Various - iPod Shuffleplay
Various - Euphoria Electronic Dance Music
King Tubby - Father of Dub
Splashgirl - Field Day Rituals
Evans/Glass/Antheil/Herrmann - Four American Quartets
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Riverleaves
Up around 4:30 and out into the dark just before 5...
Down the hill for the Airport Bus...
...and through security by 5:30...
My flight to London was due to leave at 6:40...
It wasn't busy...
We left Edinburgh...
...on time...
Despite the plane being half empty, I had to move to get away from this young lady who was visiting her friends - I'd already moved a row forward to get away from their incessant chatter, fully audible despite my headphones - now their chum was accidentally kicking my seat...
Turned out the view from this side was better...
As we approached Heathrow, I tried to remember the last time I flew here...
...but I couldn't...
Out and onto the Piccadilly line for a 55 minute journey...
...emerging at Green Park almost exactly four hours after leaving the house...
A walk towards Soho, looking back to Mayfair...
...past Old Bond Street...
..and the Burlington Arcade...
...and Burlington House...
...and Hatchard's bookshop - I did some work here in 1989...
To Berwick Street - the view each way...
Tomorrow is Record Store Day - it will not be so quiet here...
There always seems to be a queue outside this eatery - I cannot see why - perhaps it is a tourist attraction...
A first visit to Reckless and Sister Ray, both due to open at 10 and then to Phonica, which did not seem to be opening today but afforded a good picture opportunity...
To Harold Moore's too - opposite this mural - closed today for Good Friday but open tomorrow...
A coffee as I waited for the hands to signal 10 and the shops to open their doors...
In Sister Ray, I bought The Samuel Jackson Five on Denovali, the label organising the music today and tomorrow - I eschewed the £350 copy of King Crimson's debut though - it's been on the wall for a couple of years at least now...
Down the street at the Record Exchange, three promos and three classical discs entered the fray, while, back at Reckless, some five year old dubstep singles, tasty jazz and Canadian fave Justin Rutledge were added to the haul...
To Foyles...
...and a couple of 2CD-R sets picked up - The Necks and Keith Tippet - with Marc Ducret thrown in for good measure - transcriptions of live concerts aired on BBC3's "Jazz on 3" programme...
Also partook of Bruno Heine's version of Stockhausen's Tierkreis...
At 2, I headed for the hotel, past the British Museum - for my sins I did not enter...
Through Russell Square...
..and a cheeky wee bottle of red purchased to help me through the afternoon...
The clock on St Pancras signalled I was nearly there...
A room...
...much the same as that entered on 19 April last year - apart from the lamp having been replaced by a glass - handy for the vino rosso...
Purchases inspected whilst wine was drunk...
Then, off to the first day's entertainment...
Foolishly, I had come out without noting the address of the venue and with the name of said musicking compex only partially present in my mind...
After a struggle, I arrived around 4:25...
The first act was supposed to have started at 4 - the stage was set but I had not missed anything...
Opening act was the impressive John Lemke, accompanied by a girl on viola...
Well arranged and designed sounds...
..and a good start to the proceedings...
There seemed to be more people here than last year - and the line up was much more "electronic"...
Mr Lemke played for around an hour and was very enjoyable indeed...
Thereafter, I went outside for a recky while the stage was changed over...
Back inside, where this man, like last year, was filming every minute of onstage "action"...
..the next performer, Frenchman, Witxes took to the stage...
While less melodic than Lemke, he was probably worthy of his place higher on the bill....
...there was some inspired use of guitar - which sounded nothing like a guitar...
..and, generally, and not for the last time tonight, a hell of a racket...
Excellent stuff...
Back outside for another wee walk around the environs...
...noting the proximity of "the city"...
...but also, the church featured in the currently screening BBC comedy, "Rev"...
So there you go...
Also liked this shop window...
Maybe the wine was kicking in...
When I re-entered the venue, Ulrich Schnauss was waiting to begin, accompanied by Russian video artist Nat Urazmetova...
This was a great set and, so good, I'm surprised Herr Schnauss wasn't saved till later...
Full of melody and great sequencer work, the set rose to several tipping points then subsided again...
...keeping the now maximum level audience enthralled to the ultimate final climax...
Like most of the acts over the weekend, the set had no breaks, just one hour long, uninterrupted performance...
I had seen a Schnauss CD earlier today in Reckless and vowed to return to snap it up...
Brilliant...
Briefly out into the light again for the last time today...
Next came last minute replacements for the Hidden Orchestra, who had suffered an accident on their tour bus in Croatia a couple of days ago...
This was Saffronkeira and Mario Massa, a veritable double act of electronics and trumpet...
Some of the most inventive sounds of the day came from this duo...
Massa used his trumpet not just for some Miles Davis like muted blowing...
...but also for percussive and wind sounds which were then manipulated through his own sound processors...
...and via Saffronkeira's bank of synths...
Very impressive indeed...
After four top notch performances in a row, I suppose it was kind of expected there'd be a let up at some point...
After another break outside, this time in darkness, I returned as Anna Von Hausswolf was about to start her set with her four piece band - drummer, two guitarists and a keyboard player, while Anna herself sang in a kind of Kate Bush stylee and played (probably a little too much) church organ...
Don't get me wrong, it was good (could definitely have done with a bass player though)...
But...
...while once again it kept the crowd transfixed, the music itself was kind of "ordinary" given the otherworldiness of much which had gone before...
Any misgivings I had about Ms von Hausswolf however, faded as The Haxan Cloak took to the stage...
Another "sound artist", he'd apparently brought his own engineer to work the desk, presumably under instructions to do his best to destroy the building and leave all audients with their insides bleeding...
It was LOUD...
Far, far too loud...
The music itself, with fingers in ears, was minimalist drone based stuff which, had it been performed at a tolerable level, would have been fine and dandy and your correspondent would have been pleased to have witnessed it...
But it was TOOOO L-O-U-D!!
Er, and it went on for far too long...
I suppose Mr Cloak's sound can be summed up by a quote from an interview reprinted on his website "To be honest, I never consider the role of the listener. It’s just not something that ever occupies my thoughts"..
Yeah, I totally got that as I went outside for the last time, with blood tricking from my ears...
Did I mention it was loud?
Back inside, Thomas Koner was setting up for his (legendary and rare) Porter Ricks set with Andy Mellwig, which would now be cut short due to an overrunning cloak...
As had been the case all day (other than Anna von Hausswolff), there were no announcements from the stage - the set just kind of started out of the soundcheck...
...but what a relief to get back on track...
Top notch sound construction with minimal beats from the duo...
...and, having enjoyed Herr Koner so much last year, and his recordings in the 12 months since...
...it was great to see him back on stage again...
No sound man required, no lighting man required...
...and, around 1:50am, it was all over and I was out on the street, waiting for a night bus back to Kings Cross...
...arriving around 2:30 or so...
Back to my room and some late night listening, for comparison purposes to the CBQ album I handed out to all and sundry at last year's fest...
It stood up well all things considered...
Finally, to bed around 3:30 am - a long, long but enjoyable day...
Highlight of the Day : Weird music...
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