that post-Autumnal feeling

Out today is the first of two new releases on Quiet World; 'The World After Autumn' by me.

I've been slowly piecing this one together for quite a while.  The album's longest track ' The Daughter of the Sea and Me'  is layer upon layer upon layer of sounds and took over a year to get to the point where I was happy with the mix.
In a way it's almost a follow up to the 'Simple Ghosts...' album I made with Rhod and Steve the other year in that it's almost entirely acoustic and is very much a product of my various environments with sounds sourced from my garden, my classroom, one of the local beaches and of course my cramped and cluttered studyo (part study / part studio).

It's available on CDR in the usual very limited signed and numbered edition of 50 from www.quietworld.co.uk or as a download from the Bandcamp link at the bottom of this post.

i hope you like it.

The Strangest of Pilgrims

I've been neglecting this blog of late but truthfully I've been so busy I've been neglecting pretty much everything. I have though, over the last few days, had the chance to get on top of the next couple of Quiet World releases the first of which is available today.

Every now and again my friend and esteemed collaborator Banks Bailey sends me a digital file of something beautiful that he's recorded during one of his expeditions into the wilds of his home in Arizona.  On this occasion it was a rather lovely recording of a Hermit Thrush.  It made for fine listening but I think I was in a bit of a fidgety mood that day as I started playing around with it, cutting it up, dropping the pitch, etc and soon discovered I had what sounded something like a bamboo flute.  Over the next day or two I added some of my watery field recordings and then started playing along with it adding snatches of electronic drones. It took a while to get the balance right so as not to loose either aspect - the natural or the digital - but I'm pretty pleased with the end result.  

it's available in the usual ltd edition signed and numbered version from the Quiet World site or as a digital download from the Bandcamp below.

I hope you like it.

performing for an unappreciative audience and a hopefully appreciative one

so, the inspection is over - thankfully.  at this point I've no idea how it went. It was an in-house inspection where I was assessed while guiding a beginners class on protest music.  The kids were doing presentations on songs of their choice explaining their background and providing an analysis of the lyrics to demonstrate why they thought they were appropriate choices.  I like this lesson.  I teach a lot about protest music and try to keep fairly relevant but obviously my choices are always going to be governed by my personal tastes and background so it's really good for both them and me if they take over occasionally and school me in some more up-to-date rants.  Anyway, the inspector (a lecturer from the car mechanics department - which I say only for information not to make any aspersions on his intelligence - i have two friends in that department) came in, didn't even acknowledge the students, sat with his back to them for an hour and then left without saying goodbye.  Personally I thought it was seriously fucking rude!  and let me just say the presentations and the associated discussions were fantastic.  Every student in the room produced their A-game and nailed it and the inspector didn't even deign to watch.  5 days on I'm still fucking furious!

from this point on I'm going to take a slight break from being all about work and give some focus over to prepping myself for my upcoming return to live performance.  the venue is booked and the date is locked in.  I'm hopeful that it's going to be a fairly low-key affair but at this point I'm not sure if that's even an option.

here's the poster...

The Parrot is a lovely little venue and record shop staffed by some lovely folk with great taste in music.  for the last few months they've been putting on these themed nights - Night with the Nurse, The Esoteric Underground, An Evening with Sun Ra.  They've been great fun and a nice way for lovers of odd music to get together in this fairly musically conservative little area of the world.
This one raises the bar (especially for me) and hopefully will be a shape of things to come.
Firstly though I have to get some practice in.  I'm a preparer by nature.  I don't like to go into things half cocked.  I want to know I've got everything I need in place and be raring to go.  As such I'm taking over the spare bedroom for the next month and am going t have my gear on permanent set-up so I can just walk in and make some noises whenever I have a spare couple of minutes.  It should be good fun.

With three new releases on the horizon but not necessarily very imminent I do have a little something to tide you all over in the meantime.  This is a mash up of three old unfinished pieces I found when going through some old discs.  I hope you dig it.

the perils of a brittle epidermis

Been quiet around here lately as we yet again have an inspection going on in work.  Colleges (and schools) in the UK are subject to endless bureaucratic interference and we go through these really intrusive inspections with tedious regularity.  anyway it'll all be over tomorrow (Thursday) and I can go back to relaxing a bit and doing fun things.

there are a couple of new releases in the pipeline - three that are very imminent - but in the meantime I'd like to present you with a new digital only release.

this is a extended version of an aspect of one of the upcoming releases.  As a component in the piece it has a purely textural function but I liked it on it's own also so it's become one of my little pieces of digital ephemera that I like to throw in the direction of your ears.

hope you like.  more news to follow soon.

peace
ian

O Tangletree! O Tangletree! Much pleasure thou can'st give me

Just a quick fly-by message to let folks know that the new album from me (Ian) and Darren Tate called Tangletree is available now.

You can find the usual limited edition (50 copies) signed and numbered physical version at the Quiet World website or for those of you who prefer their music in byte sized chunks it also available fro the Bandcamp site at the link below.

Tangletree

I'm having a cup of coffee and a break from doing some xmas shopping (so far the only thing I've bought is a book for myself) and i thought i'd let you know about the next Quiet World release.

I was hoping to have two new albums for you this month but due to my woeful proof reading skills i missed the typo on one of the sleeves. so that one has been pushed back to january but the other will be available on Monday.

The album is called Tangletree and it's by me and Darren Tate.  it was made a year or so ago and has been patiently waiting it's turn for release. it was done using an electric shruti box and samples from me and some particularly atonal guitar from Darren.  they were never meant to go together but I spent one dark and damp night assembling them.  it's one that should be played loud. your neighbours won't mind. It is Xmas after all.

free music

I had some spare time the other night and found myself making a mix of the recent releases on Quiet World.

I'm very pleased with the way it's turned out and have made it available as a free download from my bandcamp site.