Tuesday, April 30, 2019

When something turns out not be timeless...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - SXTY

April away - I seem to have spent a lot of time on my music this month but have little to show for it...


More mixing today...

...and some singing....


...which I just don't seem to be able to get right...

This was after the first of the two part finale of "Timeless", able to be watched as Anne was out with chum Gillian...

"Timeless" has now been cancelled for good...

Oh well...

Highlight of the day : Probably "Timeless" rather than the music work...

Monday, April 29, 2019

Fifty years can fly by...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - SXTY
Various - Do The Reggae: Skinhead Reggae In The Spirit Of '69
Various - Tighten Up: The History Of Reggae In The UK
Aynsley Dunbar - Blue Whale

A walk to Fopp at lunchtime, resulted in a 2CD set of reggae from 1969 entering the collection and prompting a wee read of this this evening, while...



...I listened to this...


In other words, a day off from the music...

Highlight of the Day : Not musicking...

Sunday, April 28, 2019

The line of the king...

Playlist
Various Artists - Soul 1962, Vol. 1
Various Artists - Mega Funk
Rameau - Dardanus
Bobby Womack - My Prescription
Gilardino - Trascendentia : Complete Studies for Guitar
Christa Couture - Long Time Leaving
John Coltrane - Trane 90
Various Artists - 101 Stax
Muffat - Propitia Sydera
Alejandro de Pinedo - Bailando con la Luna
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set 2019
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Live Set Run Through (2017-08-20)
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set 2019 Backing Tracks
Cloudland Blue Quartet - SXTY

Up super early and to mixing work...



Later, taking down most of the studio and taking it out to Roslin for our first rehearsal for a month...


We played through all 32 songs in the current repertoire - coincidentally the same number as the CBQ songs I've been trying to record to my satisfaction...


Good work - just under 2 hours of music is what we have and it took just over 2.5 hours to play through despite the reasonably long lay off...


John was worn out...


Coffee and cake and a look at the work on the extension...





Then a visit to my mum's, doing well...


...and back home, resetting up the studio and more recording...


An orange may have been enjoyed...


...before the penultimate "Line of Duty"...

Highlight of the Day : Line of Duty despite all the musicking...

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Tinkling...

Playlist
ABC - Hello! - An Introduction To ABC
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Anotherhappyday
Bill Nelson - TheTwo-Fold Aspect Of Everything
The Weather Station - The Weather Station
Various Artists - Front Line Presents Dub - 40 Heavyweight Dub Sounds
Milcho Leviev & Dave Holland - Up & Down
Miles Davis - Sorcerer
Various Artists - Trojan UK Hits Box Set
Brian Eno & John Cale - Wrong Way Up
Alice Cooper - Paranormal
King Crimson - Starless And Bible Black [4oth Anniversary]
Giancarlo Erra - Ends
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums Bass Guitar
Grace Jones - Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set 2019
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set 2019 Backing Tracks
Demantius - Johannes Passion : Motetten
Santana - Lotus

Up early and the podcast recorded while hanging out the window in order to get the birdsong into it again...

Up...


Then, to work again with more recording...


The remainder of the keyboard parts recorded...


And then a ten song set, with one from each CBQ LP plus the last song written...


It sounds not bad but these are just me and my guitar playing over the top of the backing tracks constructed thus far - now with keyboards...

A long laborious exercise...

On telly, I think I recall we caught up with "Deutschand 86"...

Highlight of the Day : Keyboarding...

Friday, April 26, 2019

Lament...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums Bass Guitar
King Crimson - Starless And Bible Black [4oth Anniversary]
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set 2019
Grace Jones - Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions
Various Composers - Classic Ads (EMI)

Up early and recording keyboard parts from 6:30am...

Another day spent mostly listening back to work and working things out...


These, purchased yesterday ta lunchtime, were brought home...





...and the line up for tomorrow's podcast was worked on too...

To be honest I don't recall anything else now, it's so long ago - once again I lament not writing this up at the time...

No wait, we watched Queen of the South lose 4-0 away at league champions Ross County - that was a good start to the weekend!

Highlight of the Day : Music work...

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Sometimes, four can be enough...

Playlist
Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
Giancarlo Erra - Ends
Piazzolla - Tango Ballet
Oxford Camerata - Renaissance Masterpieces
Mike Oldfield - Incantations
Miles Davis - Sorcerer
King Crimson - Starless And Bible Black [4oth Anniversary]

Yesterday, I now recall, I got caught up in some Mike Oldfield listening, enjoying "Hergest Ridge" last night...

This morning that continued with "Ommadawn" and, later, an album of his I don't know quite so well, "Incantations",

Which was surprisingly good...

I've often thought though that he could have just given up after his first four albums...

At lunchtime, four CDs joined the collection for £3 - but I did not bring them home just yet...

As, this evening, I was out as a guest, along with Double D, Gaz, Josh and Prog Rock Willie, of a large corporation, enjoying some splendid food, wine and chat...

These were the scenes on the way home around 10:30...



As a consequence of this, no new work done on the "SXTY" project...

I didn't seem too much the worse for wear but may well have been...

The end of "Question Time" and all of "This Week" were watched on my arrival home...

Highlight of the Day : Being wined and dined...

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Chatless and not yet up...

Playlist
Pärt- Cello Concerto, Perpetuum Mobile, Symphonies #1-3
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums Bass Guitar
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set 2019
Emerson Lake & Palmer - High Voltage 25/7/2010
Haydn - String Quartets Op 76, 77 & 103
Gulda - Gulda Plays Gulda
Fuchs - Complete String Quartets, Vol. 1
Prokofiev - Scythian Suite & Lieutenant Kijé
Various Composers - 50 Best Chamber Music
Agricola - Chansons
Beethoven - The Complete String Quartets
Brahms - Piano Works
Vaughan Williams - Phantasy Quintet, String Quartets #1-2
Wagner - Der Fliegende Holländer
Ireland - String Quartets #1 & 2, The Holy Boy
Ritter - 6 Quartets For Bassoon & Strings
LaSalle Quartet - Ligeti, Brown, Rosenberg String Quartets
Various Composers - The Classic Experience

Much listening back today and, in the evening, more mixing of recordings...


I also recorded the next chatless Classical Podcast "Cloudland Blue Classical Eclectical" but did not post it up yet...

Also found myself listening back to the final ELP concert from back in 2010 - an excellent night for Dr Prog and I, almost a decade ago now...

Time flies...

As I tend to find if I don't keep this up to date and try to remember what's been a -happening...

Highlight of the Day : Recording...

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Rehearsing for, most probably, nothing

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums Bass Guitar
Brian Eno & John Cale - Wrong Way Up
Brian Eno - Another Day on Earth
Alice Cooper - A Paranormal Evening With Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper - Paranormal
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Set 2019

Further rehearsing today...


...and "Holby City" of course, cos it was Tuesday...

Other than that, who knows...

Highlight of the Day : Rehearsing for nothing...

Monday, April 22, 2019

1977 time for the boy...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums Bass Guitar
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2019 Live Set Orig Backing Tracks

A day spent mostly listening to the latest recordings - the drums, bass and guitar were recorded in August 2017 in a period of intense productivity which somewhere along the line, lost impetus...

This evening, a meet uptown with the EP and we made our way to the Grassmarket, past this daring cat...


...and and enjoyed a juice in the sun...


...before taking a wee walk around the churchyard at Greyfriars...







...with its reminders of what awaits us all...


Then, back, past the museum...


...to meet up with the family to celebrate nephew Olly's 18th birthday at the new, massive, fish & chips place on Victoria St, Berties...








My cod and chips was much tastier than it looks - and was preceded by some squid...


The birthday boy and I also partook of some deep fried confectionery...


...and there was, of course, a cake of sorts...


A thumbs up from the kids...


...was followed by a walk back down Victoria St...


...and through the Grassmarket to the car which afforded them both a wee lift home...

An excellent night out - and huge thanks to Bob and Jane who surprised us all by picking up the entire tab...

Once home, we enjoyed the final of "University Challenge"...

Not surprisingly, we came third but, very surprisingly, Edinburgh won it, despite being up against the lightning buzzer and encyclopedic knowledge of the German guy and his Dutch girl Friday...

Highlight of the Day : Birthday celebrations...