Six strings; some sea; the unknown

I bought a new electric guitar. Was it a whim? No, it seemed like the right time, or at least a better time than there’s been for a decade or more. Somehow, as I feel its weight in my hands, the years slip back, fold in softly on themselves, liquify. Flickers from the past play out on the projection screen of memory: moments of friendship, of intensity, of solitude. Minutes becoming hours becoming the book of days. It was once my instrument; maybe it’ll be so again.

In the meantime, there’s the sea; there’s always the sea. I can offer you 40 seconds of it*, but you should repeat these 40 seconds as often as is necessary to fashion your own sea. A friend once said—or rather sang—that the sea is madness. But it doesn’t have to be.

Anyway, the guitar came today, a few days earlier than I’d anticipated. I wasn’t ready, but its arrival does feel like a turning point, or more likely a signpost to somewhere else. I’m not sure where that is yet, but the draw of the unknown is intoxicating, isn’t it? Sometimes we just have to walk the coastal path and see which sea it finds.

* This sea is from Cambo Sands, Fife, 4 March 2023. Other seas are of course available.

Live in Glasgow, 13 July 1998

22 years ago: a rare Glasgow performance by Richard Youngs and me, put on by the inestimable Liam Stefani as one of his Scatter nights at the legendary 13th Note.

Richard and I performed a bowed bass guitar duo. Also on the bill that night was remarkable saxophonist Tony Bevan. We were lucky to have the opportunity to play a trio with him: bowed bass guitars and Tony’s subterranean bass saxophone.

Both the duo and trio performances are here to download for free/pay what you like on Liam Stefani’s Scatter Archive.

茶 A Quiet Song

茶 A Quiet Song is a new release I’ve been working on for a few months, and which is now available. Call it an isolation hymn; a paean to inwardness and reflection; a song of songs without words.

Sing—quietly—with me to the birds of this strange summer, in ceremony not in cerements.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

Distants

Released today, Distants is a collection of compilation tracks, online pieces (self-released and released by others) and some other oddities. There’s one very short unreleased track, which comes from the same sessions as Suburban Electrification.

There are 28 pieces across more than 120 minutes, and there’s a lot of variety in tone and texture—something for everyone, perhaps? I’ve set the release as “pay what you like” so you can download for free if you wish. If you do want to pay something for it, today (Friday 5 June) is one of the days when Bandcamp is waiving its fees so today would be the perfect opportunity for a purchase! (And all other releases are set the same way, too, in case there’s anything you’re missing…)

You can find Distants here.

Thanks to you all for listening and I hope you are able to stay safe and well.

A new recording – endecade

I’ve uploaded a long—a very long—field recording piece today, endecade. At 200 minutes’ duration, this is the longest single release I’ve created. Click on the image below to go to the download page.

Click to open the album page in a new tab

It’s a largely quiet and unassuming recording made in a suburban back garden somewhere in Edinburgh in the last few hours of the last decade. The punctuation points are revelry and fireworks, but it mainly just exists for its duration and allows the listener to exist in that duration too. I wasn’t present for any of the timespan of the piece; my contribution to it all is absence.

endecade is available as a pay what you like album—and you can of course download for free if you want.

Thanks for listening.

Psammomancy booklet & CD

Fine sand is poured from a pouch,
trickled onto a tray or table,
fingertips are used to find figures,
tracing, erasing, effacing, shaping . . .

The mysterious art of sand reading explored in text by Mark Valentine and music by Brian Lavelle, with black and white photography by Jo Valentine.

This collaborative project is published in February 2018 by Seacliff Press, a small press Mark and I have established. There’s a Twitter account here for occasional news items.

Professionally printed 16 page booklet with professionally duplicated CD. Limited to 120 numbered copies, of which 100 only are for sale.

Psammomancy is available from Mark direct: contact markl [dot] valentine [at] btinternet [dot] com, removing spaces and replacing the words in brackets with characters.
(Note, the fifth character is the letter ell not the number one.)

Language of Objects book & CD

Language of Objects: a new book and CD by Murdo Eason of the Fife Psychogeographical Collective and me, Brian Lavelle.

Language of Objects: a 58 page professionally printed book in full colour inside and out, accompanied by a glass mastered CD with a separate download code. Text and images are by Murdo; sound by me; cover design by Vincent Pacheco. The CD contains a new 28 minute composition—Sullen Charybdis, the Blue of Scarabs—which is my response to the imagery in the book.

Language of Objects: published on 14 September 2017 by Blind Roads Press, our collaborative imprint.

The book/CD is available for £10.99 plus postage and can be ordered here.

Technical details
Paperback, 58pp, full colour, 148 x 210mm, perfect bound
300gsm cover, 120gsm interior
Glass mastered CD
Edition of 100 copies
Published 14 September 2017
ISBN 978-1-9997718-0-5

Prelapsarian

I’ve released a new, longform piece today for free download, or pay what you want, if you’re so inclined. It’s entitled Prelapsarian and you can get it here.

This is a mediation on the lumbering, sneering bulk of Time; and on forgotten places, occluded spaces, in days past I choose to recall as more innocent. It is for Jill, with love.

The piece was recorded in earlier this Spring 2014 and mixed and mastered this month, in Edinburgh. A small, private, physical edition for friends is contemplated.

Let me know what you think of it.