A sextant, the sun, the moon and the stars...

Playlist

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "Evening Star"

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Disquietmusik VIII

OddsFiche - Tel Quel

Cloudland Blue Quartet & Sombre Reptiles - Decades

Out Of/Into - Motion I

Capital Models - The 2011 Reunion Sessions Vol 3 (2011-03-22)

Falco - Live Forever

Moby - Reprise (Remixes)

The Weeknd - After Hours

Peter Tosh - Bush Doctor

Peter Tosh - No Nuclear War

Beck - Midnite Vultures

Diana Ross -  One Woman - The Ultimate Collection

The Replacements - The Complete Studio Albums: 1981-1990

A Troop of Echoes - Infinite Hits 3

Fergus McCreadie - Turas

New music Friday - plus releasing 3 LPs on the Bandcamp - so, acceptable to be up early...

Mum's silver plate has pride of place...

Lights on, let's go...

24 new items downloaded...

Listening back instead though, to my take on "Evening Star" and today's new CBQ LP "Disquietmusik VIII"...

Post breakfast, at 10:30, out...

..soundtracked by chums from Toronto...

Into the office and some admin done re keeping the bacon coming in...

Then, to the solicitor and some chasing done re what we have to do to finalise everything...

Then, to Starbucks to meet up with young chum Gina - this the pic sent with her invite the other day as I forgot to take any during our meet up...

First time I've seen her in a long while and she 's now kind of running the night shift A&E desk at the Royal Infirmary whilst also studying at University to be a paramedic...

Off she went to meet up for lunch with her mum, while I popped into Fopp...

I pictured a few things I might be interested in...

I did not buy this - just as well, as I have it already as a download (two further double sof Kelly Clarkson were recently gifted to Stu Cobley)...

This looked to be a bargain - in fact it was - but, again, just as well I restrained myself as I have all these plus more in a digital box set...

I did, however, take this...

...but not this...

...nor this - although I do have it, and volume 1, now - post searching online on my return home tonight...

I also swithered over some "2 for £7" William S Burroughs titles...

But did not partake...

In all, my haul from Fopp today was...

Falco, Moby and The Weeknd were all already on the hard drives - but for Falco, I like to have the thing, for The Weeknd the CD features a rare cover and, for Moby, the tracklist is different from the digital version...

And, yay, I did not have the Tosh at all...

A bus along to Corstorphine and a quick visit to the St Columba's hospice shop resulted in this...

Why was I never into Beck at the time - his LPs are very good indeed...

...and this...

Can't go wrong here really...

And so to a meet up with Bernie at The White Lady for drinks and chat - second ex-colleague meet of the day...

I bemoaned my fat finger typing skills...

The drinks were cheap...

...and they were flowing...

We were soon joined by Annie for a sparkling water - she'd been at the Xmas Fair at her mum's home this afternoon...

This secured...

Purrfect indeed...

Around 5:30, Bernie headed off into the night - but only after we'd gleaned some info from him on his early days as a merchant seaman, a navigator no less - in the days before GPS, when a sextant, the sun, the moon and the stars were all the ships had to go on - he worked on tankers, sailing the world...

Top...

To Wongs and, on timing it, I found it there were just 4 minutes between our order being placed and it being handed to us...

Home for sustenance...

...followed by some ripping and listening...

The Beck sent me down a Roger Joseph Manning Jnr (co-founder of Jellyfish and collaborator with Beck) rabbit hole, downloading 8n solo and further other project LPs from his back catalogue...

On telly tonight, Gina's Xmas gift of Ferrero Rochers accompanied the Aussie version of "Death in Paradise" ("Return to Paradise" I think?) along with have I got news for you...

Onesies were de rigeur this evening...

Later more listening and, last thing, for #CDFriday on the BlueSky, I posted this week's acquisitions...

Bed at midnight...

Highlight of the Day : Meet up with a top wee chum...

Today's New Music:-

Over, under, through...

Playlist

Cloudland Blue Quartet & Edward Spark - The Great Carving

Anna Butterss - Mighty Vertebrate

Kenny Warren - In the Heat

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "Evening Star"

Fripp & Eno - Evening Star (Remaster)

Sombre Reptiles - Love/War/Travel/Etc

Cloudland Blue Quartet & Sombre Reptiles - Decades

Up comparatively late...

Some tweaking on "The Great Carving" and updating the "pipeline" right here on the landing page of this very site...

It seems there is, indeed, a bit of a pipeline...

And, post breakfast, with Anne off out on some Xmas errands, I fired up the machines and added to it...

e

...by improvising the five guitar solos which will go over, under and through the Fripp & Eno backing tracks for my take on their 1975 classic "Evening Star"...

I have so much stacked up now though, that it won't see the light of day till next September...

Said pipeline as at today...

...not forgetting "Dissolution VI" and "GLAM! FOUR" in April 2026!

Lunch on Anne's return and a couple of "not me" music things enjoyed...

Then, listening back...

Nice...

A minute or so long visit from wee Rocky...

Not impressed with me coming down the stairs especially to see her...

Oh well...

Much time spent today uploading the 40 tracks to Bandcamp for next week's "Decades" - a retrospective of songs which has been ready to go since January - of course today, with a week to go, I decided to add the original 22 tracks recorded between 1980 and 1993 as bonuses (the versions on the LP itself are re-recordings from 1992, 1993 and 1996)...

Started that task...

Meanwhile, in Rosewell, my Great Uncle Bill's Tailor's Medal went under the hammer for 46% above the low estimate and 10% above the higher...

As yesterday, we will receive around 75% of the price paid...

It's a wee bit sad selling and giving away all mum's stuff but, in the main, we never even looked at any of it for decades...

Plus, sister Sheila and I are inveterate hoarders, so it's all the more difficult but probably for the best just to let stuff go...

A nice Katsu Chicken based tea from Annie...

...was followed by the mastering (the really early ones still don't sound that great) of the 22 tracks mentioned above...

Uploaded, done, dusted...

Three episodes of the second season of "Bosch"...

Some more listening and tweaking, then, bed, with the "Evening Star" guitar solos, unadorned, soundtracking my slip into sleep...

Highlight of the Day : Recording my guitar...

Today's New Music:-

Fair warning, the gavel is up...

Playlist

Pawel Ignatowicz - Here and Now

John Lewis - Evolution II

Cloudland Blue Quartet & Edward Spark - The Great Carving

David Bowie - Five Years (1969-1973)

David Bowie - Rare

Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department

Clara Haberkamp Trio - Reframing the Moon

Oli Rockberger - Sovereign

Alister Spence Trio - Not Everything but Enough

Tom Bancroft: Trio Red - First Hello To Last Goodbye

David Bowie - Pin Ups

Cream - Cream On Top

David Bowie - There Is Old Wave There Is New Wave

David Bowie - Best Of Bowie

Arcade Fire - Arcade Fire EP

The Beatles - Chronology

Cream - Cream On Top

Up...

...sidedown...

Late today...

Kind of...

Three weeks till Xmas...

Coffee time...

A re-split of the tracks on the main CBQ/ES LP and added a smidgen of SW Radio at start and end...

Done...

Some remixing of the three "Great Carving" songs...

Done...

Then, breakfast and goggle boxing...

Then, the auction in Rosewell, monitored remotely...

First item...

Sold for 150% of the lower estimate, 140% of the higher...

We'll get around 75% in a few weeks...

Then, an episode of "Bosch" while we waited for the next item to come up - around an hour away...

Here it comes...

Sold for the higher estimate price, 125% of the lower estimate...

Again, we'll get around 75% in a few weeks...

Watching all the bids for everything was quite exciting - almost everything went for above the lower estimate and around 75% of stuff went for more than the higher...

Then, the last two episodes of "Bosch" - Season 1 done - satisfactory outcome...

Lunch...

By 2:30, I'd basically done nothing apart from a couple of mixing things...

Anne was under the weather and had skipped Zumba - we were both lounging in our onesies...

It was that kind of day...

Now, to the machines...

An afternoon of work and corresponding with Edward Spark on said work...

I advised...

"I have redone the splits in the overall album to give 18 tracks, separating out a few of the interludes (giving the Great Carving I-VI instead of just parts 1 and 2)...

I have not changed the underlying Complete LP WAV while doing this, other than to reduce the volume slightly on your 9th piece and adding a wee bit of SW Radio at start and end...

So all I've done is added a bit of SW to the opening ambience and split it into 2 tracks - ditto the closing ambience and I have separated out two pieces of soundscape pre Milwaukee Rd and pre Lake State...

I have made bonus LPs of (a) your 12 elements, (b) my soundscape elements, including a medley of the Great Carving I-VI (c) my minimised mixes of your first 5 tracks and (d) the 3 songs...

I have remixed the three songs slightly but have not change the lyrics on the 1st..."

Sparky advised he wanted the lyric on the first song changed...

I advised I would do so...

"This is a great LP IMHO" I opined...

Eddie advised "I'm going to title my next track, "The day David thought he knew more about the murky world of underground hip-hop in Edinburgh than the murky world of underground hip-hop in Edinburgh knew""...

I said I was already working on that track...

Listening to the main LP, I am always amazed at what the chance element throws up re the juxtapositions - small things shining through from the soundscapes...

Weird - but great...

Sparky asked "Who would have thought that 12 backing tracks could become a 5 disc box-set" to which I responded "Mr CBQ can always turn a small amount of original material by a friend into something enormous"...

Some discussion on sourcing SW Radio recordings and then, off I went to rewrite some lyrics and re-record a song...

25 minutes later, a quick rewrite done, the vocal re-recorded, a further re-mix of the three tracks and the new version of the "Song EP" WeTransferred to my co-conspirator...

I noted there is still one backing track missing...

This may be rectified when ES sends me the remaining stems...

Enough music work for today - despite the laziness this morning...

I re-created the Bowie "Rare" LP I saw yesterday - a good selection, even though it was done without his approval...

Then, to listening to the new jazz CDs from yesterday...

And to a tasty pasta tea...

Four CDs enjoyed - good choices, even though I didn't know what I was choosing, other than by checking the line ups on the records...

Late on, back upstairs and re-started my project to ensure all CD-Rs are on hard drives...

I dipped in to a few things as I worked...

A reasonable end to another good day...

Highlight of the Day : Auction results...

Today's New Music:-