Saturday, February 08, 2025

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT...

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS
We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, broadcaster and abstract artist
DAVID REILLY

ABOUT    NEWS    MUSIC    BROADCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING
This is the Cloudland Blue Diary - to go to another section of the site, click on an icon
                         

DIARY
The diary is up to date, with daily entries from Sunday 5 March 2005 to Thursday 6 February 2025...
 (Scroll down for the latest entries)

155 days are "picture only" entries, across 8 periods:-
2005 (5): 8-12 September (5); 2006 (4): 5-8 May (4); 2016 (3): 15-17 October (3); 2022 (85): 18 April - 10 May (23); 6 July - 5 September (62);
2023 (58): 21 September - 15 October (25); 18 October - 19 November (33)

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!)

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 60 further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 13 strong pipeline (see below) will take matters to April 2026, pushing the total Cloudland Blue Quartet releases available on Bandcamp beyond 100.

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...

LATEST RELEASE

Friday 7 February 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Brian Eno's "Discreet Music" (Soundscape Variations LP)



As always from Crispycat Recordings, entirely Free to Stream or Name Your Price (including zero) to Download

Following on from CBQ's variations on Eno's "Music For Airports" and "Thursday Afternoon", comes the first of four further "Variations" LPs due in 2025, "Variations on Brian Eno's "Discreet Music""

While this is very much not just a straight rendition of "Discreet Music", it does sound like "Discreet Music"

These are variations on that seminal and, now, 50 year old LP, using deconstructions of Eno's synth lines which comprised the original piece

By way of bonus material, the download bundle includes a further 77 mins of music, comprising an alternative version of the main album, recorded the day before it.

CURRENT CBQ RELEASE SCHEDULE

  

NEW! Friday 21 February 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet & Pedantic Pedestrian - 10 Untitled Abstract Pieces (Collaborative Soundscape LP)
Friday 7 March 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Wrexham (Soundscape Piano & Guitar Based LP)
NEW! Friday 21 March 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet & Robert Scott Thompson - Forgotten Snow (Collaborative Soundscape LP)
Friday 4 April 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution V (Soundscape Piano Based LP)

   

Saturday 12 April 2025 (Record Store Day)Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! III (RSD Special: Covers LP)
Friday 2 May 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Brian Eno's "On Land" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 6 June 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Strand (Soundscape Piano & Synthesiser Based LP)
Friday 4 July 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Gould (Soundscape Composers LP)

   

Friday 1 August 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "No Pussyfooting" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 5 September 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "Evening Star" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 5 December 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Disquietmusik IX (Soundscape Guitar Based LP)
Friday 3 April 2026Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution VI (Soundscape Piano Based LP)

 

Saturday 11 April 2026 (Record Store Day)Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! FOUR (RSD Special: Covers LP)

(All artwork, releases and release dates subject to change)

SCHEDULED LIVE PERFORMANCES

            

Saturday 29th March 2025, 8:00pm - Capital Models
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift

Saturday 24th May 2025, 8:00pm - Capital Models
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift

In addition to these, there are these further possible appearances...

Occasional Thursdays, 8:00pm - Cloudland Blue Quartet
Out of the Bedroom, Safari Lounge, 21 Cadzow Place, Edinburgh EH7 5SN
Repertoire: 3 song acoustic set (if attempting to secure a slot the date will be added here)

Performances include those solo, as Cloudland Blue Quartet, presenting sets of either songs or soundscapes, and group, with the current line up of David's 1980 new wave band, Capital Models, currently playing covers (from Elvis to Tay Tay but about to embark on a project to re-lrearn the bands original canon from 1979/80). 

At present there are no plans for his electronic improvisational quartet, Creek, to play live...

BROADCASTS
David produces a weekly podcast on Mixcloud, reflecting his esoteric taste in music and encouraging listeners to broaden their musical horizons.  Since 2014, over 700 editions of the "Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection" have been recorded.  Unfortunately, only the most recent 10 are able to be made available on the Mixcloud platform.  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...


Thursday, February 06, 2025

Covid, portraits, burgers, auctions, reminiscing and a small machine...

Playlist
Gísladóttir - Orchestral Works
Zebulon Pike - Nostalgia for the Unreal
Karate - In Place Of Real Insight
The Warning - Keep Me Fed
Eisbrecher - Schicksalsmelodien
Work Money Death - People Of The Fast Flowing River
Roxy Music - Newcastle City Hall 1974-10-28
Błoto - Grzybnia
Goose - Moon Cabin
William Fitzsimmons - Covers, Vol. 2
The London Experimental Jazz Quartet - Invisible Roots
Robert Dallas Gray - The Rain Room
Einar Scheving - Intervals
ADHD - 9
Explosions in the Sky - Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever (Anniversary Edition)
Eggy - Watercolor Days
ACV - Busk
Rushil Ranjan & Abi Sampa - Orchestral Qawwali
Purcell - Dido and Aeneas
Barre Phillips - Mountainscapes
Jana Irmert - When I Dissolve
Redd Kross - Redd Kross
Brahms - Cello Sonatas
The Counterpoints - Italophilia - Discovering the Italian Style in Handel's London
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Brian Eno's "Discreet Music"
T Rex - The Slider
Dustin O'Halloran - Piano Solos Vol. 2
Alice Cooper - Detroit Stories
Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Steve Hunt & Tim Miller - CHANGES
Mary Eliza - Spider
Rainbow - Rainbow Rising
Pulsar - Pollen
Fehlfarben - 33 Tage In Ketten
Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon Redux
Genesis - Seconds Out
Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - Mother's Day
Hawkwind - Space Ritual

Up at 6:40...



Machines on at 6:42...


Thursday - nothing on for Anne so we decided we'd go out for the day...


Post breakfast, off we went, down the hill for the bus...


...to Chamber St and into the National Museum...




50 years ago, I used to hang out here on a Saturday afternoon, looking at the records I'd bought at nearby Cockburn St Market...


Today, we were here for this...


Here is the beast...


...and here's its Genome/DNA...


...which allowed vaccines to be designed...





All very fresh, perhaps too fresh, in the memory...

Out...


OK, a couple of last pics...



...then, out...


...and a walk down said Cockburn St and through St Andrew Square...


..to the National Portrait Gallery - this the aberration that was painted by the winner of the Sky Portrait Artist of the Year, despite there having been good artists in the competition...


The photos were, in the main, better than the paintings...


...there were some really awful works amongst those on display...


This was one of the better ones...


...as was this...


..out...


...noting a view which, like many of the works currently on display, will soon be gone/changed for a different one...


Back to Bucks Bar after Friday night's shenanigans...


Tasty...


...and so, no need for tea...

Meanwhile, in Roslin...








All sold for a relative pittance but, to be fair, it was that or the bin...

Back home and a cheeky (very) wee new acquisition joined the fray in the back room...


It allows my phone to stream its library (taken from my hard drives) to the hi-fi set up via Bluetooth...


 Tasty!


  It’s in the distance...


...here, to the north west of my lovely coffee…


Some sounds enjoyed whilst doing nothing - Alice Cooper, Kamasi Washington, Tim Miller, Mary Eliza, Rainbow, Pulsar, Fehlfarben and Roger Waters...

No tea but two of the second season of "The Recruit"...

Meanwhile, despite having early bird access to tickets, we decided against going to see Sparks this time - ticket prices are just too much these days - especially with the not knowing what kind of absolute dicks might be sitting around you...

Late on, gave this a listen - people I know online always bang on about how great a live LP it is…


 I’d not listened to it in years…

They are correct!

Saw the tour in January 1977 with Brodski - young men in greatcoats (no, not us!) playing air keyboards...

Memories...

Then, The Mothers of Invention's “Mother’s Day”, a 1971 2LP German compilation, bought in a junk shop in Amsterdam in 1982 - we stayed at the Hans Brinker in Kerkstraat. The LP is long gone now but the records were shot anyway to be honest. Partook tonight via my digital reconstruction.... 


Even better than I'd recalled...

And ended the day with another excellent double live LP, a fave since buying it on its release…


In a book I perused this afternoon while doing nothing, a quote from Gerhard Richter 1986...

“I’m often astonished to find how much better chance is than I am” 

Herr Richter may well be but, in relation to my own work, I am not...

Chance plays a huge part in the work I create...

Goodnight cheeky wee machine...


Highlight of the Day : Out with Annie...

Today's New Music:-