Monday, July 13, 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
 
The diary comprises over twenty-one years of daily entries, from Sunday 5 March 2005 to Sunday 12 July 2026

The entries re the recent trips to Norway and Manchester are all now published...

(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 9 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

LATEST ALBUM FROM CBQ


On Friday, 3 July 2026, Cloudland Blue Quartet released "Music for Guitar and String Quartet in 18 Movements", the 44th in The Soundscapes Series, recorded in November 2025.

As always from Crispycat Recordings, this release is entirely Free to Stream or Name Your Price (including zero) to Download (with 86 minutes of bonuses!)

It sounds like someone playing a 21st Century guitar (with distortion and looping involved) over some cleaned up but still slightly distressed, found string quartet recordings from the early 20th Century...

But that's not what it is...

It is, though, 57 minutes of music, in six parts (Movements 1-6, 7-9, 10, 11-13, 14-16 and 17 & 18)

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NEXT NEW RELEASE


On Friday, 7 August, 2026: Across the Landscape (45th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded October 2025)

"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, 7 August, 2026: Across the Landscape (45th 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 (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)

(All artwork, releases and release dates subject to change)
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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 July 2026.  Volume 27 features tracks from these recordings, including 3 unreleased CBQ works...

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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)
2026: Some posts from recent trips to Bergen, Oslo and Manchester have been published initially as "picture only" but the diary will be updated as soon as possible throughout July 2026

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!)

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Cauliflower can be very tasty...

Playlist


A Sunday of, mainly, catching up...

I was 21 days behind with this and, today, managed to write up one more day from Norway, plus 11 post Norway, including the trip to Manchester...

So, 9 to go...

Another podcast is due tomorrow...

So, kind of getting there...

Then, I have financials to deal with - which perhaps ought to be taking more priority...

Also, tidied up the desk...


Re the ongoing interference with sound from the laptop if I'm online, my main source of listening now is the mobile listening unit (Samsung phone with 256GB SD Card) via the two Sony Blue Tooth Speakers - great sound by the way...

So I toyed with the idea of taking down the Mission speakers and replacing the Sony speakers in the back room and moving the Marantz CD player through there too...

In the end though, I left things as is...

Of course, after taking the lead out of the laptop headphone socket and, then, putting it back in, it took me three restarts of the stupid computer for it to realise I wanted to play stuff via that socket...

Fucking computers...

We also put up more pictures in the hall - or returned pictures to the wall...





Did a new mix of the due in August CBQ LP "Across the Landscape", taking the guitar based elements down a notch as on recent listens found them to be too in my face...

And, having not moved the CD player, I was able to listen to this (satisfactorily) as I worked on stuff at the laptop...







More "Bones", then, Anne set about making the tea...

This was superb - Cauliflower and Pea Pilaf...



...and there is some left over for my lunch tomorrow..

Result!

Later, we made our way through the final six or so episodes of Season 3 of "Shrill" which, while good, will not leave a hole...

Ended the day with a new dicsovery, guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi who is depping for Ben Moinder with The Bad Plus in Europe for four dates...

So that was good...

Highlight of the Day : Cauliflower and Pea Pilaf...

Today's New Music :



Saturday, July 11, 2026

Up in the night but everything's alright...

Playlist


Awake just after 4, Anne very unwell with stomach pains...


Vomiting ensued...

Eventually, at 6 am, we called NHS 111...

30 minutes later, the call was answered...

Another 30 minutes and loads of questions later and a consultation with a nurse, an out of hours GP appointment for 9am was achieved...

It was the weekend but it was not off to a good start...


Pickleball training and a meal out with Chris with a CH, cancelled...

We got to the hospital in plenty of time and Anne was seen at 8:45...


After having had everything checked over and samples and blood pressure etc taken, she was sent home, the cause remaining a mystery but feeling slightly better...

Lucozade, for hydration and sugars, was secured (along with a huge bar of Dairy Milk) and we headed home...

The pain was receding, thankfully...

We found that "Bones" is now on Netflix, so started the episode we'd lost out on last night...

I had the remainder of the bean concoction for lunch - no ill effects for me it seems...

Of course Anne was soon asleep...

So, off she went to bed...

I mucked about for a while and then decided to do some work on this diary - I'm now three weeks behind...

TV off and upstairs while Anne slept...


All I managed to do was resize hundreds of pictures from the Norway trip...

But I suppose that's slight progress...

On her later return to the fray, we enjoyed "Enola Holmes 3"...

This evening, recorded the 27th podcast of 2026 - ought to have been out last Monday but hey ho...





At 10, Norway v England...

Of course they scraped through but should have had their equalising goal chalked off re  the ball hitting an overhead camera cable - which should have resulted in a drop ball...

Of course I am sick as a parrot...

Now I need to get my old Argentina shirt out...

To bed at gone 1 am, Anne already having retired before Extra Time...

Bollocks...

Highlight of the Day : Anne not being as ill as we first thought...

Today's New Music :