‘who, if I cried, would hear me, among the angelic orders.’ - rilke
on this day in 1978 alan lomax recorded boyd and may rivers in their home. they do a short piece on why they sing gospel and then do ‘come out the wilderness’ (which horsemouth thinks is just a great tune and performance).
so that probably wraps it up for the musicians of bremen (well for the year anyway). howard is back to work (in a while even horsemouth is back to work (probably)).
by way of consolation soon the CDs will arrive for musicians of bremen volume four. horsemouth thinks the packaging design looks great (best yet and best out of all the designs for the recent spate of projects) and he thinks the contents are pretty darn good. for him amárach and wonky are the stand out tracks (he has a soft spot for blindspot).
the CDs will arrive early this coming week. hopefully to his address with no fuck ups (fingers crossed).
‘those silver linings just keep on coming’
‘don’t they just!’
kilvert is in old bettws chapel for the last time. it’s a tearful leave taking. he will live on elsewhere and eventually move back to nearby bredwardine just before he marries, just before he dies.
meanwhile, in post-war rhodes (in reflections on the marine venus), their orders have come and everbody is being ordered away, durrell back to egypt, the nurses away to abyssinia...
‘all playing an unconscious part in my own inner life, and now, by this writing, made a part of it forever.’
well not everybody will be ordered away, we learn in a footnote that one of the band of friends is going to step on a landmine and die.
horsemouth has upsticksed and returned to the wen (for an open air meeting). he looked forward to seeing friends. he was not looking forward to debating things face to face again, times are difficult but mercy of mercies, the main opponent was away, so that just left randoms (who were annoying enough truth be told).
horsemouth watched part of michael mann’s (1983) the keep - which despite a tangerine dream soundtrack was pretty poor really.
yesterday is the anniversary of top of the pops showing footage of a hawkwind gig from guildford hall in 1972 to go with the single silver machine. it is one of the few clips of an early hawkwind line up in existence (apparently there’s 23 minutes of footage from 1973 due for release soon).
there’s stacia (who the camera is fascinated by), there’s lemmy singing, there are bubble machines, there’s a lightshow, there’s nik turner, a glimpse of dik mik, dave brock, a fair amount of simon king, but most interestingly of all there’s the audience.
this clip was later transmitted as part of documentary about science fiction author michael moorcock (m.john harrison also features) in the late 70ies and this is where the child horsemouth sees it first. beneath the boredom of life in south wales in the 70ies lies this possibility, and these people.
the sex pistols play horsemouth’s local cinema (the castle, caerphilly), his headmaster is in the great rock n’ roll swindle protesting outside the gig and singing hymns. but this is more important to horsemouth.
ok he tells a lie. it’s here! (and very pleased horsemouth is with it too).
the islomanes (the lovers of islands) await ‘the island of their hearts desire’.
horsemouth has temporarily swapped his reading affections to reflections on a marine venus (lawrence durrell). it’s during the second world war, lawrence arrives in rhodes, it has been bombed to fuck and the local population and the german garrison are all suffering from starvation as a result of the blockade. we have been introduced to the supporting cast early - to see if we like them and will be reading on. soon lawrence is having a fine old time.
it’s a day for birthdays, debussy and john lee hooker for example (and two of horsemouth’s friends) and a czech writer whose name horsemouth has forgotten (wadislav klima? ladislav klima).
for horsemouth symmetry ceases - he will not now recover it until he is nearly retired. he is within striking distance of his bus pass (now that no one would be caught dead on public transport) but still unfeasibly far from his pension. how far he is from his death he does not know. predicting such things has become a bit more difficult.
outside it is sunny (though it has rained overnight). horsemouth must get on with getting out there just in case it’s a morning thing.
next week probably back to the wen (the seaside towns) (weather dependent). there’s a plan to hold a meeting in the fresh air (outside) - the weather for wednesday evening looks like this might be possible. otherwise horsemouth may well delay it until the week after.
‘at the sign of Ka’ this is the both arms raised gesture you see in tarot cards.
there is another gesture one hand points up to the sky, the other down to the earth (as in the illustration of baphomet). there is another analogous gesture, one foot is on the solid land of reason, the other dips into the water of the unconscious.
one of the futile battles of life is the one where you try to avoid being fooled by language. to help your memory and sense of solidity of self you arrange facts into stories with causes and effects, you identify facts as facts on the basis of how well they fit into the story and comment upon them. if your eye should happen to rest on an inconvenient fact that doesn’t fit the story you purse your lips and pass over it in silence. the texts themselves are circulated among the people of the world and in so doing they are subtly changed generating new stories. when placed alongside each other the stories generate new stories.
it is a mistake to believe this can be ultimately extirpated from reason (leaving only what can be said for certain). but you can keep a watchful eye on yourself and your stories.
horsemouth has finished reading the magus - he finds the central character unsympathetic (but that’s ok). fowles started writing it in the early 50ies and there are layers in it that are lawrence durrell and graham greene and evelyn waugh. (a friend has just been to port meirion - it is the prisoner also).
in the latest new left review there is a discussion of generations. they view these as requiring a specific change in economic situation in order to be generated. thus the current generation is made by the financial crash of 2008, a new generation will be made by the deepening of that crisis as a result of coronavirus. before that? probably thatcher/ reagan. we are living in the aftermath of globalisation, in the ruins of the idea that the market is always right (and is itself intelligent).
outside it is rainy and grey. it will be a day of sitting in and reading horsemouth suspects. yesterday the sun shone. horsemouth sat around outside in his shorts. in the afternoon he went for a walk on the common with his mum.
it is the islamic new year 1442 AH - the islamic lunar year is eleven to twelve days shorter than the solar gregorian year each year, so it does not occur on the same day of the gregorian calendar every year. (horsemouth is intrigued by the idea of a lunar year). since the beginning of the 21st century, there is a trend within the muslim communities of north america and europe to substitute a lunar calendar based on calculations for the traditional islamic method of monthly observation of the new moon to declare the beginning of the new month in each country separately.
this strikes horsemouth as very strange - how can the notion of time be disintegrated (though the time is integrated for each country horsemouth notes). conversely it disturbs him that the saudi’s are the main motor of having an integrated time. anyway - not really horsemouth’s business.
the lunar calendar will gain one year for every 30 years of a solar calendar - the islamic and gregorian calendars are about 2020-1442 =578 years out of sync. can the calendars ever be in sync? when the new year starts on the same day? when the years match?
last night he watched an amicus horror movie the skull - the skull in question is the skull of the marquis de sade, now a magical artefact capable of causing murders. christopher lee warns him off but peter cushing must possess it (to help him write his books debunking the occult). you can tell how that one is going to end.
to the reader (if indifferent) has been punctuated horsmouth-style (with its secret meaning or modifier in the bracket) - it’s from one of those extra obsequious introductions books used to have when they were very expensive and only bought by nobles (in england’s helicon a collection of elizabethan poetry).
england’s helicon crops up in john fowles’ the magus.
horsemouth was interested to note there was a film version of the magus made in 68. it was filmed in mallorca (greece was closed on account of fascism at the time) with anthony quinn (who’d made a great magician by all accounts - excellent casting), michael caine (miscast as the protagonist as he was already too old - the point about the protagonist in the book is that he is young, inexperienced and therefore cruel) and anna karina (slumming it as not working with jlg - but perfect as eurobeauty).
while there are parallels with the wickerman (young(ish) man goes to island, strange goings on) it’s more like what was later achieved with sleuth. a generational battle between actors.
the film had a crucial failing, despite great cast, crew, location and design, nobody could understand the plot. the plot is that the story which explains events constantly changes - in this it is similar to the wickerman - but the wickerman has only one real turn.
a young man walks down the street in santa monica doing a live cast on his phone. he is a hypnotist and nlp practitioner. he is talking to us about the magus (one of a large number of online reviews). he notes that at one point in the book the hero finds a story (and that it is a regularly used script in nlp). what intrigued him about the book (in addition to the appearance of hypnotism as a motif) is the large number of outframings - when we are given a new explanation of events that does not fit in with the old explanation.
(come to think of it this is now like ben’s film).
our hypnotist/ nlp’er says he uses this technique himself in changework - which is presumably helping people change habits/ attributions. ultimately he thinks the magus is an interesting vehicle but an empty one (nice metaphor). fowles has no real deep beliefs himself (and so nowhere to take us).
the guy has rinsed the battery in his phone and so the livecast must end.
the death of elvis/ the life of julian bream
otherwise horsemouth was watching a documentary on the life of julian bream - for those who don’t know the first famous british classical guitarist. his dad (a radio ham and a bit of a n’er-do-well) plays guitar in a dance band, julian picks up his dad’s guitar, julian plays alongside him but he also is enthused by classical guitar and (he discovers) very much better at it than all the other british players.
julian and his dad are hustlers (they need the money) - there’s film work, there’s theatre work, there’s danceband work, julian embraces the spanish repertoire, he takes up the lute and the work of dowland, he hustles british composers to write music for the guitar (scoring a notable success with benjamin britten’s nocturnal).
for fun he plays jazz, there’s a brief collaboration with sarod player ustad akbar ali khan.
he retires to dorset. he gives masterclasses. he died recently.
elvis died in 77 - horsemouth remembers south wales being in shock. horsemouth likes the later elvis tunes.
outside another grey day.
today more reading. soon horsemouth becomes asymmetric again. soon (probably) back to the wen to resume his duties. there’s a plan to do a meeting outdoors (but horsemouth thinks the weather is too fucked).
‘publication is not the business of poets’ firmly remarks emily dickinson. (and our young hero in the magus quotes her).
but what if it is?
poets read. (ok some poets perform, some even rant). the text exists - it is written down - it may even be a book. the quote takes the position that creation must be separated from publishing(or even thoughts of publishing) - that publishing is a filthy commercial activity. our young poet (in the magus) feels like he is writing (and writing well again) but then he realises it’s still not good, he reads all his old stuff (and that’s rubbish too), so he tears it all up.
but hey it leaves him ready for fresh adventures.
there has been a (somewhat embarrassing) hiccup in musicians of bremen’s releasing schedule but the material released already remains strong. horsemouth is getting his best responses yet on it.
some friends are touring around south wales in a camper van - they began their journey at glasbury, the site of maesllwch castle, the owners of which, in kilvert’s day, used to keep a pet baboon (he writes about it on this day in fact);
‘the stories bout the baboon … grow more and more extraordinary. it is said that when visitors come toe the castle the creature descends upon their heads, clambering down the balusters of the staircase. he put [friends of kilvert] to flight, routed them horse and foot so that they clapped spurs to their horses and galloped away in mortal fear, the baboon racing after them. he carries the cats up to the top of the highest castle tower, and drops them over into space, and it is believed that the baboon seeks an opportunity to carry the young heir up to the top of the tower and serve him in the same way.’
horsemouth’s friends are now safely down at the gower.
the weather has turned (another non-summer is possible). it is as if a switch has been flicked in the weather control ministry.
horsemouth was raised under the old aesthetic regime where art and commerce were held distinctly separate and apart so that art could function as a critique of commerce- the new aesthetic regime where they are closely intertwined if not identical seems very strange to horsemouth (and yet it is so). and yet horsemouth owes his aesthetic formation to the world of music where musical pieces are designed to sell, designed to connect. ezra pound was very concerned with ensuring that the world continued to support art.
yesterday a walk down past the abbey to abbeydore court (and back) with his mum and the dog, a minor fencing task with his dad, four episodes on the trot of the bridge (original danish|swedish version) until early in the morning (ok 1am).
horsemouth is anxious to move to a physical release (a CD) though he is heartened by the take-up in the download. horsemouth always wants to get the music heard (this is the moment at which the magic happens).
‘yng nghennau’r sach mae cynilo’ (the time to economise is when the flour sack is first opened)
yesterday horsemouth went in a car with his mother across the burning acres of weirdshire to ensure that their ancestor’s graves were kept clean. on the way back they paused ontop of dinmore hill for an icecream. they were back at around two and lay around in the sultry heat at some point around four after a few warning drops the skies opened and the rain fell with steely determination.
thunder, lightning, rain.
horsemouth sat out in the glass-roofed conservatory and watched the rain fall. he read hovel in the hills by elizabeth west. it’s 1965. she was a typist. he a mechanic.
‘if we were not conscious of being in a rat race we were certainly aware of the pointlessness of much of our days’ activities...’
they take to the hills of north wales. they repair the cottage (enough to make it barely liveable - no electricity, no running water (except for the winter stream off the hill behind that directs itself through their hallway)), they grow vegetables, in the absence of work (so much for the rural economy) they sign on. for 14 years it works.
back in the early 80ies (when the west’s sojourn was coming to an end) horsemouth’s parents moved out into the wilds of herefordshire. in his mother’s case it was moving back to her home country, for his dad it was a chance to do more of the things he liked doing (growing vegetables, fixing cars, DIY on an epic scale). for horsemouth this was strictly bad news and as soon as he could head off to university in a city he did.
in the city horsemouth embraced anarchism, squatting, vegetarianism, feminism and a whole raft of other political and musical things. he became the creature you know.
his parents both retired early and got on with doing the things they liked doing. horsemouth’s brother also moved away to the city.
show me my book - offers the advert. it will raid your facebook account’s photos and offer you up the photobook of your life. you will be amazed. you will pay to create a photo-album of memories (remember them).
a friend is retiring and moving out of the city (the one horsemouth usually calls ‘the seaside towns’) probably to the seaside towns. the pandemic gives horsemouth pause. the plague years will alter how we feel about our lives, the possibilities the city affords are based on a willingness to mingle, the possibilities of the countryside on an ability to tolerate isolation.
the ranting poet david social control’s argument that there is no such thing as alienation just poor public transport has a lot of force. horsemouth thinks how much more liveable the county would be if only the railway lines that existed in kilvert’s day still existed.
today (somewhat previously) and then tomorrow horsemouth will check if he’s been paid an furlough money (or if that’s his lot). he expects next year (a september start) will be a skinny one. horsemouth needs the job and the cheap rent to keep staying in the city, but he can take a few bad years. if the coronavirus becomes seasonal, the amount of healthy life he has left will necessarily be reduced. it may become necessary to cut and run.
this is not the end of the book (umberto eco and jean-claude carriere)
women (bukowski)
the essential frankfurt school reader (introductory essays horkheimer, kircheheimer, pollock)
films, tv etc.
finish off sons of anarchy, alice coltrane at home, the torture garden (hammer/ amicus horror), judex (georges franju), nuits rouges (film, franju), l'homme sans visage (4 episodes - french tv series franju), les compagnons de baal (french tv series), belphigor (1st episode), la bete de gevaudan (old and new versions), hell and high water (texas brothers banke heist movie), la derniere vague (first 2 episodes), l'ardoise, zootopia.
so this is lammas (and what have you done?). one of the four celtic quarter days roughly midpoint between the equinoxes and solstices. if horsemouth had any wheat to harvest now might be a good time. otherwise let us accept with gratitude the bounty of the summer.
musicians of bremen prepare to release volume four and have an online event of some sort to celebrate it. horsemouth doesn’t know if howard will get it together to play ‘live’ but horsemouth certainly won’t and they won’t be playing live together (he doesn’t reckon). that doesn’t mean the evening will be a wash out just that it will have to be arranged differently. there’s a video - they’ll release that.
as usual horsemouth and howard make it to the summer and then discover themselves too knackered and with too little time to do any promotion. they are archetypal artist/ musicians in that having made the thing they have no idea how to promote it. maybe this year (the least propitious year on record surely) they’ll crack it.
horsemouth is suffering with hayfever symptoms - dripping nose, muzzy head, itchy eyes. in a bit he returns to the cloud forest (to feed the cats - to water the allotment - to go for a walk in the forest - to see if the broadband is back on).
yesterday (hottest day of the year - phewhatascorcher) horsemouth just couldn’t get started - ok no, the getting up early and going watering worked well, thereafter it all went downhill.
sunday he’ll talk to his mum on the phone. monday he is babysitting (to permit another musician to get into the studio). thursday his sojourn in the cloudforest comes to an end. he will probably try to get away to his parents shortly thereafter - trying to avoid direct contact with the rest of humanity as much as possible until he is there.
he’s started on j.g. ballard’s the unlimited dream company - one of the lesser known ones.
