Tuesday, February 10, 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
Thursday 29 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!)

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Fifteen years and one day later...

Playlist


Well now...

This...


...means it's the Exec Producer's birthday!

Seen here in Barcelona in 1989...


Lovely!

Cards...






We were set for a day out in that Amsterdam...

Meanwhile, today's CD box was this...

Glass to Gorecki...


Of the 18 possible choices of discs by Mr Glass, I chose his soundtrack to the film “The Hours”...


While probably not seen as one of his major works...


...for me, it’s one of his best!


But I'd already played it on the trip so J C & J S Bach and Herr Mozart soundtracked the start to the day...

A snowy one awaited...




Not thick but enough to change the perspective...


The Peep-hen popped by to say "Happy Birthday"...


...then swam off into the distance...


...joined by other, non Peep-hen chums...


Our visitor returned - it tended to swim to the House Boat whenever we stood at the woindow...



And then, it was joined by a Peep-hen chum....



Anyway...

Out into the freezing conditions...



The birthday girl in 2026 not 1989...


A tram along to the Leidseplein...


A snowman at the tram stop...



We alighted at the chosen stop...


...and walked a short walk to the Vondelpark...


We stayed near here one New Year a long time ago - possibly the 90s...

It was beautiful today with the snow covering...


Geese were out and about....




What's that?


Mr Heron...


Parakeets were also in attendance...



For some reason there was a statue portraying me coming out of the shower...


A coffee van, run by volunteer Christians, was giving out free coffees - who were we to refuse?


Kind-hearted young ladies...


Our walk around the park continued...



Then, back up to the Leidseplein and a tram, further North, to Centraal...


...where we went through the back and awaited a ferry to the North Side...


A 15 minute trip ensued - Anne stayed inside in the heat - I was out on deck in the cold to capture these views, entirely for you...
















We arrived at the NDSM the former Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij...

For those familiar with the five yearly art exhibition in Kassel, this place was Documenta-esque...


But first, home made lunch prepared with our breakfast provisions...


Anne Frank adorns the wall of one of the largest of the buildings here...



Guess what this says...


Nope...

Find out later...




In we went to the main, massive building for a wander around...


While interesting to observe, there wasn't really anything to do, except observe...




A small boy engaged us but we could not understand him, given he was speaking in Dutch...








This was the security guard...


I was tempted top take some of this stuff - but didn't...



We caught glimpses of a few people here and there...









Upstairs, there was a more formal but still not very formal, exhibition...



I liked this but found it hard to get any kind of representative photo of it...




I wonder if this young lady fared any better...




Eventually, we saw the funny side of what we were both trying and failing to do....


Anyway, onwards...








...and back down...


...and out..

"Make Love Not Money"...


Some chocolate and crisps purchased at the Albert Heijn and then back onto the boat for the return trip, both of us inside this time...



We took a left in front of Centraal and walked towards the Nieuwmarkt...




...eventually succumbing to the freezing conditions and seeking a heat and a drink at a nice wee place called Cafe Fonteyn...


...before walking further on, in the direction of Waterlooplein...


A mystery store selling undelivered packages with no idea what they might contain...

Weird...


The market was gone...


We ended up walking back to Centraal and then took a tram back down to the Leidseplein...



...trying to find the bar where we first heard an Icehouse record back in 1982, mistaking it for the follow up to Roxy Music's "Avalon"...

It was shut...

So, another place nearby...

Lovely and quiet and cosy...



It was Eijlders, here since 1940...






It was Anne's special night...



Tonight, we found it, purely by chance - of course it wasn't where we'd remembered it to have been...




We decided to repeat the experience...

In we went...



Phil Collins once dined here, apparently...


Bitterballen to start...


Various meats and potatoes for me...


...and a lovely pepper steak with frites for the birthday girl...



The owner came from the kitchen and shook our hands when she found out we'd returned after being here last night 15 years ago...

A fitting birthday meal for the Exec Producer... 


We toyed with the idea of hanging around to go into the jazz club but were tired after a long day...


...so, headed back up to the Station via another tram....


...and caught a 22 home...


The view from the House Boat this evening...


Happy Birthday Annie!

Highlight of the Day: Anne's birthday...

Today's New Music: