto Thyself Any Graven Image, although you know the task is to fill the empty page. From the bottom of your heart, pray to be released from image.

a Canterbury tale


powel and pressburger made a series of odd films during and just after world war two. many of them where intended as propaganda (by the government anyway) but all proved too challenging for such a purpose.

this film has british an american troops and land girls all stationed in a village along the pilgrim's way where a mysterious figure called 'the glue man' is pouring glue into women's hair during the blackout if they speak to soldiers.

the irony of the film is that the glue man's acts literally bind the community together especially the three people who set out to prove who his is (each representing one of the groups mentioned above) and provide the opportunity for them to complete their own pilgrimages, each of which are experienced in Canterbury in the film's deeply moving final segment.






peeping tom

powel's meditation on the danger of images and what obsession with art can do to a person is the inverse of a film like 'a cantabury tale' and effectively finished his career.

it follows the story of a young man who was damaged by his psychologist father experimenting on him in an attempt to study fear in children. he continues his father's work by trying to film the look of terror on a person's face just before they die.

that powel and his son played the psychiatrist and child in this film makes it even more challenging

'Don't be a silly boy. There's nothing to be afraid of!
Good night Daddy. Hold my hand.






vampyres

jose ramon larraz's soft-core take on the vampire myth is an odd mis: set in a muddy and dull autumn in a ruined house where the erotisism can not hide the character's fear of their own decent into animalism.

a strangely sad entry into the 'erotic horror' genera





plague of the zombies

an odd hammer film which predates much of the zombie genera and which provides us with a troubling set of images most notably the woman awakening from the sleep of death and getting out of her coffin.





the witches

nigel kneale strikes again, this time in a much earlier trip into the dark heart of the less than friendly english village.

mounting paranoia abounds in this decidedly odd hammer classic.





life is sweet

and after all the darkness the light, mike leigh's wonderful 'life is sweet' because you know everything will turn out ok in the long run (and besides, we all want a mum like alison steadman)




the singing detective

to end with potter's finest moment, the tale of a writer of detective fiction rewriting his last book and writing himself out of illness through the power of his own imagination.

twenty great, good and interesting english language movies (for μ) - part one of two

seeing a friend (and fellow musician) post about 'great' films she had yet to see i thought a list of 20 great english language films was in order.

there is no order to these films so no numbers, just titles and i'll list them as they come to me

derrick jarman's 'jubilee'

jarman's most well known film and no less worthy for that this punk classic boasts stunning visuals and a genuinely tragic air which problematises it's outwardly nihilistic premiss.

watch the criterion dvd as it includes sketchbooks and unused super-8 footage




lost weekend

billy wilder's great exploration of alcoholism is as dark and nihilistic as jubilee and features a wonderful central performance by ray miland and some fine noirish photography.

that the film ends without a true resolution, hinting (as wilder argued) at a positive outcome only as a possibility, gives it great strength.

it also manages to be the wellspring of the terms 'redic,' 'natch,' and 'thanks but no thanks'





touch of evil

if you can swallow a north american playing a mexican then this noir classic is well worth a watch for  it's famous opening shot alone

after you've wowed over that catch marlene dietrich's wonderful performance and the camera work which places you in the action






scum

violence, abuse of power, riots, racism and rape in an english borstal in alan clarke's classic so beloved of mary whitehouse.




paris texas

some films really are as good as they are claimed to be and this study of male anxiety, regret and inter-generational relationships is one of those films




anti-clock

jane arden and jack bond's non-linier film simply has to be seen to be believed. all video effects, split screens, freeze framed, stories within stories and wonderfully unrepentant pretension.





riddles of the sphinx

as we're on the subject of british avant film...

laura mulvey and peter wollen's film essay on feminist theory is a thrilling technical accomplishment which is both visually stunning and intellectually challenging.





the stone tape

nigel kneale's classic pseudo-realist study of ritual, stone circles and hauntings in an unsettling classic of television which has few equals in commercial cinema.






a cottage on dartmoor

asquith's wonderful british thriller, one of the great british silent films, is more thrilling and formally inventive than hitchcock and is simply entertaining in every sense





night and the city

jules dassin was in europe when his name came up at the unamerican activities commission and his producer called him to say 'finish the film as soon as you can and don't come back to the usa'

he was eventually blacklisted and went on to make classic films in europe but this, his last film for an american studio, is a corker and possibly the most obvious 'gay subtext' movie ever.

deus ex machina: conceptual music and the possibilities of performance

in discusion with the composer james wise (with whom i have collaborated on two albums and aided the research into some of his own compositions) regarding the possibility (or rather joke) of filling a one hundred and eighty five tb magnetic tape produced by sony i came up with the concept of producing a seven day long piece for performance which was to be both filmed and recorded and released on one medium ie. a single external hard drive.

the piece became 'deus ex machina' and it may possibly be performed in some way as people have volunteered to find a venue to host it.

when i wrote the score for it (more in the style of alvin lucier and annea lockwood's sets of written instructions) i did not intend a performance to be attempted, it was purely conceptual. now that possibility may come to be.

treatise pp. 168 -173: completed

as promised i have completed the cardew piece.

i originally intended to record this as a single three hour piece but the logistics (namely that i can only record 1 1/2 hours at a time and don't have an external device) so i recorded it as a series of one hour pieces, taking two hours at a time.

this follows the score pretty closely but deviates slightly by taking sections which cover roughly 1/3rd of the page and making them half the length of the page within the timescale of the performance.

so, here it is: six pages of 'treatise,' three hours of music.

i'll also be engaging in a much looser improvisation for piano based on pages from the score when i have the time.

a round up of releases for easter and a liminal recording

i've been very lazy lately and haven't updated this blog so here's a little round up of some recent releases.

firstly are two releases for easter, the first addressing the political nature of the easter story and the second exploring the nature of 'resurrection'

firstly comes ''wild calla lillies growing on the banks of the allander symbolise the resurrection of judas who will free us from roman tyranny'

this discuses the idea of judas as a zealot, a revolutionary jewish sect who wanted to promote the violent overthrow of roman rule. in the reading of the easter story foregrounding this sees judas as a disillusioned revolutionary who saw the one great hope of revolution (jesus) becoming increasingly mystical and increasingly disinterested in poverty and the world judas inhabited. the last chance of a revolution was to sacrifice jesus, to allow this now useless leader to become a martyr who's death would inflame others to act.

in this reading judas is a hero




the second work for easter examines 'reserection' in light of spring, in light of the earth awakening from the long sleep of winter.




finally comes 'we have arisen from sleep' a deliberate attempt to produce a 'liminal' work in the style of coil's 'muzik to play in the dark' albums.

this album uses the spark-le hybrid drum machine processed through audiomulch.

more cardew (cycles and studies: finding a waveform study in treatise

i've been poring over a print edition of 'treatise' and have found the work to be cyclical and to have sections which can be described as 'movements' where the notation has a consistency.

i have chosen to focus on one of these sections and produce a single piece from it which will be three hours long with a 'preface' of another 30 minute section.

the seven pages i have selected share the same line, sometimes broken, sometimes uneaven, thinning out towards the middle of the final page and i see a waveform there.

my main focus then will be on a waveform study i see in the score and it will be both long and remarkably minimal.

now i only need to find the time needed to perform and record it

stop me if you've heard this one before (more thoughts on cardew's 'treatise')

I've put the realisation of 'treatise' on hold while i wait for a physical copy of the score to arrive in the post and decided to have a look at some random sections from his working notes (published in 'cornelius cardew: a reader' pub. copula) and found something very intriguing:

6th march '63: (written on the score) NB the sound should be a picture of the score, not vice versa

this has led me to consider making two versions of the pages i select to work on with the second based upon sound produced by the data contained in scans of the pages.

treatise page 73

further to today's post regarding cardew's 'treatise' i have completed a first interpretation

i chose page 73 as it gave an easy (though, it turned out, not so easy) entry into the score.

i interpreted this using piano with the central line being taken as a marker of durations for separate sections of the page and as a sign separating the score in two.

i interpreted the top half of the score (channeled to the left in the resultant mix) as having a single note for the left hand (in the later part of the page) while the left hand moved up the keyboard (thinking not of notes but the position of my hands) randomly.

the bottom half of the score was interpreted as having one hand ascending in notes and the other descending.

here is the resultant piece.

 

preliminary notes towards interpreting cardew's 'treatse'

cardew's 'treatise' is one of the legendary works of the 20th century, a massive graphic score of wonderful complexity and beauty and i've decided to try to interpret some pages from it.

when i look at pages like this i see synths and waveforms in the curves and piano or organ notes in the straight lines.

here is see piano notes held for different periods with the line in the middle of the page possibly being seen as a split between left and right channels or left or right hands

other observations are as follows:

forms appearing in boxes are independent sections repeated once, those appearing within curves and circles are loops repeated from the point they occur until the end of the section/ page and groups of parallel lines relate to the density of a waveform on a synthesiser.

this should be fun

'three songs for ghosts' - nationalism, fascism and death

for a long time the horrors of the twentieth century's fascination with nationalism, fascism and the nation state have haunted my work. from works based on the documentary 'night and fog' through discussions of anti-semitism, the concept of the nation state, the shoah and the kristallnacht these themes have always been present in my work.

i was trying to find a way to compose a longer work, a single album, discussing the nature and processes by which a nation succumbs to the evils of fascism, the narrative thread that unifies all movements based upon notions taken from romantic nationalism, but was having trouble finding a structure which was not didactic and a formal method which was not insulting to the memories of those who died.

reading yvonne sherratt's 'hitler's philosophers' i came across a passage from walter benjaman's 'berlin childhood around 1900' which included the sentence 'the child that stands behind the doorway curtain himself becomes something white which flutters, a ghost' which reminded me of the words of jacob bronowski in 'the assent of man':

There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit. The assertion of dogma closes the mind and turns a nation, a civilization into a regiment of ghosts. Obedient ghosts. Or Tortured ghosts.

the two quotes helped form bookends for an album which, again, i planed to be a lengthy one. after improvising two pieces based around these quotes i realised that, in the end, all the people slaughtered in nationalist and fascist purges in the 20th century could be described using the term that the nazi party used 'undesirables'

in stalin's russia they where undesirables, in rwanda they where undesirables, in the former yugoslavia they where 'undesirables' everywhere they are undesirables.

the process of forming a national or political identity must always result in the process freud described as 'foreclosure' whereby that which is counted as the 'in' group can only be defined by creating an 'out' group.

the out group are always 'undesirables' and are always, at best, disposable. at worst they need to be destroyed.

this album is for all the undesirables who have been and who will come into being in the future. the cycle of violence always begins again.

a review of 'a site of privilege/ a site of pain'

the site 'yea i know it sucks' reviews my album 'a site of privilege/ a site of pain' here and i rather like the review:

Elizabeth Veldon is (like it or not) a character that made quite a name for herself in the experimental and noise underground. I’m not sure why, but it seems as if she attracts controversy which always end up with two sides of a cake. One part with chocolate and whipped cream that the lovers seem to love  and then the bottom part with soft dough that for some reason isn’t always loved or perhaps misunderstood and even hated.

But either-way be it positive or negative it’s for sure that mentioning the name of Elizabeth Veldon is able to trigger hot headed conversations and probably also mixed emotions. I think that marketing wise she did a very good job being overly controversial, as thanks to haters bashing and lovers defending; her name that pops up through online forums and (anti)social media has probably registered in many of us who occasionally go out for a walk in the fascinating world of the underground.

The only thing is, what’s next? I mean we all have heard of Mickey Mouse, but what’s the point of knowing if not ever seeing an old cartoon or a comic with that mouse starring in it? Not suggesting that Elizabeth Veldon is comparable to Mickey but it seems to me that her character might walk upfront her audio output perhaps, (it’s from my perspective the first thing you see or read), but I’m sure she is about the music, carrying her art behind her almost iconic face and name.

Even the most resistant, curious underground recreationist will Sooner or later listen to her music, to the sounds she puts out, read the controversial title tracks, the causes or friends she dedicates her works too and that’s probably the thing that counts and keeps it all going and flowing throughout the years. People are easily pumped up, with opinions and steam out of their noses but it takes a bit more time for people to check things out for themselves, hear the music or the noise and then form some kind of idea if this is something they enjoy & are into or that it isn’t really their cup of tea and rather move along.

I know this is a bit of a long introduction, but just feel that it’s necessary at this point in time. For what I know is that Elizabeth Veldon isn’t always very compatible with  my personal views and opinions, but hey I used to enjoy listening to the music of Charles Manson but do not go out and stab pregnant people too. So with this in mind I wanted to take some time and actually listen, experience and hear the music behind all the intended or non-intended controversy of this obviously unique individual. You still want to read along? Than better prepare yourself for salted honesty and crazed opinion…

I moved down to bandcamp and came across an album that looked very interesting. It was called ‘A map of privilege / a map of pain’ and came with the following description by the artist:

this album grew out of the controversy over trans*women having or not having male privilege when still presenting as male.

i believe this to be true and for me a large part of becoming who i now am was accepting this and seeking to acknowledge both how this had benefited me and the scars this had left.

You see, that this is an interesting piece of information here. It might be an obstacle for anyone not being in the same situation in life, to fully comprehend what this all means. It’s a controversial topic as for non trans*gendered people it is difficult to understand the thoughts, the mindset, sexuality and all other complexity that a trans*woman or trans*male has to go through. It’s something to think about as well because it is surprising how little information and support is available above ground to make these important kind of subjects less taboo and discussable. Gays and the problems they face are overly well presented in the western media, but trans*people seems to be something that for most people is something that is kept a bit like a mystery, something that isn’t discussed much.

But how do these two tracks aka maps sound like? And is it possible to let us listeners feel a bit closer to the concept and the artist thoughts and feelings about this actual music? By listening to the full ten minutes of the ‘privilege’ track I must say to feel a bit hypnotized by it all. It’s a very minimal work and also very fragile and warm in its sound. It could be a ten minute long loop or showing a slight slow difference, but these must be so little that it will cost all your intellectual focus to spot them. Something that isn’t probably what the purpose of this work is about.
To me, music wise it’s like an aesthetic, a soft woolen pillow in the face while being hypnotized on a steady flow of non-panicky ambient.

And then expecting a yin and yang moment at the ‘map of pain’ another controversial point enters in. This track is almost identical to the ‘map of privilege’ which made me think that perhaps the concept of ‘privilege’ and ‘pain’ are like two sides of the same coin. To be honest, I personally do not seem to understand or identify with it, but perhaps that is the whole point. Someone else probably recognize something in this conceptual music and would say ‘damn, Elizabeth you hit the nail on the head again!’

It’s probably a bit like going to a museum of modern art with someone you hardly know. You see this gigantic framed painting with the complete canvas covered in the blue color. Just at the moment that I feel like saying my thoughts of ‘What the hell is this?’ your museum buddy opens the mouth complimenting it and tells how beautiful it is. It’s probably one of those things with this release of Elizabeth Veldon, it’s either you ‘get it’ and love it or you just shrug your shoulders and go elsewhere.
So why not visit this release with your own ears and see if it is something you dig? It’s kind of relaxing music really.

i rather like my work being compared to minimalist painting and it's reminiscent of  yves klein and his international klein blue not to mention derek jarman's wonderful film 'blue'

ten folk albums (part 2)

6. martin carthy's first album

martin carthy, like june tabor, is a researcher of traditional song. this, his debut with dave swarbek with whom he would work for the next few decades, contains one of his most famous settings 'scarborough fair' and here it is not the polite song you know from simon and garfunkel but a song about a woman setting a deamon impossible tasks to avoid his love.

7. george deacon and marion ross 'sweet william's ghost'

this is another 'lost' folk album. published by transatlantic and sadly never reissued while the now defunct castle group owned the rights. the rights are now owned by sony and i see little chance of them reissuing an album that would be of such specialist interest. 

this collects a surprising number of urban songs (often these are forgotten in folk music) and tends to focus on these and broadsides.

sadly the blogging of this album is heavily policed by sony and even on youtube the one video of 'the deavonshire farmer's daughter' (which i uploaded) is only available in the uk.

sadly this album is destined to be forgotten due to sony's greed.

8. peggy mccoll and ewan mccoll 'the radio ballads'

this classic merging of documentary and folk song (a series not an individual album) by the great peggy seeger and ewan mccoll is another high point in the representation of traditional song.

thankfully these are avalable on cd from topic records.

9. Shirley collins 'the power of the true love knot' 

it's hard to pick an album by shirley collins but i chose this as it contains a variation on 'sweet william's ghost' 

it also contains the greatest, to my mind, version of 'lovely joan' a song cecil sharp wished to suppress due to it's erotic content.

10. the topic sampler series.

another series treated as a single album but an important series which unified the work of professional  artists and local singers recorded by billl leader (amongst others) who would go on to set up his own labels 'leader' and 'trailer' which would publish important work including the lal and mike waterson album featured in part one of this list.

a short note.

i have included here only traditional song and albums by singers of traditional song so there is no 'narnia,' 'mister fox,' 'the incredible string band' or any other band of that type.

sadly there wasn't enough room to include important figures like anne briggs, dick gawkin or leon rossilson and for that i ask forgivness