'all we have is what we remember'

horsemouth has acquired a copy of flaubert’s juvenalia memoirs of a madman from outside a charity shop in a remarkably efficient kidnapping operation. (‘may I?’ ‘thank you.’ gone)


he was on his way to see stick in the wheel at the union chapel (together on two tracks with the britten sinfonia)

the britten sinfonia first - young people playing classical music respect, in this case classical music inspired by folk themes- first off milhaud (pronounced me-O not mill-hoed as horsemouth would have imagined) and an excerpt from le bœuf sur le toit, a brazillian flavoured thing (nice and lively - horsemouth’s favourite) originally intended for a jean genet cabaret , next two movements from pelléas et mélisande (fauré) which perfectly made the argument of why romantic impressionistic french music had to die. there were other things but horsemouth forgets them - a piece based on a sea shanty which people sang when they weren’t playing. a piece by percy grainger (mock morris? no relation) and later a newly comissioned piece from josephine stephenson (horsemouth and howard, philistines that they are, bailed before this).

and the two tracks of stick in the wheel with orchestral arrangements - counted off (perhaps a little approximately) by ian from stick in the wheel - (for it was just an ian and nicola gig) these (roving blade and over again -or is horsemouth’s memory failing him) were nice enough but didn’t add that much to what was there.

horsemuth has listened to roving blade through - someone has put up a clip on facebook - and it improves on subsequent listenings.

the problem with folk songs as sources for classical pieces (opines horsemouth) is that they are strophic (if horsemouth has got the term correctly), they have a tune which is repeated with only small variations to accommodate the words, they tend to be modal rather than fitted with all the gears and gubbins of keys and key changes and the like. consequently they do not develop well, it is a real challenge to find an arrangement that does not drown the tune in soup nor simply repeat what is there indiscriminately. this, unless they are ballads with tons of lyrics, makes folk songs short - so a couple of these all in a row can become much of a muchness very quickly.

between these two tracks a stick in the wheel set (with just nicola and ian) - it ended with a piece with an electronic backing track (to no great avail sad to say), witch bottle was great (the best thing in H+H’s opinion, being that strange thing, a folk song about a material item), weaving song, the cruel ship’s captain, me n becky, the blind beggar of bethnal green. ian was making some use of violin bow on guitar (jimmy page style) which was good. horsemouth regrets not liking the electronic piece more but in truth he likes the band set up (though he does admire their attempts to find new things, new ways of doing it).
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thereafter horsemouth and howard adjourned to a nearby pub for two pints of expensive modern beer and then home. horsemouth walked there and back (so the exercise was good), later sean came round to visit, sean thinks theresa may should not be counted out yet - that she’s the narasimha rao of british politics (this is just a wonderfully contrarian opinion).

please pardon horsemouth (he’s a little slow today)

please pardon horsemouth (he’s a little slow today). he was out drinking last night and so today he’s feeling a little fragile (and typing very badly). he’s had his coffee. he’s had his shower. he really has no excuse.

on the positive side horsemouth was up early and has spent the morning learning what he thinks of as the sequencer part on debussy’s pagodes (hopefully transposed correctly to a different key). it arcs up and down (in a 12/8 sort of way). he thinks he has a way of recording it to click by using the habanera like vamp of the first two bars and the offbeat/ onbeat? f-g cluster as a constant.

he’s got a non-standard tuning bflatfdggd than enables him to do this. he's playing it n the resonator at the moment.

he’s worked out a way of playing the sequencer part in two parts (but not yet a way of playing it all at once) and he’s worked out some pseudo-sudanese runs to go with it. that just leaves - well er... quite a bit really.

perhaps he can get it done and recorded  for the next musicians of bremen album

horsemouth (and howard) through the looking glass

after much effort (well none at all actually) horsemouth and howard made it through the looking glass and into the new london (down at the tides festival in north greenwich).

horsemouth arrived first (by tube) - there was a woman djing an african music selection at the first stage and some house music at the second stage. there were friendly helpful security people everywhere and pale ale vans with 50 uses and then recycleable plastic cups (one pound deposit - 5.50 a pint). there were crafts and food stalls (horsemouth assumed he was too poor for these and so had had breakfast and lunch before he came out).

the sun shone and people milled about wondering where the entertainment was. the festival was in honour of a new elevated walkway - horsemouth walked it - it was elevated.

by the time howard had arrived (by bus through a tunnel) it had all gone quiet again - they had a beer and wandered back and forth a bit. they sat in some deckchairs and watched some art videos and then a guy djing. humanity you were beautiful but, judging by the noise you made with the mass of djembes left out, you have no sense of rhythm. eventually they decided to go for a walk down the river towards the thames barrier and kill time until the main acts - they wandered through the last remaining bit of industry and then found the anchor and hope pub and had a pint of bitter and a packet of crisps there.



then they wandered back and saw a little of sudan archives (violin and backing tracks decent) and then a pause and then mulatu astatke - a venerable old ethiopian jazz musician (with lots of young dudes).



horsemouth dug it (and the crowd dug it), those horn chants are really memorable and there were some great 3 rhythms. the sound was quite spiky - horsemouth had to retreat from the speakers. in the end howard needed food - so they went and got some humous and bread at the tescos and then off to their various homes.

horsemouth’s friend jenna’s band (bad wives) were playing that night (but horsemouth was too knackered to go).

will horsemouth go back next week for oumou sangare? howard was saying no - horsemouth he’s not sure (the alternative is walthamstow garden party but the queues there are always horrendous).

saturday morning stick in the wheel are playing (that’l be good). howard had mentioned a film called the l-shaped room when horsemouth was in it was on telly so he watched it. today is cold and grey and rainy - there’s supposed to be a picnic (but horsemouth can’t see it really).

books, gigs, films, events june 2019

books

•  ministry of pain - dubravka ugresic
• birth of our power - victor serge
• nova swing - m.john harrison 
•  illuminations - walter benjamin, (introduction (hannah arendt), task of the translator, the storyteller, franz kafka, brod on kafka) 
• bringing it all back home - ian clayton
•  a voice in the chorus - abram tertz 
•  londinium - cameron bain/ max 'crow' reeves
•  road to wigan pier - george orwell (not finished) 
•  kierkegaard (introductions and dips) 
• masquerade (dips) and institute banjamenta (started)- robert walser
• my imprisonments -silvio pellico (started) 

 films catch22 (series), the rivals of sherlock holmes, fahrenheit 451 (recent remake as equilibrium), inland empire (david lynch), blood from the mummy's tomb, fear in the night (hammer horrors), two documentaries on orford ness (one radio, one tv), snatch, day of the dead (terrible remake), a fistful of dynamite (aka. duck you sucker)

 gigs

• 5th anniversary of the death of cameron bain poetry recital 
• leigh folk festival saturday: leigh orpheus mae voice choir, the jones boys, mains'l haul, daisy bowlers, umbrella factory, masal, belinda kempster and fran foote, broomdasher, hoy shanty crew, sharron kraus and band. 

 events

record, visit parents, work training, jam with minty, much walking (leyton, stratford, walthamstow etc.)

the orpheus of leigh-on-sea

so who did horsemouth and howard  see?

well first they had to get there. and at west ham station they had their first mishap (accidentally buying an extra ticket there (don’t ask). it was a hot day - possibly the hottest of the year so far - a good day to be out of london and away to the seaside towns. the train traveled through the glories of essex - heavily subscribed with people off to southend.

howard and horsemouth got off at leigh-on-sea and wandered up the hill.

main stage - leigh orpheus male voice choir and a cup of tea to celebrate their arrival, then down to the lower library gardens for the jones boys (fields of athenry from the all ireland squeezebox accordion champion and a mandola player), then mains'l haul - the first shanty crew of the day, then back up to the main stage for daisy bowlers (double bass, guitar, triangle - la vie en rose, charlestons such like but very competently done and with a lot of charm. by this point they’d cracked and got some beer - back down to umbrella factory, a guitar and mandolin duo - great version of one more cup of coffee, then back up to see masal (you will remember horsemouth saw them last year), then back down to see a barbershop group (sorry gentlemen horsemouth has forgotten your name).

by this time horsemouth and howard were pretty much immobilised with the heat - despite their judicious acceptance of any shade available.

then three good acts on the trot.



first belinda kempster and fran foote - the stick in the wheel backing singer and her mum doing traditional essex songs - they tried to get the audience singing the refrains (but no joy) - a john barleycorn that they opened with was probably the best known, then broomdasher six voices excellent harmony work, then the hoy shanty crew (one of whom had to go and lie down mid-set) and horsemouth’s favourite rolling down the river. kitty macfarlane was setting up but horsemouth and howard awayed to sharron kraus and band which howard announced his favourite thing of the festival...


er. and that was pretty much them -

they departed in search of shade and food - finding pizza (decent) and then more shade in a weatherspoonsish pub. (and then back to the wen).

today at leigh it’s more folky (united bible studies etc.) but horsemouth is taking it quietly.

‘the overcoming of death’ (the unguarded thoughts of abram tertz)

horsemouth is up. he has his coffee (yum yum). it’s a slightly misty morning.

here's a show on new weird britain (from the bbc).

last night a horror movie mini-marathon, both hammer blood from the mummy’s tomb (1971) not as good as hammer’s the mummy but still an entertaining romp, and night of fear (1972) a more psychological horror (plot spoiler - largely on the lines of les diaboliques featuring a disused school with recordings of the children). both were on channel 81, herzog’s nosferatu is coming up soon. all the above, and the following, can broadly be described as concerning the overcoming of death - either as literal return to life, simulacra, or in the case of abram tertz, by means of art.




horsemouth has shifted his reading affections

to abram tertz’s a voice from the chorus the book tertz (real name andrei sinyavsky) wrote while in prison in the form of letters sent out to his wife. he wrote on various topics all of which avoided his imprisonment (like silvio pellico of an earlier age). tertz’s life returns in reflected forms and concerns - gulliver, robinson crusoe (the castaways), the lives of things, the poetry of thieves cant, bragging and exculpations.

‘each man is born in only one copy and when he dies no one can take his place.’

horsemouth is plotting going to see gigs - gwenifer raymond this week, thereafter the weekends are filling up - leigh folk festival, the mela, the greenwich tides festival, a stick in the wheel gig.

the edge towards the solstice (panglossolalia)

after his successful reading of dubravka ugresic’s ministry of pain horsemouth’s reading has slowed back down again (he’s paddling around in the shallows of robert walser’s institute benjamenta - a school for training servants, a narrator with panglossolalia).

well the sun shines. and horsemouth is due to go off and undertake some training (this afternoon), the last wage check of the season should hit his account this friday (seeing as the last bit of work he did for them was a month ago) but it could be even longer.

“the unicorns are back, frolicking in the tory forest.”

remarked Lord Kerr, former UK ambassador to Brussels.

the tory popularity contest continues -

bojo the unfunny clown edges towards having half the tory MPs in the bag, if the first round was a three way tie for last, the second the tale of plucky little rory (but he’s still a tory really), the third and fourth (conducted today) will be the discovery the also-ran who can go down to defeat battling boris (jeremy hunt, gove 90 -who cares really?).

boris checks his phone to see what the ERG want him to say, jeremy ‘say my name say my name’ hunt furrows his brow and tries to remember if his wife is japanese or chinese, gove still reminds horsemouth of joe 90, at least that fucker raab c. nesbitt is gone (until boris hires him as himmler-in-chief).

sadge is nearly gone (oo he's come back - is he gone yet?) - it’s like he’s a character from another film who has wandered into the middle of it all by accident blithering on about equality and opportunity and things like this. doubtless he’ll be gone by the end of today. the thing it resembles most is britain’s got talent - here come the judges (the 1922 committee). and the votes are...

summer solstice, weekend, monday collective endeavour, midweek possibly gwenifer raymond up in town, friday anniversary of the first duo gig of the musicians of bremen, saturday/ sunday leigh folk festival/ and/or perhaps the mela, mid-point of the year.