Monday, February 09, 2026

Welcome to Crispycat Recordings....

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS

We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, abstract artist and podcaster 
DAVID REILLY aka CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET

This section is the
Cloudland Blue Diary
with daily entries from 
Sunday 5 March 2005
to
Wednesday 28 January 2026
 (Scroll down for the latest entries)

After a trip to Amsterdam, for which the first days are now up, we are 11 days behind but will be catching up shortly (entries post our return are being written but held back and will be added once the Amsterdam trip is fully documented)...

To go to another section of the site, click on an icon below

ABOUT    NEWS    MUSIC    PODCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING
                         

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 90 further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 12 strong pipeline (see below) will take matters to the end of 2026, beyond the 30th anniversary of Cloudland Blue Quartet's debut recordings, pushing the total CBQ releases available on Bandcamp to 140.

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...

In 2025, Crazy Wisdom and Capital Models also released new recordings, with seven new EPs from Crazy Wisdom and their remastered back catalogue, which you can find here; and, from Capital Models, two new studio LPs, a live LP and an update to their all encompassing "Repertoire" virtual box set, all of which, along with original recordings from 1980 and reunion tapes from 2011, can be found here...

LATEST CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET RELEASE



As always from Crispycat Recordings, this release is entirely Free to Stream or Name Your Price (including zero) to Download (with bonuses)

"Low Peach Winter Sun" is the 40th Cloudland Blue Quartet soundscapes album - an almost purely ambient 80 minute work, separated into what would be 4 sides of a double LP

The download bundle contains two completely alternative versions of the album, adding around 160 minutes of music and giving an insight into how this developed from, initially, a "joint" work of synthesisers and Short Wave Radio, to being mainly a study on Short Wave Radio, to, finally, emerging as the almost purely ambient, Double LP/CD Length work presented in the main LP

The final album is music in the vein of previous ambient works "Cold Clear", "Gewitter", "Mercurial" and "Like a Sunday" and can be seen as a continuation of those

Sleeve notes contain diary entries for the three days of recording which produced the work"

CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET RELEASE SCHEDULE
   

Friday, 6 March, 2026: Materialisation (with Joe Higham) (41st in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded June and July 2025)
Friday, 3 April, 2026: Dissolution VI (6th in The Dissolution Piano Series) (to be recorded March 2026)
Saturday, 11 April, 2026 (Record Store Day)GLAM! FOUR (5th in the GLAM! Covers Series) (Recorded February 2023 - October 2024)
Friday, 1 May, 2026: Cobalt (42nd in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded August 2025)

   

Friday, 5 June, 2026: Dark (43rd in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded August 2025)
Wednesday, 10 June, 2026: Drift (Slow Songs 1996-2026 30 Years of Cloudland Blue Quartet) (19th in The Collections Series) (to be compiled May 2026)
Friday, 3 July, 2026: Across the Landscape (44th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded October 2025)
Friday, 7 August, 2026: Broken (19th in The Songs Series) (Recorded November 2025)

   

Friday, 4 September, 2026: Elevation (45th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Friday, 2 October, 2026: Music for Guitar and String Quartet in 18 Movements (46th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Friday, 6 November, 2026Swan Songs (6th in the GLAM! Covers Series) (Recorded December 2025)
Friday, 5 December, 2026: Disquietmusik X (10th in The Disquietmusik Frippertronics Guitar Series) (to be recorded November 2026)

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

UPCOMING LIVE PERFORMANCES
            

There are currently no performances planned

Performances include solo appearances, as Cloudland Blue Quartet, presenting sets of either songs or soundscapes, and group performances, with the current line up of David's 1980 new wave band, Capital Models 

At present there are no plans for his electronic improvisational quartet, Creek, to play live and nothing in the calendar for Cloudland Blue Quartet or Capital Models but a gig by vocal/electronic trio, Crazy Wisdom, is mooted in 2026...

PODCASTS

Since 2014, David has produced almost 750 editions of the "Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection", his weekly podcast on Mixcloud, reflecting his esoteric taste in music and encouraging listeners to broaden their musical horizons.  

Unfortunately, with only the most recent 10 able to be made available on the Mixcloud platform, each new podcast replaces the one from 10 weeks before.  

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...


Note that, in the diary, 150 days, across 6 periods in 4 of the 21 years are, currently, "picture only":-

2016: 15-17 October (3 Days)
2021: 8-21 May (14 Days)
2022: 18 April - 10 May & 6 July - 5 September (85 Days)
2023: 1 - 15 October & 18 October - 19 November (48 Days)

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!)

Wednesday, January 28, 2026

The Trecht of U and the Barking Fish....

Playlist


Wednesday and into the 2nd half of the trip...


Today's CD soundtracked breakfast and was very much enjoyed...

Box 21 Foote to Glass...


I'd chosen the beautiful cello concertos by Durham’s own John Garth, a 2CD set...


This set is one of only two available recordings of his work - it’s sublime…



Meanwhile, scenes - the rain had gone...



Breakfast enjoyed...


Swans swam past...


...and a parakeet visited...


The couts swam below to pick up the nut crumbs...


Anne enjoyed the show...




Eventually, out and on our way...


Noting, for future use, the bus times re the No 22...


We were soon at Centraal and, with pre booked tickets scanned, onto the train to Utrecht...


We were heading back the way we'd come...




...and were soon to be seen flying over the bus stop where we'd caught the 22...


A 25 minute or so journey...




Here's Anne on our arrival, no doubt calling me an idiot for something I'd done...


Timetables re the trains back were also recorded - we had a deal on the price of the tickets but only if our return journey was completed by a certain time..


A lovely, modern station...


...with a big red chair outside...


We were soon on our way to the old town...


...noting the famous tower through the mist...




This was a beautiful wee place...


..with at least one beautiful wee cat...


The tower...



...and the cathedral square behind it...


We would return...


But, for now, post a visit to the Tourist Info, we started the inevitable walk around...

Lovely canal views...




Churches...


University...


Strange statues...


More canals...



Colourful shutters...


More churches...



The tower can be seen from almost everywhere...


More canal views...


And then, time for a hot drink and a heat at Cafe de Postillon...




Yum...


...followed by more walking...



Lunch rolls purchased near Winkel & Sinkel...





...we made our way back to the cathedral...








...and enjoyed them in the square in front of it...



...before heading inside for a look around...












In the lovely and warm cafe, more hot drinks and another slice of apple cake, foregoing the cream today...


If you're ever in Utrecht, the cafe inside the cathedral is much recommended for coffee and cake...


Back out and we decided to do the 90 min or so walking tour we'd picked up at Tourist Info this morning...


...starting in front of the cathedral...


Firstly, we headed south, along canal sides...



...and then, turned back towards town when we reached the observatory...


A nice relaxed walk with plenty to look at along the way...





Soon, we were approaching the centre again...


We passed a few record shops but I did not go in...


...having already picked this issued-in-Amsterdam-CD up earlier, for a couple of Euros, at Aleph Books and CDs...


...one of the distant red canopies in the pic below...


Finally, we took a different route back to the station via a massive mall...


...finding the red chair again...




Caught the 4 o'clock train back to the Dam, fulfilling our ticket price deal...




Deciding not to go home, we walked from Centraal...



...along to the Jordaan, for drinks at The Blue Grape...




...and then, on...


...to the Barking Fish...




Excellent chicken sati for Anne...


...and a top notch burger for your correspondent...


A poster in the bar advised it's best not to drink alcohol...


Hmmm...

Much noisy chat from our neighbours...


Apparently, Duvel loves the Barking Fish (as do we) despite it warning it's customers not to drink alcohol...


Out into the freezing night...


...and a walk to the nearest place where the number 22 stopped...


...we were soon home, snug with the underfloor heating and some TV enjoyed, possibly including more handball...


Lights out...

Highlight of the Day: Utrecht and the Barking Fish for tea...

Today's New Music: