Thursday, May 14, 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 (CBQ)

Almost 2.1 Million visitors...
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This section is the Cloudland Blue Diary
 The diary comprises over twenty-one years of daily entries, from Sunday 5 March 2005 to Tuesday 12 May 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 almost 100 further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 8 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...
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NEWS

CURRENT CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET RELEASE SCHEDULE


   

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, 2026Music for Guitar and String Quartet in 18 Movements (46th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Friday, 7 August, 2026: Across the Landscape (44th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded October 2025)

   

Friday, 4 September, 2026: Broken (19th in The Songs Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Friday, 2 October, 2026: Elevation (45th 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)
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UPCOMING LIVE PERFORMANCES

            

Next Appearance: Capital Models at The Hop Run at Stewart Brewing, Loanhead
Saturday 6 June 2026 2pm - 5pm

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 vocal/electronic trio, Crazy Wisdom but a gig by Capital Models will take place at Stewart Brewing in Loanhead on 6 June 2026...
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LATEST ALBUM FROM CBQ

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

Recorded in August 2025, "Cobalt" is the 41st Cloudland Blue Quartet soundscapes album - relatively short in comparison to previous releases in the series, it comes in at around 48 minutes, i.e. a (fairly long) single LP.

The download bundle doubles the content though, containing as it does, an alternative version of the album, comprising the initial recordings of the four pieces. At that point , the record was to be called "Dark Slate, Deep Sky", subsequently abandoned for the snappier "Cobalt".

The final album is music in the vein of previous ambient works "Coldclear""Gewitter""Mercurial""Providence""Like a Sunday", and this year's "Low Peach Winter Sun" and can be seen as a continuation of those
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NEXT NEW RELEASE


On Friday 5 June, Crispycat will release the 43rd CBQ soundscape LP, "Dark"
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THIRTY YEARS OF CBQ

Later in June, the 30th anniversary of the first CBQ recordings will be celebrated with a new song-based compilation entitled "Drift (Slow Songs 1996-2026: 30 Years of Cloudland Blue Quartet)"


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LATEST PODCAST

Since 2014, David has produced over 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.

Click on the pic below to go to Mixcloud 


Unfortunately, with only the most recent 10 able to be made available, 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.  

The latest edition was published on 11 May.  2026 Volume 19 features tracks from these recordings...


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CAPITAL MODELS TEMPORARY QUARTET

Capital Models are currently in a series of rehearsals with guitarist Martin McQueen, who will dep for John Barclay at Capital Models next quartet gig, in June (see above under upcoming performances)

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NEW COLLABORATIONS

David has commenced work on new collaborational projects with Edward SparkBlue Sun Chasing and Duke Gray of Oddsfiche.  No prospective release dates are yet known

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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


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CREEK REISSUES

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

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DIARY UPDATES

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, May 13, 2026

That was never...

Playlist



Middle of the week and up around 7:24...

The room awaited but, today, there was to be no action here...





Post breakfast, Anne was off to Zumba and I drove over to Martin M's house for a duo session...


Firstly, we looked to solve sound problems re his guitar set up and then, with that done, we worked on areas across 15 of the 48 songs on the set list for the upcoming Capital models gig...










I also assured Martin I did indeed have new strings ready for my guitar...


In all, around 2.5 hours spent...

Home for lunch...

Worked on the recordings in the afternoon, which produced a reference record of the event lasting an hour...

Anne popped for some provisions...

Some of those turned up at tea time...


This evening, while I enjoyed Yes live in Boston in 1974 and some other choice items, Anne was at Tynecastle to see Hearts run out 3-0 winners against Falkirk...

(pic by Tom Duffin)

Meanwhile, in Motherwell, the home side went 1-0 up against Celtic - had it stayed that way, Hearts would have been champions...

But, by early in the second half, it was 2-1 for Celtic....

Then, the Well equalised, with 5 minutes to go...

 Inevitably, 6 minutes were added on...

In the very last of those, the ref was alerted by VAR re a possible penalty...

The Motherwell defender clearly headed the ball despite his hand looking to be in close proximity to it - and it was only there due to being hit by a Celtic player...

The ball travelled fully 20 yards off the head of the defender...

But, yes, you've guessed it. Penalty awarded...

And so, Celtic won, with the last kick of the game, after 99 minutes play...

With that kick, the situation went from Celtic having to beat Hearts by 3 goals on Saturday, at home, in Glasgow, to them merely having to win by 1...

Hearts must now draw or win to take the title...

Some referee and VAR decisions over the run in in this title race have been, frankly, unbelievable, and every single one has disadvantaged Hearts - who have been top of the table since last September...

Anyway, Anne returned, less than pleased at this outcome...

We watched the highlights...

Nephew Craig was spotted...


...with his dad behind him...


To bed at well past midnight...


Sour, indeed...

Highlight of the Day: Sorting out some music...

Today's New Music: