Usual

Been enjoying my mornings of late. Have managed to be asleep every night at a time that has facilitated waking up around 5 am each morning. At that time the house is at its quietest state, although the birds outside start making a racket not long after. I would like to shift things even earlier, but my work schedule this week means that won't be happening. Too many late evening shifts. 

I did go for a walk this evening, between 8.30 and 9.30, along some of the local back roads between various fields, and was surprised to find a silence almost as deep as that of the winter months. Very unexpected at this time of year. I took the opportunity to sketch out some ideas in graphic-score format while what little light there was at that time faded, before trekking back home. It would be much nicer if I could walk through the fields, but private property laws in this country won't allow it.

I've been enjoying my reading a lot recently. Both Confronting Silence by Toru Takemitsu and Endgame by Samuel Beckett are proving to be excellent books that appeal to me in every sense.  Takemitsu's writing I almost like more than his music.... I definitely appreciate it just as much, for both its content and style.

Endgame is the fourth non-poetry work of Beckett's that I have read. Samuel Beckett is by far the most influential non-musical artist on my own work. The piano cello clarinet piece's title is a quote from his novel Molloy, from which the aesthetic and structure of the piece is also taken (although Ingmar Bergman's Winter Light also heavily shaped the same piece).  I find a warmth in Beckett's prose/plays that seems to balance everything perfectly. The closest anything else has come to giving me a similar feeling is AMM's Before Driving To The Chapel We Took Coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed album. 

Listening of late has been all over the place, mainly as the results of the arrival of around 17 new cds last week, plus a very badly timed craving to revisit a number of older favourites. Thoughts are still a little scrambled on most of what I've been listening to. I hope to type up some thoughts on the following over the next couple of weeks though:

Rajesh Mehta- Orka 

(gives Hautzinger's Gomberg a run for best solo trumpet album I've heard yet)

Polweschel 2

Morton Feldman- Early Piano Pieces

Jo Kondo- Chamber Music

Jeph Jerman- Assemblages

Jeph Jerman- If/When

Graham Halliwell/Lee Patterson- Terrain

Additionally, I've been listening to a significant amount of Ligeti's work recently, as well as revisiting some Luigi Nono (Voices of Protest album on Mode) and AMM (The Crypt). I'll also be listening to Feldman's second string quartet (Mode recording), a disc a day for the next 5 days, and perhaps, shortly thereafter, a full 6 hour sitting. Which will be an interesting experience.