except in mine I was at a garden party where one of the guests suddenly floated up into the air and was shot.
everyone panicked except me and Ms. Marple who soon realised that the dead man was the Mekon. We investigated and discovered that the killer was a Treen named Lurpak.
it wasn't as deep or as profound as MLK's but at least now the Mekon won't be terrorising the 1950s of the future & Mars is free of his tyranny but I bet Dan Dare is spitting feathers at not being there at the end.
Ms. Marple for the win.
Friday, 26 July 2013
Thursday, 25 July 2013
The siren call of sleep
About a year ago I was honoured to release a frankly beautiful album of Eric Satie pieces as interpreted by Susan Matthews. I'd been listening to her music (via Wonderful Wooden Reasons) or some time and when at the beginning of 2012 I decided to reboot Quiet World and start featuring a wider variety of people she was one of the first people I asked. Even though she only lived a half hours journey away we had never met and indeed only did so when she moved slightly further away. We now meet up semi-regularly for delicious food and chat at a nice little vegetarian cafe in Carmarthen.
Well, this week she has very kindly released one of my releases - Somnia - on her own Siren Wire label. It's a deep and dark soundscape piece that is an evocation of sleep and dream. As a borderline insomniac I have a love / hate relationship with sleep. I find it frustrating as it's often slightly out of reach and so when I finally hit a point where sleep is easily attainable I sleep too deeply for the dreams to surface with me leaving them as vague and indistinct sensations that can then colour the rest of day.
Somnia is an interpretation of this; the flashes of emotion, the spasms of recollection, the glimpses of essence and the phantasms of memory.
“What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.”
Werner Herzog
Well, this week she has very kindly released one of my releases - Somnia - on her own Siren Wire label. It's a deep and dark soundscape piece that is an evocation of sleep and dream. As a borderline insomniac I have a love / hate relationship with sleep. I find it frustrating as it's often slightly out of reach and so when I finally hit a point where sleep is easily attainable I sleep too deeply for the dreams to surface with me leaving them as vague and indistinct sensations that can then colour the rest of day.
Somnia is an interpretation of this; the flashes of emotion, the spasms of recollection, the glimpses of essence and the phantasms of memory.
“What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.”
Werner Herzog
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
I've heard about this thing called sleep
it sounds amazing.
i'd like to try it.
i'd like to try it soon.
i'd like to try it.
i'd like to try it soon.
Sunday, 14 July 2013
Funk This Funking Heat
The UK is melting / basking (depending on your perspective) in a heat wave at the moment so I thought it was time to share some of the sultrier sounds from my record collection.
So, for your delectation, here is a selection of European library and soundtrack pieces.
So, for your delectation, here is a selection of European library and soundtrack pieces.
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
This music is Radiophonic
as is usually the case I find myself almost completely unable to slow down now that I'm on holiday. I'm 4 days in and I've posted a new issue of the zine, done two new Quietude mixes and booked a gig (more on which in another post on another day). I'm awful at relaxing.
anyway, here's the new mix. it's one that expresses a personal passion and one I've been wanting to do for a while now. hope you enjoy.
As I'm sure long time readers and listeners will have gathered I absolutely love this shit. Love to the point that I've done two EPs of my own take on Radiophonic music. I'm currently working on Part 3 which should be out by the end of the year but in the meantime here's 'Phantasms' parts 1 & 2...
anyway, here's the new mix. it's one that expresses a personal passion and one I've been wanting to do for a while now. hope you enjoy.
Monday, 8 July 2013
Reasons that are wonderful 1...2...3
It's Monday afternoon, it's really bloody hot and my hay fever hasn't kicked in for which I am extremely grateful. yesterday was an absolute dog of a day filled with sneezing, sniffling and general bleurgh. I'm new to all this hay fever palaver as I never had it before about two years ago. I'm not a fan.
anyway through the fug I've finally managed to get a new issue of Wonderful Wooden Reasons online featuring write ups of...
Music
Andrea Borghi - Vetrale
Bruno Duplant - Quelques Usines Fantomes
The Infant Cycle - Drop Out Center
Mark Lorenz Ksela - Eins+
Mecha/Orga - 53:30
Monos - Everyday Soundtracks
Joao Castro Pinto - Panaural
David Rothenberg - Bug Music
Carlos Suarez Sanchez - Transit Mundi
Keith Seatman - Boxes Windows & Secret Hidey-Holes
Teledu - Soiling Charge
Books
Douglas Adams & Gareth Roberts - Doctor Who: Shada
Derf Backderf - My Friend Dahmer
Mark Gatiss - Doctor Who: Last of the Gaderene
K.W. Jeter - Infernal Devices
Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Nemo: Heart of Ice
Movies
A Good Day to Die Hard
The Battery
Battle Los Angeles
Blindness
Conan the Barbarian
Iron Man 3
Pandorum
Priest
Seven Psychopaths
Terminator: Salvation
there's a Mixcloud also which I'll put here for those of you who don't want the words.
anyway through the fug I've finally managed to get a new issue of Wonderful Wooden Reasons online featuring write ups of...
Music
Andrea Borghi - Vetrale
Bruno Duplant - Quelques Usines Fantomes
The Infant Cycle - Drop Out Center
Mark Lorenz Ksela - Eins+
Mecha/Orga - 53:30
Monos - Everyday Soundtracks
Joao Castro Pinto - Panaural
David Rothenberg - Bug Music
Carlos Suarez Sanchez - Transit Mundi
Keith Seatman - Boxes Windows & Secret Hidey-Holes
Teledu - Soiling Charge
Books
Douglas Adams & Gareth Roberts - Doctor Who: Shada
Derf Backderf - My Friend Dahmer
Mark Gatiss - Doctor Who: Last of the Gaderene
K.W. Jeter - Infernal Devices
Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Nemo: Heart of Ice
Movies
A Good Day to Die Hard
The Battery
Battle Los Angeles
Blindness
Conan the Barbarian
Iron Man 3
Pandorum
Priest
Seven Psychopaths
Terminator: Salvation
there's a Mixcloud also which I'll put here for those of you who don't want the words.
Saturday, 6 July 2013
The Taste of the Weekend
Morning folks
It's the first Saturday of my holiday and I'm starting to relax but am still pretty twitchy from the comedown from the unrelenting furore of the end of the academic year. to try and meld my restlessness with the more relaxed me that I'm trying to head towards I spent the morning making a new Quietude mix. It's been a while since i did one of these and it was a bit of fun.
those of you with eagle ears may notice a snippet of an, as yet, unreleased track from me at the end.
It's the first Saturday of my holiday and I'm starting to relax but am still pretty twitchy from the comedown from the unrelenting furore of the end of the academic year. to try and meld my restlessness with the more relaxed me that I'm trying to head towards I spent the morning making a new Quietude mix. It's been a while since i did one of these and it was a bit of fun.
those of you with eagle ears may notice a snippet of an, as yet, unreleased track from me at the end.
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Spreading the Love...Intergalactically
every now and again - roughly once a year - I get the urge to do something with a beat. It's an urge that goes away fairly quickly but it happens so rarely that I tend to jump on it when it happens. Today was the day that the urge hit. I really should have been marking essays (and indeed am) but it was nice to take a break for an hour or two and run with an idea.
Because these things are generally so different from the things I usually do and because when I did the first one I was obviously in a fairly silly mood and named myself as 'The Interplanetary Love Orchestra' I've continued to do so.
Anyway here's the new one. Hope you like it.
and here are the older ones...
Because these things are generally so different from the things I usually do and because when I did the first one I was obviously in a fairly silly mood and named myself as 'The Interplanetary Love Orchestra' I've continued to do so.
Anyway here's the new one. Hope you like it.
and here are the older ones...
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Buildings need love too. Especially broken ones.
and here we have the second new Quiet World release for this weekend.
Kostoglotov - Love Song for Broken Buildings
Kostoglotov (or Daryl Worthington as he's otherwise known) is a London based musician who first came to our attention via the two albums he's passed on to Wonderful Wooden Reasons. I loved them! He makes beautiful post-Cluster, neo-Krautrock electronica full of light and colour and Quiet World is delighted to bring you this new excursion into his world.
Kostoglotov - Love Song for Broken Buildings
Kostoglotov (or Daryl Worthington as he's otherwise known) is a London based musician who first came to our attention via the two albums he's passed on to Wonderful Wooden Reasons. I loved them! He makes beautiful post-Cluster, neo-Krautrock electronica full of light and colour and Quiet World is delighted to bring you this new excursion into his world.
Friday, 7 June 2013
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.
Friday, 12 April 2013
The morning...well, afternoon...after the night before
It was a long time coming but my first gig in about 10 years, and indeed first ever solo gig, happened last night. It was an absolute blast.
This was the fifth of these themed nights at The Parrot bar in Carmarthen. So far it's been Nurse With Wound, Sublime Frequencies, Coil & the Esoteric Underground, Sun Ra and now Ambient / Drone night. I played a mix at the Esoteric Underground night but this time out I had a different idea. I'd been saying that I wanted to play a gig or two this year and this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, particularly as these nights have a dedicated if, let's say select rather than sparse, audience. This meant that my first time making drones on a stage was going to be a nice mellow anonymous little outing where i could ease myself back into the whole live performance thing.
It didn't quite work out that way.
When my name appeared in the event title I had a feeling that that idea was blown...
When my name appeared on the monthly listings I had a stronger inkling...
When Matt's Stretching Horizon's column appeared in the local paper on Wednesday i was fairly sure...
The big orange writing on the sign on the door did nothing to alleviate my fears...
(photo by Rhod)
And when I saw the goodly amount of people who turned up on the night I was certain...
early crowd (Quiet World alumni - Adrian Shenton & Susan Matthews amongst them)
(photo by Si)
later crowd (there're more to the left of shot and at the back right where the comfy seats are)
(photo by Si)
It's really good to see so many people willing and wanting to come out on a Thursday evening to hear something that they probably had no previous idea of just cause they saw a little article in the local paper.
We arrived early to set up and sound check...
(I love my old suitcase - there's a mixing desk and a MfOS:WSG underneath what you can see)
...only to discover we had incompatible plugs - i'm all old-school jack plugs whilst the Parrot's PA is XLR. Luckily this was sorted by the technical genius that is Aled (thanks fella) and everything sounded nice and loud.
this is (a blurry) Aled (who worked the bar and the kitchen from 5 until midnight - kudos)
(photo by Si)
Either side of my performance we had DJ sets from first Simon
and then Matt
Matt is part owner of the club and the proprietor of the Tangled Parrot record shop upstairs (recently described in The Guardian as one of the 10 best independent record shops in Britain). These nights are also his idea (and he's recently grown a very distinguished jazz beard).
(photo by Si)
I started at around 9:30 and played a 40 minute set in front of a projection of the the pylon I used for the cover of The Prescient Machine sleeve...
(photo by Rhod)
...and the Aurarora videos as made and provided by very buff monkey Mr. Rhod Thomas.
This is Rhod in a gold crash helmet (it's not from the night I just like it).
(photo by Jody)
The set went pretty well, it was a little difficult to hear the subtleties of what was happening from where I was sitting and also there was a gaggle of very loud folks by the bar who talked for most of the set. I was expecting that though - it's a pub after all - so that wasn't any sort of problem for me although a few people mentioned later that they found it annoying - Rhod described one of his video clips as being filled with "the fucking screeching nag guffawing'.
I was so pleased about the projections, I think they really helped create the vibe.
(photo by Rhod)
(photo by Rhod)
(photo by Si)
(photo by Rhod)
(photo by Rhod)
Here's a quick little vid edit
For a first gig back and all nerves aside (I've always got terrible stage fright - even when I'm teaching a new class) I think it went really well. Met lots of new folk and finally got to meet Adrian after several years of typing to each other and had a thoroughly good time.
Many thanks to everyone who came along I hope you enjoyed it (one person told me I sounded like Tool but without the guitars - I think he may have been drunk).
A particular thanks to the Parrot crew - Matt, Si & Al - for being a fantastic bunch of chaps.
Long may these nights continue.
Peace
Ian
This was the fifth of these themed nights at The Parrot bar in Carmarthen. So far it's been Nurse With Wound, Sublime Frequencies, Coil & the Esoteric Underground, Sun Ra and now Ambient / Drone night. I played a mix at the Esoteric Underground night but this time out I had a different idea. I'd been saying that I wanted to play a gig or two this year and this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, particularly as these nights have a dedicated if, let's say select rather than sparse, audience. This meant that my first time making drones on a stage was going to be a nice mellow anonymous little outing where i could ease myself back into the whole live performance thing.
It didn't quite work out that way.
When my name appeared in the event title I had a feeling that that idea was blown...
When my name appeared on the monthly listings I had a stronger inkling...
When Matt's Stretching Horizon's column appeared in the local paper on Wednesday i was fairly sure...
The big orange writing on the sign on the door did nothing to alleviate my fears...
(photo by Rhod)
And when I saw the goodly amount of people who turned up on the night I was certain...
early crowd (Quiet World alumni - Adrian Shenton & Susan Matthews amongst them)
(photo by Si)
later crowd (there're more to the left of shot and at the back right where the comfy seats are)
(photo by Si)
It's really good to see so many people willing and wanting to come out on a Thursday evening to hear something that they probably had no previous idea of just cause they saw a little article in the local paper.
We arrived early to set up and sound check...
(I love my old suitcase - there's a mixing desk and a MfOS:WSG underneath what you can see)
...only to discover we had incompatible plugs - i'm all old-school jack plugs whilst the Parrot's PA is XLR. Luckily this was sorted by the technical genius that is Aled (thanks fella) and everything sounded nice and loud.
this is (a blurry) Aled (who worked the bar and the kitchen from 5 until midnight - kudos)
(photo by Si)
Either side of my performance we had DJ sets from first Simon
and then Matt
Matt is part owner of the club and the proprietor of the Tangled Parrot record shop upstairs (recently described in The Guardian as one of the 10 best independent record shops in Britain). These nights are also his idea (and he's recently grown a very distinguished jazz beard).
(photo by Si)
I started at around 9:30 and played a 40 minute set in front of a projection of the the pylon I used for the cover of The Prescient Machine sleeve...
(photo by Rhod)
...and the Aurarora videos as made and provided by very buff monkey Mr. Rhod Thomas.
This is Rhod in a gold crash helmet (it's not from the night I just like it).
(photo by Jody)
The set went pretty well, it was a little difficult to hear the subtleties of what was happening from where I was sitting and also there was a gaggle of very loud folks by the bar who talked for most of the set. I was expecting that though - it's a pub after all - so that wasn't any sort of problem for me although a few people mentioned later that they found it annoying - Rhod described one of his video clips as being filled with "the fucking screeching nag guffawing'.
I was so pleased about the projections, I think they really helped create the vibe.
(photo by Rhod)
(photo by Rhod)
(photo by Si)
(photo by Rhod)
(photo by Rhod)
Here's a quick little vid edit
For a first gig back and all nerves aside (I've always got terrible stage fright - even when I'm teaching a new class) I think it went really well. Met lots of new folk and finally got to meet Adrian after several years of typing to each other and had a thoroughly good time.
Many thanks to everyone who came along I hope you enjoyed it (one person told me I sounded like Tool but without the guitars - I think he may have been drunk).
A particular thanks to the Parrot crew - Matt, Si & Al - for being a fantastic bunch of chaps.
Long may these nights continue.
Peace
Ian
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
30 hours and 7 minutes
it's not that I'm nervously counting you understand but that's how long it is until I make my return (30 hours and 6 minutes now) to playing live.
The set is pretty much as ready as it's going to get. Some of it is fixed in stone, some of it is entirely improvised and some of it is maybe a bit weak but is resisting all efforts to build it up. ah well.
hopefully it'll be fun.
The set is pretty much as ready as it's going to get. Some of it is fixed in stone, some of it is entirely improvised and some of it is maybe a bit weak but is resisting all efforts to build it up. ah well.
hopefully it'll be fun.
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Heliostasis and the Quiet World
Good morning from a grey and cold Sunday in Swansea. I say grey but it's a light sort of grey. light enough to make the prospect of a walk later today an enticing idea.
I've been playing around with Bandcamp over the last few days (and will continue to do so for the next few) and have uploaded a new release and one of my very first.
The new album is something that's been sat on my hard-drive for about a year now because I'd forgotten about it. I found it again on Friday and so decided to make it available for all to hear. The title came about during a conversation with my partner as I'd abandoned the working title (because I couldn't come up with a cover design) and was bandying around words like 'entropy', 'heliocentric' & 'stasis' (yes I am reading a lot of science fiction at the moment) the latter two of which she smashed together to give the title.
the second upload was the first full album I made as Psychic Space Invasion (another name that got mashed together after a conversation with Sioux). It was made in the back half of 2002 and I started letting people hear it in early 2003. It was never intended to be the start of anything. It was just something i was pottering with using a computer that a good friend (Hi Jason) had kindly made for me. People seemed to really like it and so I just kept making more copies to give away.
I never charged for copies of This Quiet World and so I'm continuing that tradition by making this a FREE download.
peace
Ian
I've been playing around with Bandcamp over the last few days (and will continue to do so for the next few) and have uploaded a new release and one of my very first.
The new album is something that's been sat on my hard-drive for about a year now because I'd forgotten about it. I found it again on Friday and so decided to make it available for all to hear. The title came about during a conversation with my partner as I'd abandoned the working title (because I couldn't come up with a cover design) and was bandying around words like 'entropy', 'heliocentric' & 'stasis' (yes I am reading a lot of science fiction at the moment) the latter two of which she smashed together to give the title.
the second upload was the first full album I made as Psychic Space Invasion (another name that got mashed together after a conversation with Sioux). It was made in the back half of 2002 and I started letting people hear it in early 2003. It was never intended to be the start of anything. It was just something i was pottering with using a computer that a good friend (Hi Jason) had kindly made for me. People seemed to really like it and so I just kept making more copies to give away.
I never charged for copies of This Quiet World and so I'm continuing that tradition by making this a FREE download.
peace
Ian
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
consumed by righteous fury
i was going to do some music today but instead spent a large chunk of it trying desperately not to be consumed by hatred for the asshole tory politicians (and the fucking idiots who voted them in) who from today have simultaneously set about dismantling the NHS (britain's single most important and wonderful institution), cut benefits to those most in need and have awarded themselves a massive and utterly unwarranted tax break.
i'm nowhere near as politically active (or informed) as i used to be but i am still a pretty committed leftie. i made a decision a number of years ago to make my politics more personal and to try and express them through my life. i generally no longer involve myself with big issue topics and simply try and live an ethical life. the sheer, rampant scumfuckery of these arseholes is dragging me back to a level of hate and anger i thought i'd left behind. i think these bastards need to burn but i don't want to think thoughts of hate.
with that aside, i'm just back from a nice weekend in Cheltenham where i successfully managed to buy myself far, and i really do mean far, too many books. i spent last weekend clearing shelf space and decluttering my very cluttered 'study-o' (part study, part studio). only to have completely refilled the shelves less than a week later.
have also been rediscovering the joys of Cluster, and lots of other contemporaneous German bands. i love that era and delve into it from time to time looking for both old favourites and something new. it's Cluster who have stuck hard and fast this time mostly i suspect because of the synthiness of the set i'm putting together.
the newcomer to my ears is Klaus Schulze who I've never really tried before but decided to give his 'Cyborg' album a try and it's phenomenal. the spacey synth of Cluster and Tangerine Dream soaring over some really intoxicating dronework. i listened to, and thoroughly enjoyed, a few of his others since but that's the one i keep coming back to.
tomorrow there will be music.
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
employment is the bane of creativity (but not it's death)
work getting to be so intense over the last 2 months has meant that
Quiet World hasn't been getting my full attention but it has been
getting my passing attention and as such there are 4 definite releases
on the horizon.
First up is an intense little drone album from the very wonderful Brian Lavelle called 'My Hands Are Ten Knives'. Brian's been on a real roll of late - check this magical free download of his out - and this is another missive from that good place he's in.
The second is 'Love Song for Broken Buildings' a very nice guitar based ambient set from Kostoglotov who may be familiar to those of you following my Wonderful Wooden Reasons where I've featured two of his recent releases.
The other two releases both feature me and my two most regular compatriots.
The first is a collaboration with Banks Bailey called 'Strange Pilgrims'
The other is an as yet untitled split (not a collab) with Darren Tate.His track is a beautiful and restrained drone piece, mine is an anything and everything musique concrete mash-up.
Further in the year there will also be another Philip Corner album. This time featuring his work with gongs and field recordings - I've heard it, it's magnificent.
hopefully some more plans will come to fruition in the near future but that's all I've got for you for now. These releases should start appearing sometime within the next month.
peace
ian
First up is an intense little drone album from the very wonderful Brian Lavelle called 'My Hands Are Ten Knives'. Brian's been on a real roll of late - check this magical free download of his out - and this is another missive from that good place he's in.
The second is 'Love Song for Broken Buildings' a very nice guitar based ambient set from Kostoglotov who may be familiar to those of you following my Wonderful Wooden Reasons where I've featured two of his recent releases.
The other two releases both feature me and my two most regular compatriots.
The first is a collaboration with Banks Bailey called 'Strange Pilgrims'
The other is an as yet untitled split (not a collab) with Darren Tate.His track is a beautiful and restrained drone piece, mine is an anything and everything musique concrete mash-up.
Further in the year there will also be another Philip Corner album. This time featuring his work with gongs and field recordings - I've heard it, it's magnificent.
hopefully some more plans will come to fruition in the near future but that's all I've got for you for now. These releases should start appearing sometime within the next month.
peace
ian
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