Thursday, April 16, 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)
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This section is the
Cloudland Blue Diary
Now, over twenty-one years of daily entries
 (Scroll down for the latest posts)

from
Sunday 5 March 2005
to
Wednesday 15 April 2026
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SITE DIRECTORY

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

ABOUT    NEWS    MUSIC    PODCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING
                         
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LATEST NEWS

Next Album from CBQ

 On Record Store Day (18 April), "GLAM! FOUR", the fourth collection of, mostly, 1970s covers from CBQ, will be released



It follows on from these three Record Store Day releases from 2023, 2024 and 2025...


Latest Album

"Dissolution VI", the latest in the CBQ series of albums of improvised piano and ambience, which has been running since 2021, was recorded on 31 March 2026 and is released today, Friday 3 April - Free to Stream/Name Your Price to Download with Bonuses (see below)


Thirty Years of CBQ

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)"


Latest Podcast

The latest edition of David's weekly podcast, "Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection", was published on Mixcloud on 12 April.  The last 10, of over 750 podcasts, are currently still available for listening (see below).

2026 Volume 15 features tracks from these recordings...


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

New Collaborations

David has commenced work on new collaborational projects with both Edward Spark and Matthew Nowik (formerly Blue Sun Chasing).  No prospective release dates are yet known

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


Creek Reissues

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


Further CBQ Releases in 2026

Currently, a further five soundscape and two song-based CBQ albums, recorded during 2025, are ready for release, with a further Frippertronics LP to be recorded in November. These are all scheduled to appear in 2026, between May and December

         
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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 10 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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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)

"3 April 2026 sees the release of the 6th LP in the "Dissolution" series from Cloudland Blue Quartet, a collection of improvised piano pieces and ambience.  

It follows on from the success of the LPs "Dissolution" (April 2021), "Dissolution II" (April 2022), "Dissolution III" (April 2023), "Dissolution IV" (April 2024) and "Dissolution V" (April 2025), all of which are still available on Bandcamp.

As with CBQ's "Classical" series ("Satie", "Cage", "Beethoven", "Schoenberg/Webern/Berg", "Haydn", "Wagner", "Bartok", "Brahms", "Gould" & "Shostakovich" and the guitarscape series "Disquietmusik" (Volumes I-IX (Volume X is due at the end of 2025), it is hoped this series of albums will continue into the future.

The download version of "Dissolution VI" contains a further 66 minutes of music in the form of alternative "stand alone" mixes of the pieces."
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CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET RELEASE SCHEDULE


 

Saturday, 18 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)

   

Revised Release Date! Friday, 3 July, 2026Music for Guitar and String Quartet in 18 Movements (46th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Revised Release Date! Friday, 7 August, 2026: Across the Landscape (44th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded October 2025)
Revised Release Date! Friday, 4 September, 2026: Broken (19th in The Songs Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Revised Release Date! 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 Capital Models but a gig by vocal/electronic trio, Crazy Wisdom, is mooted in 2026...
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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...

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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, April 15, 2026

A re-arrangement which is, surprisingly, liked...

Playlist


Up around six - yep, after the slight tap on the bedframe last night, my heel was agony this morning - plus the lurgi are back with a vengeance and I was coughing for Scotchland...


 ...but, onwards, and I started the day with listens to upcoming CBQ albums, "Music For Guitar and String Quartet in 18 Movements" (which I listened to again this afternoon, I liked it so much), "Elevation" (the LP and the bonus LP of just the ambience) and "Across the Landscape"...

While relatively successful, my music remains extremely niche, so, while I really enjoy these albums, there's a tinge of regret that very few people will ever hear them...

Anyway...


Breakfast around 8, post doing what I do first thing re things I keep up to date...

A banana was involved...


More boxes for CD Box of the Day project...

Decided to take it to the point, re posting here, that would mean a box for each day of the year so far, so, up to box 105...

And, over the course of this morning, while Anne was out at Zumba, and, post lunch, later this afternoon, I listened to the first batch of these, plus a couple from previous days, which I'd not gotten around to yet...

The goal today was to only have one CD in the pile tomorrow...

Box 99, Classic CD Vol 83 - Vol 103...


I chose 100, a celebratory issue for the magazine...


As ever, a good wide selection of kusic included...

I particularly enjoyed Corgliano's poino piece...


Despite buying the mag every month, I was never a subscriber...


Box 100, Classic CD Vol 104 to Classic CD Vol 123, the bonus disc thereof...


...this last being the one I chose...


...which includes all the magazine's poll winners for 2000, which was to be its last year...



Box 101, Classic CD Vol 124 (2nd month i a row with two discs attached) to Gramophone March 2002...


With the demise of Classic CD, I moved over to Gramophone - which is still going today but which no longer gives away CDs...

My choice today was Vol 130 of Classic CD, the final issue..


The closing track on the last of 130 CDs (well over 130 if you count all the extra CDs the magazine provided) was by my fave Portuguese band, Madredeus...


By this time, they hd stupidly widened the scope of the magazine, which merely alienated exiting readers...

But the Madredeus track is top notch...


Box 102, the final classical box (apart from the nine boxes I have awaiting filing and integration with the content of the previous 102...

Gramophone, from April 2002 to December 2003...


This was the last one, the awards disc of 2003, after which I gave up...


As you would expect though, a sterling selection...



A break for lunch and we started Season 2 of "Cross"...

Then with Anne off out to return and replace a fleece (purchased yesterday while I was walking about and buying CDs), which turned out to be the men's version for the ladies version, I rearranged the back room yet again...


And listened to the CD from the next three boxes, as I moved into Jazz - despite having 9 boxes of classical CDs re recent purchases plus all the digipaks moved from the wall, all of which need to be integrated...

Box103, and we are into the Jazz collection...

From John Abercrombie to Gilad Atzmon...


From which I chose Reid Anderson's third solo LP, all three recorded prior to his forming The Bad Plus...


"The Vastness of Space" includes Ben Monder on guitar who, 25 years later is a current member of The Bad Plus...


...and this CD contains two tracks which went on to become Bad Plus standards, "Prehensile Dream" and "Silence is the Question"...


Listening...

Superb...


Box 104, from Albert Ayler to Count Basie...


Of course it had to be a Bad Plus album...

This one, with vocals from Wendy Lewis...


It includes covers of Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Ligeti, Wilco, Yes, Babbitt, Bee Gees, Heart, Roger Miller, Stravinsky and The Flaming Lips...


I found the ticket to their gig in Glasgow in the summer of 2008, which was somewhat spoiled for me by a dick with a noisy camera...

As noted in this post "Stop your clicking please..."


A top LP indeed...

Listening...


Box 105, Count Basie to Art Blakey... 


Following my long listen yesterday to the CTI All Stars, I chose George Benson's 1973 LP "Body Talk"...


A funky feast indeed...


...featuring Ron Carter, Jack DeJohnette and Earl Klugh...


Listening...


...whilst also working...


Also in the back room, I happened across this book from 2003 re where we were a couple of months ago now...






...while enjoying again, my guitar and string quartet LP - so much so that I've brought forward its release in my pipeline...


I noted in the pic of the "new room" above, that it didn't capture the compilations section...


Spent some time just taking albums out and looking at the tracklist but then decided to paly one before tea...


Great selection of covers on here, avoiding the usual suspects...


...and an explanation...


Tasty prawn and n'duja pasta for tea...


...followed, for me, a miniature of fruity gin, with tonic. It had been in the fridge since Xmas...


...a visit from Fang...


...another three episodes of "Cross" and downloading a plethora of albums from the Spanish label, Fresh Sounds, which issued Reid Anderson's three solo LPs (and The Bad Plus's debut) (see below)..


All in all, despite having really done nothing at all, a good day...

Highlight of the Day: Anne liking the re-arrangement of the back room...

Today's New Music: