More from the Untrained Artist.

I've been keeping a lot of my son's drawings, paintings etc and was prompted to sit and look at them again after watching a really interesting documentary about Outsider Art.
The term refers to art made by children and the untrained and self taught, as well as that made by people who suffer from mental illness.

I like the definition, "Art made by those who do not know it's name", which implies a very pure intent.

Anyway, I particularly like this, drawn by my son, aged 6, apparently a "Firework Machine" and part of a whole series he calls his "Network Pictures".

A pretty good example of "outsider music" would be The Shaggs, recommended by Frank Zappa himself.

Best,

Colin

Bass Day Madrid - December 14th

See above, I'll be at the Madrid Bass Day next month, on the 14th December.
I'll be spending some time talking about effects and how I like to use them.

More info in Spanish and English can be found here:

Best,

Colin

Live photos Astarta/Edwin at Days of Ukraine

Thanks to Alistair Peck for these photos from last Saturday's Astarta/Edwin set at the Days of Ukraine Festival in London.

The full set can be found over on his Flickr page

Astarta - Inna and Yulia.

Eduard Prystupa, keys and guitar.

Dima, beatboxing, playing a selection of flutes and also a Duduk.

Inna

Yulia

            Jon Durant joined us again on guitar, he has made a really significant contribution to the work in progress recordings, so I'm very glad he made it.

Just visible at the back is drummer Bogdan Kerichok.

Anyway, I'll hopefully have more to say about the project before too long, for now, I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to play the music live a few times so far, and recording is still ongoing.....

Best,

Colin

Days of Ukraine in London

Below, two tracks from the material I've been working on over the last year or so with Kiev based female vocal duo Astarta. 

We'll be performing live together this coming weekend, Saturday 19th October, as part of the Days Of Ukraine Festival, a wide cultural event showcasing a selection of Ukrainian literature, cuisine, fashion, art, and music of course, in London.

I heard Ukraine described on the BBC the other day as "...a large country in Eastern Europe about which most people know nothing" and to my (limited) knowledge, this is the first time any sort of  cultural event focussed around it has happened in London.

 I have never had any sort of personal or family connection to the place, and in fact I only first visited in 2011 to play a one-off date with Ex-Wise Heads, but since then, I have developed an interest in the vibrant and soulful sounds of a lot of the folk music I have been introduced to.

Our performance, and others, will take place at Potters Field Park, right next to the River Thames, and we are scheduled to play around 4.15pm, and admission is free, and there's more information here and also here.

I am also pleased to report that my Burnt Belief partner Jon Durant will be joining us on guitar, as fortuitously, he will also be in the UK working with me on a follow up to our last album Burnt Belief.

Best,

Colin

Twinscapes Teaser

A little taster from the forthcoming Twinscapes album, now scheduled for a February release on Rarenoise:



More to follow,

Best,


Colin

Cassette Store Day.

Today being International Cassette Store Day, it' s a good excuse to shamelessy plug again my most recent release, the "Endless Tapes" EP which is of course available as CD+ cassette bundle from here.

And once again., for anyone that missed it, I can share Petulia Mattioli's marvellous video for one of the tracks over on my youtube channel:




I was certainly a major user/consumer of cassettes for many years, and also spent many hours recording onto a four track cassette recorder, just like this one.

Here's an Endless Tape Loop playing on my old MT120.

As an aside I'd also like to share two books about music I've really enjoyed reading recently,

Simon Reynolds Retromania, (which also has fitting image of a cassette on the cover) and Greg Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever, which is an entertaining read about the history of recorded music and is well worth checking out, especially the section about the testing of mp'3s on listeners.

Best,

Colin

Henry Fool Live photos

Thanks to Caroline Traitler for these photos showing Henry Fool live at the 5 years of K-Scope event at a very hot Garage in London back in July.

It was an all instrumental set mostly taken from the last album, "Men Singing" , (or I should say "based on" rather than "taken from", given that the approach is to improvise around the structures and themes of the material), and I believe one previously unheard number.

Bearpark and Bowness on interlocking guitars.

Ebowing...

I've recently been tracking bass parts to some more song based material, which is another side of the Henry Fool output, so more to follow I think....

Line up left to right:

Stephen Bennett - keyboards, Myke Clifford on saxes and flute, Andrew Booker - drums, Tim Bowness - guitar, yours truly on bass, Mike Bearpark - guitar.

Best,

Colin

PS. 

I also messed about with my Fisheye Camera in the rehearsal, you can see the pictures over on the bands Facebook page