books, films, gigs, events june 2026

books

-   jacques attali, noise: the political economy of music, english translation 1985

- michael chanan's book on recording repeated takes 

- anathemas and admirations, history and utopia (various essays) by e.m. cioran

-  a guardian article on a biography of ballard by writers nina allen and christopher priest

-   matsuo basho the narrow road to the deep north

- kilvert, diaries

- introduction to experimental cinemas in state socialist eastern europe by gurshtein and simonyi

-  roland barthes' the grain of the voice essay 

- substack article on carlos castaneda

- lrb and nlr sidecar (including tariq ali on andi burnham)

- nyt belated obituary for robbie basho

- tls on cults

- fakes of the future (la review of books)

- GDN 

- m.john harrison's introduction to j.g. ballard's 'the drought'

films

-  in the jaws of cerebrus a radio 4 documentary about global warming

- je tu il elle (chantal akerman)

-  dark places (1974)

- bookpilled, outlaw bookseller

- portugal's second language mirandese

- blue nights (joan didion) introduction

- LRB what went wrong with HS2

- kappas (cartoon)

- radio doc. on michael o'shea

- mothra song (various)

-  podcast of michael chanan interviewed by esther leslie. 

gigs  the wave debb show 61 

events

abbey rota, recording for far future village band III, death of mickey mann,  the far future village band II  arrives, ginsberg centennial. 

'30 days hath september, april, june, and november...'

and so we reach the end of the month of june

tomorrow horsemouth will be able to turn the page on the calendars (the abysal plain of the triple negative calendar will be revealed).

today horsemouth will also publish his books read, films watched, gigs been to, events that happened list.

music

huzzah! the vintage mix of horsemouth's latest collaboration with rob lawson is here (and very good it is too). in it horsemouth mumbles (or is it  chants) in the background some lyrics from jacques brel's anti-war song  la colombe (the dove).

nous n'irons plus au bois, la colombe est blessée

nous n'allons pas au bois, nous allons la tuer... 

(we won't go to the woods again, the dove is wounded

we won't go to the woods, we are going to kill it)

horsemouth is in need of more french songs - he'll have to ask around. 

yesterday a lift to the forge garage to buy chicken feed. 

last night  there was supposed to be a strawberry moon but it was low to the horizon and in the south so horsemouth couldn't see it. meanwhile the military were out night flying helicopters. 

today possibly some rain. which would be good because the water butts are about empty and the water from the common is at a reduced level in the tanks. nonetheless horsemouth may well have to get on and water the plants and the garden with tap water. (he has held off so far). 

the morning a coolish morning (this feels strange after recent weeks but welcome). a second chicken is unwell. horsemouth has put it in the far shed with the other. 

strawberry moon (but no strawberries)

 tonight strawberry moon

the strawberries are gone (the birds and the squirrels had them). the cherries likewise (heat, birds, squirrels horsemouth thinks). 

the runner beans and the tomatoes are flowering away but not much in the way of crop yet. the broad beans look quite possible (as do the peas) but really there are not enough plants. (horsemouth has got more peas on the way together with lots of basil and some pepper plants). there will be lots of onions and beetroot in any event. the spinach has well and truly bolted producing trees.

he planted carrot seed. he thinks one has come up.  some of the brussels sprouts have come up (but no sprouts as yet). 

he's just run off a blackbird that was eating the runner bean flowers. 

the two cabbage plants have reached a decent size.  he's seeing cabbage white butterflies flying up into the skies (bastards).

where the potatoes are in all this horsemouth will not know until he digs some up. 

he has no problems growing nasturtiums but the fuschias aren't looking happy. the petunias etc. in the hanging baskets are looking fairly cheerful. the asters haven't flowered yet. the lavender looks good. 

the weather

this week reasonably cool then warming back up (and plenty of sun) over the weekend and the week after. 

ok horsemouth is making progress on le chaland qui passe. he has come to disbelieve most of the chords proposed by the online chordfinder but it has suggested the chords he actually needs to harmonise the melody (as he hears it). at the moment he is playing it on the resonator (so it is sounding very clanky). 

what he needs to do is learn the second verse. 

the morning

horsemouth is up he has fed the chickens, he has his coffee. 

a new diary

'a new diary, really only because I have been reading the old ones...' 

- franz kafka, diaries, 27th june 1920.

today an egg delivery mission.

yesterday

myk made it to the leigh folk festival (and saw lou and leo and belinda and fran). horsemouth did not. horsemouth is envious. 

and he won't be there today either (so he will not be seeing the owl service at 12 in the fisherman's chapel). 

yesterday  a mostly lounging about sort of day. horsemouth was relieved that the last few days heat has come to an end and it will become possible to think again. he may find something reasonably smart to say about repeated takes by michael chanan which he has been reading (honest). 

only at 10.20 did it begin to go properly dark. (horsemouth was hanging out for the news).

up above silvah bullet possibly even better than his first incarnation. 

horsemouth has posted off a new version of la colombe  (jacques brel's anti-war song, or at least a fragment of the lyrics from it) to see if that passes muster (as it were). 

gardens underground (and repeated takes)

gardens underground

to avoid the heat. a good idea horsemouth thought earlier in the day (but now it is cooling off and horsemouth is actually wearing a shirt). 

... and it's about 9.20 and it's no longer full daylight. 

today (as will be) 25/26C. cloud as well. sunday cooler still and clouding over. and then over the next two weeks a gradual building back up. 

repeated takes

horsemouth was just reading michael chanan's book on recording repeated takes as part of his attali research project. on chanan's website is a podcast of chanan interviewed by esther leslie. 

of course once music can be recorded it changes utterly (and there's no going back). 

at various points in the day horsemouth sat reading in the shade of the house near the wall his father built round the back of the house to hold off the banking above (that's what made him think of underground gardens). 

ok horsemouth needs to get some food for the chickens. which means getting a lift to the forge. it may be cooler than it was but it is still hot. ok he can delay it a day or two if needs be - he's just remembered his mum's secret stash of corn. 

today more hiding from the heat

so today it is due to be hot. but not as hot as it has been. returning to seasonal 22Cs for the week after. 

however it also rained overnight (there was a thunderstorm). that will  make it humid and possibly feel hotter. 

horsemouth has been out to the chickens already. one beast is not looking particularly healthy or cheerful and is getting bullied.  horsemouth has isolated it from the others and left it with some water and food in the far shed to see if it will cheer up. 

last night a bottle of beer as a reward to himself for having survived the heat. (hobgoblin IPA 3.4%).

music

if horsemouth could get his act together he could possibly squeeze another french track onto the far future village band III but he only really has nous n'irons plus au bois  to offer (le chaland qui passe will take far too long to learn - though it will be good once he has got it). 

he made a couple of attempts at it. perhaps he will send them off to rob and see what rob can make out of them. 

at one point he had a couple of fauré tunes learnt (automne and le secret) but he has pretty much forgotten them and they are of the chanson type anyway. 

he has some songs in spanish (but his spanish really is quite poor). 

today more hiding from the heat. 

extraordinary evidence (seven years, twenty four years, fifty years)

'... stay calm. this is simply the beginning' 

- hans gruber, die hard 

well 32C yesterday. 34C today.

and then gradually back down to the weekend and then a week at seasonal average temperatures (22C). 

of course greta thunberg is right. this is simply the beginning. 

and, of course, if the AMOC fails it will actually get colder here (colder and drier). 

here we see horsemouth live from the riverside on this day ( yesterday or maybe the day before) in 2021 (methinks). a beer and pizza mission with howard in stratford. 

meanwhile in attali land 

horsemouth has been continuing his investigations into jacques attali's stage of composition -  the one that comes as we move out of the era of repetition - the mass production and stockpiling of musical commodities - and into the era of composition, which is what exactly?

seven years after the initial publication of attali's first (french) edition came the english translation by brian massumi. this was introduced by frederic jameson (who was mainly interested in attali's relation to adorno) and afterwarded by noted musicologist susan mcclary.

in her essay mcclary finds extraordinary evidence of the inauguration of composition. how convincing we find this mish-mash of new wave and philip glass (and laurie anderson) is a distinct matter of taste. 

twenty four years after its first publication attali published an updated and substantially re-arranged version. horsemouth published a review in MUTE. 

and next year it will be fifty years since its initial publication. 

you'll pardon horsemouth if he is a little slow out of the gate - he hasn't thought about this stuff in a long time. 

horsemouth is up slightly early and has fed the chickens. it is due to be a hot day. 

at the weekend horsemouth will miss the leigh folk festival (he simply cannot get away). however should you be around in the south east he recommends it to you. 

after that it is soon the end of the month.