Four next things...

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Cloudland Blue Quartet - Four Last Things : Music for String Quartet, Guitar, Stretched Spoken Word & Environment

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2016 Vol 11

To work this morning with the upcoming release of "Four Last Things" - I've decided it's probably been ready since the end of last year and I've just been procrastinating about letting it go...

It's coming on for 26 months since the first recordings for this were made...

Some reworking of the cover...

Here's the blurb currently on the draft version as I upload the tracks to Bandcamp...

"This album is designed as a three hour, four disc set available to stream or download (the download contains the equivalent of a further eleven discs of material, making fifteen in all). 

"Four Last Things" comprises an amalgam of four separate projects, "SS SQ XIX" (Music for Stretched Spoken Word), "E3314" (Music for Environments), "Schneewittchen" (Music for Guitar Soundscapes) and "Four Last Things" (Music for String Quartet)". 

The original intention was to release each of the four source albums separately. Now they are available as four of the eleven bonus discs in the download version of "Four Last Things". 

The first project, "SS SQ XIX", was recorded as part of an exercise instigated by writer Sid Smith to sonically illustrate twenty quartets of photographs which he dubbed "string quartets". Cloudland Blue Quartet was chosen to create the soundtrack for set XIX in January 2014. 

The second project features recordings of the environment around the Crispycat Studio on the morning and evening of 3 March 2014. Only the morning recording was used on the main album but the evening recording is available too as one of the bonus discs. 

Third is a set of guitar soundscapes which was to be released as the album "Schneewittchen". Each piece has a title which references an item in the Brothers Grimm fairytale "Snow White". These were recorded in March 2015. 

The last of the projects is a string quartet created by Cloudland Blue Quartet using the Infinite String Quartet, an online programme containing fragments of music lasting from a few seconds to around a minute and available to create original works. The four movements were created in early August 2015. 

In late August, the four projects were brought together to form the basis of what is presented here. 

Editing and mixing took place until the end of 2015. By March 2016, after much listening and consideration of possible further work, it was decided the album was "finished" and should, at last, be released. 

The download version comes with the following bonus material, which takes the total track count to 100. 

Discs five to eight contain the original albums "SS SQ XIX", "E3314 am", "Schneewittchen" and "Four Last Things for String Quartet". 

Disc nine contains "E3314 pm", the evening environment from 3 March 2014. 

Disc ten comprises the original spoken word texts describing Sid Smith's photographs - including the much missed Meg the Black Cat purring - and some text out-takes. 

This disc also includes three other projects recorded in 2015, "Early Morning Coffee Pot" created for an exhibition in Manchester, "Blitzstein, Marc 1905", created for an exhibition in New York and "55° 57' N: Edinburgh, Scotland - Corstorphine Hill" recorded for "Solstice Sounds Project December 2015" curated in Arizona. 

Discs eleven and twelve present alternative versions of the album. 

Created in late August 2015, disc eleven comprises the finished version of the first movement of "Four Last Things" but with additional drums. 

Disc twelve, also from August 2015, is a shorter, single disc length mix of "Four Last Things", again with the inclusion of drums. 

Discs thirteen and fourteen contain a fifth, unused project which, by way of Musique Concrète, documents the first 31 days of 2015. 

Finally, disc fifteen contains the two EPs released in the Autumn of 2015 "The Leonard Cohen EP" (with two added soundscapes) and "The Dakota Starman" EP.  In addition to the five covers from the EPs, this last disc also presents acoustic demo recordings of sixteen Brian Eno songs, which were learned and recorded on a single day in October 2015. 

In all then, we present almost 13 hours of Cloudland Blue Quartet recordings for download."

Meanwhile, Anne was out doing some real work...

Some rehearsing of a couple of songs to play tonight at The Listening Room...

Old chum Ian Sclater was to be the featured performer so I was going a long to support...

In the late afternoon, it was decided the big speakers at the computer were causing too much noise in the rest of the house...

It proved not to be possible to come to a compromise re the listening environment and the noise elsewhere and so, I have reverted to my trusty Grado headphones...

This the new, streamlined set up...

This post the re introduction of the silver cat...

In the evening, to The Listening Room, where I played for the first time in a long time - three songs, Capital Models' "Carefree", written with too soon gone Jamie Frain - hard to believe this time two years ago we were rehearsing for the proposed Capital Models gig prior to his sudden, shocking death...

"Carefree" was about to be played again - it just took a couple of years longer...

Second was "The Crocodile Song", co-written with nephew Andy - now gone too but, thankfully, only to Leeds...

LAst of the trio was "Computer Operator", I always thought this was inspired by Jamie back in 1979 - but, coming to think of it as I write this, I realise I actually wrote the song before I met him...

Ian was excellent, very entertaining with his between song banter...

He's been playing regularly around the open mic and acoustic circuit recently and his presentation was all the better for that...

Great to hear quite a few of the songs we recorded together some nine years ago now for his, to date, only album "It's Weird in Here"...

I'm sure if he'd brought a few along, he'd have shifted them no bother...

Home just before eleven to end the day with "Brooklyn Nine Nine" on the Tivo and the footie highlights...

With just a quarter of the "Four Last Things" content uploaded, tomorrow the work continues - and the recording of episode eleven of the Eclectic Selection also beckons...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Finally letting go...