Wednesday, March 26, 2025

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT...

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS
We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, broadcaster and abstract artist
DAVID REILLY

ABOUT    NEWS    MUSIC    BROADCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING
This is the Cloudland Blue Diary - to go to another section of the site, click on an icon
                         

SCHEDULED LIVE PERFORMANCES

            

Capital Models - Saturday 29th March 2025, Doors at 7pm, Band on at 8pm 
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift

Capital Models - Saturday 24th May 2025, Doors at 7pm, Band on at 8pm
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift

In addition to these, there are these further possible appearances...

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Occasional Thursdays, from 8pm 
Out of the Bedroom, Safari Lounge, 21 Cadzow Place, Edinburgh EH7 5SN
Repertoire: 3 song acoustic set (if attempting to secure a slot the date will be added here)

Performances include those solo, as Cloudland Blue Quartet, presenting sets of either songs or soundscapes, and group, with the current line up of David's 1980 new wave band, Capital Models, currently playing covers (from Elvis to Tay Tay but about to embark on a project to re-lrearn the bands original canon from 1979/80). 

At present there are no plans for his electronic improvisational quartet, Creek, to play live...

DIARY

The diary is up to date, with daily entries for over twenty years, from Sunday 5 March 2005 to Tuesday 25 March 2025...
 (Scroll down for the latest entries)

146 days are "picture only" entries (following the recent update of missing days from September 2005 and May 2006) across 5 remaining periods:-
2016 (3): 15-17 October
2022 (85): 18 April - 10 May (23); 6 July - 5 September (62)
2023 (58): 21 September - 15 October (25); 18 October - 19 November (33)

It is always the intention to update "picture only" days with the relevant text but doing so is, of course, subject to opportunity (and, indeed, memory!)

CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS ON BANDCAMP
To go to the Bandcamp discographies of these Crispycat related artists, click on an icon.

                    

Crispycat Recordings released the first 25 Cloudland Blue Quartet albums (recorded between 1996 and 2012) to Bandcamp in 2013.

A further 8 LPs were released between 2013 and 2019.

Then, with the advent of lockdown, David spent much more time on new Cloudland Blue Quartet works, with the result that, since May 2020, new music has been released almost every month, with over 60 further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 15 strong pipeline (see below) will take matters to April 2026, pushing the total Cloudland Blue Quartet releases available on Bandcamp to well beyond 100.

Meanwhile, retrospective releases by David's groups Creek, Crazy Wisdom and Capital Models have also been being issued by Crispycat Recordings and these are set to continue, with around 50 planned over the next 18 months or so...

LATEST RELEASE

As always from Crispycat Recordings, entirely Free to Stream or Name Your Price (including zero) to Download

These are the first fruits of CBQ's transatlantic collaboration with Atlanta, Georgia ambient maestro Robert Scott Thompson

The download bundle contains a further 34 minutes of music, being the CBQ masters of Parts 1 & 2

CURRENT CBQ RELEASE SCHEDULE

   

Friday 4 April 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution V (Soundscape Piano Based LP)
Saturday 12 April 2025 (Record Store Day)Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! III (RSD Special: Covers LP)
Friday 2 May 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Brian Eno's "On Land" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 6 June 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Strand (Soundscape Piano & Synthesiser Based LP)

   

Friday 4 July 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Gould (Soundscape Composers LP)
Friday 1 August 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "No Pussyfooting" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 5 September 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet Variations on Fripp & Eno's "Evening Star" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 3 October 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet & Robert Scott Thompson - Forest Ascent (Collaborative Soundscape LP)

  

NEW! Friday 7 November 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Like a Sunday (Soundscape Ambient LP)
Friday 5 December 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Disquietmusik IX (Soundscape Guitar Based LP)
NEW! Wednesday 24 December 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentytwentyfive: The Originals (Compilation of 2025 Releases)
NEW! Wednesday 31 December 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentytwentyfive (Compilation of Rarities recorded throughout 2025)


NEW! Friday 6 February 2026: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Shostakovich (Soundscape Composers LP)
Friday 3 April 2026Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution VI (Soundscape Piano Based LP)
Saturday 11 April 2026 (Record Store Day)Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! FOUR (RSD Special: Covers LP)

(All artwork, releases and release dates subject to change)

BROADCASTS
David produces a weekly podcast on Mixcloud, reflecting his esoteric taste in music and encouraging listeners to broaden their musical horizons.  Since 2014, over 700 editions of the "Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection" have been recorded.  Unfortunately, only the most recent 10 are able to be made available on the Mixcloud platform.  To obtain an MP3 download link for any currently unavailable Cloudland Blue Quartet Eclectic Selection, simply e-mail your request to crispycat@hotmail.com.  Click on the pic to go to Mixcloud...


Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Don't write a letter when you want to leave...

Treated skies first thing...



Not that early...


Someone on Blue Sky asked "what great LPs came out when you were 21?"

I managed these 75...




Of the 90 LPs I bought while aged 21, the below are those which I bought on release in 1980 and 1981 (so some may have been purchased aged 20 and some at 22 but I only have so much time to waste on these things - and some of these aren't on the list above but probably ought to have been)...



Anyway, my post influenced chum Chris Barron to play his favourite Alice Cooper LP, "Special Forces"...

So I dug my copy out and have it a spin too...


I found a contemporaneous photo inside the sleeve...


While playing, I was filing some CDs...


...and, on seeing this, was reminded that today was Bartok's birthday...

So I played disc 1...


The cover is a painting by Ben Nicholson...

Which also appears on a stamp...


Blue skies outside with no need of treatment...


I stayed with the Alban Berg Quartet, playing disc 8 from this box set, recorded from 1974-1979...




Lunch and then out to the football...

In...


My team lost all three of its games but, on the plus side, I scored 4 goals...

Out...


...and to FourSquare, where pickings were meagre but I did get these five for £1 - yep, 20p each...


A Ferry collection with one track, "This Love" I thought I'd never heard before - but I do have it on the unreleased LP, "Alphaville"...


Some blues - not great...


Beautiful piano music...


Monks singing - which can sometimes be good to listen to...


...and more Chopin - from the maverick Samson Francois...


Listening and ripping...

The cat on the calendar was after our fish, potatoes and beans...


We'd forgotten about the latest "Reacher" episode which was released last Thursday, so that was good, then, 2 episodes of "Rizzoli and Isles" also entertained...

Last thing, a new track created for a Blue Sky follower who had suggested I cover "Tell Me on a Sunday" by Andrew Lloyd Webber!

So this, "Don't write a letter when you want to leave" is kind of that...


Posted it up as a free download for 30 days...


No doubt it will reappear in December in my round up of the year re odds and ends...

Lights out (the song of that name was written 18 years ago today - time flies!)...

Highlight of the Day : Scoring goals...

Today's New Music


Today's Playlist