Thursday, August 27, 2026

Welcome to Crispycat Recordings....

We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, abstract artist and podcaster 
DAVID REILLY aka CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET (CBQ)
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This section is the Cloudland Blue Diary
 
The diary comprises over twenty-one years of daily entries, commencing on Sunday, 5 March, 2005

The latest entry is from Wednesday, 26 August, 2026

(Please scroll down for the latest posts)
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SITE DIRECTORY

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

ABOUT    MUSIC    PODCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING
                    
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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 100 or so further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 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...
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NEWS

NEXT NEW RELEASE


On Friday, 4 September, 2026, Cloudland Blue Quartet will release the song-based LP "Broken" (16th in The Songs Series) (Recorded November 2025)

As always from Crispycat Recordings, this release will be entirely Free to Stream or Name Your Price (including zero) to Download (with over an hour of bonuses!)

The record, the first of original songs since "Everything Ends" in June 2024, comprises 15 new songs arranged for synthesisers, rhythm beds and treatments, with input from guest contributors from Spain, Romania, Poland, Greece, Lithuania and the UK.  The lyrics range from six new pieces based on the short stories of Garrison Keillor, to older ideas, re-worked, plus a guest lyric from Capital Models cohort and Mr Impossible Songs, John Barclay

For downloaders, there is a further LP comprising extended versions of each of the 15 new songs, another 63 minutes of music

The Cloudland Blue Quartet Song Series
Callingstill (1997)
Doveloveshawk (1999)
Ampersand (2001)
Anotherhappyday (2003)
Deeperdown (2005)
Ersatzreal (2007)
Soundingfall (2009)
Splinterheart (2010)
Starlightnight (2012)
Disquietsongs (2020)
Sparklemusik (2021)
Fallingsky (2021)
Auden (2023)
The Dark Room (2024)
Everything Ends (2024)
Broken (2026)
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LATEST ALBUM FROM CBQ


On Friday, 7 August 2026, Cloudland Blue Quartet released "Across the Landscape", the 45th in The Soundscapes Series, recorded in October 2025.

As always from Crispycat Recordings, this release is entirely Free to Stream or Name Your Price (including zero) to Download (with 156 minutes of bonuses!)

It comprises, all in all, four different versions of the same album, using treated guitars, treated field recordings, and found short wave radio broadcasts. The LP itself comprises the fourth and final version of the work but, if you download, you receive the 1st and 2nd drafts of the album, "Waterworth" and "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead", along with what was, until July 2026, the proposed LP

"A fragile object moves across the landscape, seeking a signal, untitled.

Dark for a long time, in the tone of a sentry, the first time after winter, it will swallow the plateau.

The night archer looks out at the world from inside the jaws of a wolf, condemned to non-existence, evaporated like air, taking the side roads."
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UPCOMING LIVE PERFORMANCES

            

There are no live performances planned at present...

Performances will 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, Capital Models or vocal/electronic trio, Crazy Wisdom...
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CURRENT CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET RELEASE SCHEDULE

 

Friday, 4 September, 2026: Broken (19th in The Songs Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Friday, 2 October, 2026: Elevation (46th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Friday, 6 November, 2026: Swan 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)

 

Thursday, 24 December 2026: Twentytwentysix: The Originals (a collection of tracks from releases issued throughout 2026) (to be compiled December 2026)
Thursday, 31 December 2026 : Twentytwentysix (a collection of rarities recorded during 2026, many receiving their first official release) (to be compiled December 2026)

JUST ANNOUNCED

In addition to the above planned releases, there are 10 further envisaged musical projects for 2027...

Dissolution VII
A Composer Based Album
A New Ambient LP
A New Song Based LP
A New “Variations” LP
Glam V
Live Suite V
Disquietmusik XI
Twentytwentyseven: The Originals
Twentytwentyseven

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

Since 2014, David has produced around 800 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.

Click on the pic below to go to Mixcloud 


With only the most recent 10 able to be made available, each new podcast is only available for listening for 10 weeks from the publishing date.  

The latest edition was published on 23 August 2026 and will be available until 1 November 2026.  

Volume 34 features tracks from these recordings, including 2 upcoming CBQ works...



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NEW CRAZY WISDOM

Following the reactivation of Crazy Wisdom in 2024 and the release of several EPs and the back catalogue last year, Crazy Wisdom are planning new music for 2026 and the start of this project is imminent


Meanwhile, on 14 August 2026, a new 6 track, 27 minute EP, "I Am Your World/Angel of Mercy", featuring the Logan/Reilly/Dootson/Brodie line up from around 1996 was released to Bandcamp...

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CREEK REISSUES

The re-issuing on Bandcamp of Creek's long-deleted back catalogue is set to recommence in the Autumn of 2026

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DIARY UPDATES

Note that, in the diary, 150 days (of over 8,000), 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, August 26, 2026

Hearts unbroken, for a change...

Playlist


Up and, mainly, writing this...

It kind of has to be the start to everyday...


Done, dusted...

Post breakfast out and discovering what the sawing has been over the past couple of days...

What looks like a perfectly good tree is being removed from nearby woodland...



Always sad to see...


Anyway, with Anne off to Zumba with Lynn, I was off into town - my trip soundtracked entirely by the last four Yello albums...


Caught a 900 bus, but today, to Edinburgh rather than Glasgow...


Popped into Fopp - saw a few things I might like, e.g. the recent remix release of Gentle Giant's "In a Glass House" for £16...

I partook of nothing...

I came to the conclusion that I download stuff I want, so that I can buy CDs I don't know I want until I see them and want to take a chance on...

I almost never go into anywhere which offers CDs, with an idea in my head of what I want to buy...

That's mostly because I never know what will be available from the shops I frequent...

A walk to see if I could buy more pairs of my recently acquired comfortable trainers but only 1 pair was available and they were size 11...

I decided my feet are unlikely to grow any further and so, I passed…

Took a bus down to Canonmills to the hospice shop there and found this 11CD set for £5...


Then, a bus back to Princes St and a walk through the gardens...




...to Avalanche, where I decided on all of these at 3 for £5...

Once again I can report zero clunckers - amazing...

I hardly ever add anything to the collection which I later have to delete...

Swedish duo, Wildbirds and Peacedrums...


The second (and last) LP by Munich Band Schwermut Forest...


The 7th and 8th LPs by Lower Saxony quartet, Schottgrenze... 



This Essie Jain promo was secreted inside the 2nd Schrottgrenze CD's cover - but it turns out I have the LP already - bought 14 August 2021 - funnily enough, on that day, I also bought a CD I, at that point, already had...

Nothing changes - although, to be fair, I didn't buy this, it was just there...


Next, Alles wie Gross's "Vertonung", which is their only LP...

It was a Munich based collective of people from other bands, such as The Notwist, Lali Puna, Couch and Blond, who combined to write the album as a soundtrack to the 1921 Sven Gade version of Hamlet...

This German adaptation featured a woman, Danish actress Asta Nielsen, in the lead role, and took some other liberties with the original storyline....

The very interesting soundtrack infuses a love of orchestra, rock, and cinema into a unique composition (it says here - and is correct)...


LAUB - which includes Antye Greie aka AGF - this is their 6th LP (2007) and Greie's 16th all in all...

LAUB have released nothing since - although Greie's latest release was on Bandcamp this May...


German Techno DJ and musician (and green activist) Martin Eyerer - a disc of "banging techno"...


...with a 2nd disc of his remixes of other artists on his label - all of whom may well just be him - also banging techno...

The 2005 issue of  Frankfurt electronic music producer (Rajko Müller) Isolée's "Rest" (re-released on Bandcamp with a different running order and a couple of previously vinyl only bonus tracks)...


...and, finally, Viennese trio's first full-length album release "Die offene Gesellschaft“ which translates as "the open society“...


The recordings stem from a series of live performances in the small Austrian city of Feldkirch in the summer of 2001. They performed with children in a nursery home, played in front of Buddhist monks, criminals and old people. Field recordings captured at the various locations, live material and studio work were combined and condensed to the 8 diverse pieces on the album...

Anyway, before I knew any of that...

An Airport bus took me back along to the West End and I rushed to the Cathedral for the first lunchtime recital I've attended this year, having seen almost all of them last year...

A French Horn, Violin and Piano Trio...








A sandwich lunch at Haymarket and back on the bus home, this, the inside of my bag...

No shoes, just CDs...


Ripping and listening ensued...




A "Scandal", then, Anne was off to watch Rapid Vienna v Hearts round at Jane and Bob's via their dodgy stick...

I cooked while enjoying the new CDs...

Tortellini with Green Pesto (the good version this time), some parmesan and pepper - simples...


Some Youtube videos on hi-fi were enjoyed...

But I was also keeping an eye on the game - it was 2-2 from the first leg...

Rapid went ahead after half an hour...

Second half, Hearts had a man sent off, but, three minutes after that they equalised and held on for extra time...

Then, amazingly they took the lead with 20 minutes to go...

But Vienna scored again with almost the final kick of the ball...

Penalties...

Hearts' keeper saved Rapid's 3rd but Hearts' own 5th was saved...

Rapid could make it 4-4 on pens to keep the torture going - but, once again, the keeper made the save...

And so, Hearts are through to the league stage of the Conference League...


Nerve racking - and I'd avoided messaging Anne in case I jinxed matters...

She came home, cock a hoop of course...

We celebrated by watching the last 5 (5!) episodes of "Scandal"'s 2nd season...


...and retired at 1am...

A good day, all round...

Highlight of the Day: Hearts through...

Today's New Music: