three years of volume three

it's three years since horsemouth and howard (musicians of bremen) released volume three.

really of all musicians of bremen's albums, this is the horsemouth album. 

volume two was the howard album. 

volume four is an attempt to (re)combine their approaches. 

how does it look (looking back on it)? 

it's howard on the front cover with what looks like an owl of wisdom growing out of his head and horsemouth on the back cover (photo taken at no.1 the thames by john clarkson), in the booklet there's a photo by denise of horsemouth playing guitar at debden campsite with denise's son osin and on the back cover of the booklet there's a drawing of horsemouth by howard from a photo taken before their brick lane gig. 

he's got a CD down out of the racks. opened its jewel case and is playing it (but on shuffle so the choices may surprise him). 

we've just had Serpent(S) - which started as a ukulele loop by howard and then horsemouth added some wannabe south african guitar (and then they started with the whistling, melodica and throat singing). it was one of the two improvised/ semi-improvised tracks.

worldes blisse a tune horsemouth tried to learn from edward lee's music of the people. the oldest tune in his set (15th century). horsemouth modernised the english (and probably fucked up the tune). horsemouth liked the miserableness of the lyric which can probably be best paraphrased as life is shit and then you die). 

then let all mortal flesh keep silence a recording by nick lacey from a few years earlier (recorded in his bathroom at horsemouth's insistence). it's (mostly) an old hymn tune (picardy) played on a nylon string guitar. fahey does a version of it but his version is clearly influenced by semi-improvised organ versions of it. horsemouth regrets not doubling it up and having himself and howard do wordless chanting monks on the end of it (but hey, it's good and short and apocalyptic).

then satan (your kingdom must come down). horsemouth learned it from a willie nelson record (he says - but really he learned it from off youtube, and he got it wrong as well). it's a gospel blues. horsemouth likes the militant, mobilising possibilities of it. 

on the banks of the susquehanna the second semi-improvised one. horsemouth set the guitar up in openD tuned up to the same pitch as the harmonium (about 50% above standard). howard pressed the button to roll the tape (there is no tape horsemouth it's digital) and off they went. the guitar is one take. howard did some overdubs of the harmonium (a loan from john clarkson) and used echo to double everything in a call-and-response style at the end. in inspiration for  the title is in part a tribute(ary) to fahey's habit of naming things after rivers and in the other part to southey and shelley's plan to start a pantisocratic commune in america. 

the devil. horsemouth had this song sitting around for ages. he had the guitar part and then one day the lyrics came very quickly. he got peter holmgren (who was sharing a flat with howard at the time) to play double bass on it (which improved it a lot tbh). 

funeral music  is a daddad guitar instrumental lifting themes from fahey and ending in a basho style (horsemouth hopes). again it was recorded by nick lacey some years earlier  and then edited down out of this larger piece by howard, who added the sound effects. 

when the faun met alice. frankly this would better be called the subdivision of the octave.  

her hair like some glittering gold this is basically horsemouth trying to learn and play debussy's la fille au cheveux de lin (and failing). it has a nice pentatonic (scottish) melody. horsemouth is particularly proud of the ukulele introduction.  

sliabh na mban so this is horsemouth's friend denise ishaque singing in gaelic. horsemouth heard a version she recorded of it with graham and thought it would be a good thing to do so he worked up the guitar following her vocal melody. there's a second part where horsemouth puts in what he fondly imagines to be an african guitar part and howard does a stunning impersonation of horsemouth singing. in a third part it all dissolves in tape echo/ the sea. 

listening back to it there are (of course) a few things horsemouth would do differently. but overall he's very proud of it. 

satan, worldes blisse, the devil, when the faun met alice form the backbone of his live set. her hair like some glittering gold makes sometime appearances (it requires retuning from daddad to openG).  the rest of it languishes unplayed. horsemouth may make some efforts to play sliabh na mban out in future (er. but he can't sing it). 

today a surprisingly good morning. yesterday horsemouth was out in the back garden sunbathing a lot.