horsemouth would be there but he's out of town

so triple negative will be at the cafe OTO christmas fair today from 11am -6pm (allegedly).

horsemouth would be there but he's out of town (as with the coltrane home gig in brooklyn last night). 

at cafe OTO today you may pick up triple negative's  records, cassettes, CDs, books and drawings (horsemouth guesses) but probably not this recording (which is download only) horsemouth guesses. maybe there's a way to do it. 

horsemouth particularly likes the cover of this recording because it shows (what he presumes is) matthew's drawing/ lettering style. 

there is something undeniably filthy about their recordings (and even their text). look at this sample title return of the living dirt. look at all that excessive detail not aimed at providing a warm life-affirming counter-cultural experience (what is the point of it? it's just sound or scrawl in the wrong place). 

they are kind of the anti-ECM/ the anti-wyndham hill. they have found the secret stash of toxic musical waste. the work done on the garment will not vanish into the coat it remains hideously apparent.

the nearest thing to it horsemouth thinks it some sort of cross between african headcharge  and PIL circa the flowers of romance.

there's other stuff from other bands there but horsemouth would mainly want to pick up some of matthew's drawings. he has some cassettes from the time of feral wingwalker in a box somewhere. 

earlier (saturday evening) zoom beers (two) with howard (and howard had some baileys too plus he'd been for a pint up the big empty pub earlier for a read).  howard is talking about a release schedule for all his stockpiled stuff. this would be good opines horsemouth. 

earlier still horsemouth was off up the forge (and back). 

this morning he has slept poorly due to a mixture of paranoia, anxiety and poor temperature regulation. he worries that he has bollixed something up, similarly he worries that he has blabbed and that now the forces of repression will develop an interest in his misdemeanors from 40 years ago (frankly this is a bit  unlikely). 

a friend has reassured him that his name (horsemouth) has not come up in the inquiry and for horsemouth this confirms the essential correctness of living his life as a donkey.

 

abolish the difference of time (2024 goes out and 2025 comes in)

'it began to snow again last evening, but soon ceased...' 

saturday the 14th. see it's just not a scary is it. 

in 1855 thoreau makes a long report on nature full of different birds and their sounds.in 1841 he is reading the old scottish poet douglas (probably gavin douglas), he finds a passage he likes (a description of a sunset). 

'any living word in their books abolishes the difference of time.' 

yesterday's blogpost went well. horsemouth had several things he wanted to tell you but nothing in particular also. 

horsemouth will now re-post and  re-edit his blogpost from 31st december 2022 (where he has changed the text he has underlined it). 

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horsemouth has had an even more moderate year than last year (or the year before) in terms of cultural production. 

he played only one gig last year, a duo gig with howard at waterintobeer (thanks martin) on a bill with lou. thanks to the people from waterintobeer for taking photographs. musicians of bremen  added eyepennies by sparklehorse to their set, played versions of amarach and am I born to die, and horsemouth sang a version of go your way (my love) based on the anne briggs version.

horsemouth did no filming or recording in 2024 (some recordings from 2022 languish unfinished on soundcloud).  horsemouth played some guitar with pete (but no gigs were played or sessions recorded). he bought no new musical instruments. 

horsemouth was involved in no golden glow (or similar) mixes in 2024

he thanks howard and all who have read, watched, listened to him, or liked or commented on the things he has produced (thank you people, horsemouth is very grateful).

2024 was his third full year of retirement. (following on from his redundancy nearly three and a half years ago).

for yet another year he didn’t manage a foreign holiday. 

he kept on writing this blog (a daily duty) and kept scribbling in a variety of physical diaries.

he read a fair bit (though not with the concentrated effort that he has managed in previous years). he watched a lot of clips on youtube. he didn't listen to much of his existing music collection (he did not get around to replacing his amplifier). he listened to webb david's techno-dub show on new river radio, and the music of  robert lawson. 

robert, dave, lou, triple negative, alula down, jacken  and martin all released recordings. 

all in all a surprisingly good year for music. he has taken up trying to learn bell-ringing.

he saw alula down play in malvern and (backing jacken elswyth) play in camden. he saw  charlie parr and two white cranes  in hackney (thanks mike), lou and leo and the water chorus at waterintobeer (thanks martin), ruth crawford-seeger 'three chants for women's chorus' at the QEH foyer (thanks QEH), minny pops (thanks iona), triple negative, evan parker and bill nace (thanks cafe OTO), the renaissance music festival in  crystal palace (killercorp, concrete age, die|kur etc. thanks enza), stick in the wheel and laura cannell at cafe OTO (thanks howard), 

he did a fair amount of walking. over to ewyas harold, back from the forge. up on the common. down by the abbey, down to the post box, and over to sylvia's. he did not visit hereford much or get away to the wen as much as he would have liked. he visited malvern and made an unscheduled stop off in worcester. 

the communal endeavour survived and the decarbonisation campaign started up (again). 

friday 13th in the wilds/ saturday night in brooklyn/ sunday afternoon in dalston

 an entirely written in the morning blogpost

saturday night in brooklyn an event for the john and alice coltrane home featuring roshni somlal (of the brooklyn raga massive). 

meawhile in dalston sunday afternoon there's the cafe OTO christmas fair (horsemouth hates christmas but he recommends you go anyway). triple negative will be there (or at least there will be a chance to purchase their music and their merch (including drawings)). 

horsemouth hopes you enjoyed the golden glow mix from yesterday (well 3 years ago yesterday).  the next one is due on the 18th and the final one for the christmas season on the 24th.

  

but meanwhile (again) it is friday 13th (again) and horsemouth is in the wilds.  he has no plans for the day. he is back from bell-ringing. slow progress is being made (and then beer was drunk). 

it is 1851 and thoreau is out in the wilds (famously). he has been working as a surveyor and this provides some release and distraction. 

'this varied employment, to which my necessities compel me, serves instead of foreign travel and the lapse of time. if it makes me forget some things which I ought to remember, it no doubt enables me to forget many things which it is well to forget. by stepping aside from my chosen path so often, I see myself better and am enabled to criticise myself. of this nature is the only true lapse of time. it seems an age since I took walks and wrote in my journal...' - thoreau, december 13th 1851. 

12+12=24 (this may be the last time)

ok so facebook seems to be on the fritz this evening.

so horsemouth was here. and he was listening to a retrospective of val lewton (and thus jacques tourneur). 

but then he realised that it was the anniversary of the release of the first of his christmas carol of golden glow mixes. this time from 2021. it was the last of the six he did.  these are mixes with the tunes selected by horsemouth (mostly) and the mix assembled by howard. the photo on the front cover is by either enza or suke and is from the pre-production of the fall of the house of fitzgerald. 

horsemouth (the magician) places himself within the vertices of kandinsky. 

''this may... this may be my the last time

this may... this may be my last time children

this may... this may be my last time

maybe my last time I don't know...'  sing the staple singers.

today a visit from his uncle john and auntie june (and then some bell-ringing maybe). 

the humming of the political machine

the commons project people at the tate gallery, especially anna and hannah catherine jones for the session they put together which was the inspiration for this track now collected on the download version of musicians of bremen volume four. 

originally  a group of people humming in unison recorded on a phone in the tate modern. we set our music to this.

once a piece of sound has been recorded it is set free to do other work from that originally intended. horsemouth responded to the notes he could hear in the humming itself (and, later on, the notes in the trumpet solo that leak in from another exhibit). he then played two tracks of guitar in response to it (one tuned daddad and the other dad*ad -* g, f#, f?).  

his inspiration here is more the jansch/ renbourn bluesy/ jazzy noodling than his usual american primitive style. 

he added a track of the out of tune harmonium playing two adjacent notes so that by interference the correct drone note would be produced (subsequently turned down). howard added some tracks of singing and improvised lyrics and a track of improv on the banjolele (subsequently turned down).

horsemouth was very fortunate in how it turned out (it was fortunate the trumpet came in nicely - horsemouth has no idea what he would have done if it hadn't). 

he guesses that an earlier version may exist somewhere with more of the harmonium and the banjolele on it. 

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so what is horsemouth up to today? the egg walk and the walking the waste bin down the drive. his mum is off to the village and the forge. 

 

the happy- clappy world of facebook

'that stormy petrel frederick rolfe, the self-styled baron corvo, spent the years 1895 to 1898 in holywell, under the name of father austin, first printing a series of banners for the roman catholic church, and later as chief contributor to the  holywell record. it is impossible not to marvel at the complaisance of those who employed him. for his vitriolic articles set the town by the ears , and caused the newspaper's circulation to wane until it ceased publication.' 

1906 finds rolfe in crickhowell at gwernvale; 'frederick rolfe ('baron corvo') spent many weeks there as a guest of the pirie-gordon family, until he showed himself in his true colours and the hospitable house closed its doors to him.'  (both of these references are from welsh border country by maxwell fraser). 

christmas vegetables

well there are plenty of leaks and just enough brussel sprouts for everybody who wants them to have a decent(ish) portion. there's some beetroot and some chard.  there are potatoes (in a sack and in the ground). there are plenty of apples and damsons. the carrots are long gone. the runner beans likewise (unless there's some frozen somewhere). 

ok horsemouth is back from the forge. 

horsemouth thought it was the black cat but it's the crow. 

his mum's just gone over to the woodshed with the log basket (that's probably horsemouth's cue to go over there and carry it back).

it's now a tuesday morning. horsemouth is uncertain what the plan is for the day. he is worried that the plan involves relying on the local buses (they are only reliable monday, thursday and friday). 

four years ago horsemouth and a friend were worrying about what the tories might get up to 'push state retirement age up to 80, the introduction of top-up fees some NHS services and a 2 decade wage freeze in the public sector.' of course all this still looks possible, it will just be labour doing it. 

this morning a friend request. horsemouth wonders what is going on there. it is the least likely person to join in the happy- clappy world of facebook. 

'tales of the black mountain' (kilvert returns to clyro)

good morning! good morning!

on this day in 1870 kilvert returns to clyro.  

he interviews archenfield (a 77 year old shoemaker) whose forefathers had lived on the northern side of the black mountains for 300 years... 

'he told me of the three chieftains' graves near twyn y beddau between ashford and achalofty, the sole remaining monuments of the great battle fought on the mountain in the reign of edward III. near the same place stood the church of st. cellon built by cellon, son of caractacus and brother of ifon. st. paul converted caractacus and cellon at rome. cellon returned to britain and built this christian church and when st. paul visited britain he crossed the black mountain and preached in this church...'  

in this he repeats the theory found in st. paul in britain; or, the origin of british as opposed to papal christianity (written by richard williams morgan of the ancient british church and published in 1861). the book and others by morgan had an influencing effect on the development of neo-celtic christianity, suggesting the early entry of christianity into britain by the apostle paul, simon zelotes and joseph of aramathea.

morgan's lifetime saw both the heyday and the demise of the story in wales, which began earlier than  morgan with works written by bishop thomas burgess. 

we will hear no more from kilvert until the 17th. no kafka until the 25th. thoreau  we will hear from on december 12th and 13th 1851.

following on from kilvert's purchase of faust at worcester's foregate street railway station we find arthur machen also purchasing books at railway stations. 

'he bought de quincey's confessions of an english opium-eater at pontypool road railway station, the arabian nights at hereford railway station, and borrowed don quixote from mrs. gwyn, of llanfrechfa rectory....' - hando, f.j., (1944) the pleasant land of gwent – chapter nine.

when horsemouth types this it is sunday afternoon. it has gone dark out there already as we move towards the winter solstice (saturday 21st december sunrise 08:18 sunset16:03). (ok horsemouth is just off to lock up the chickens).  earlier a walk on the common.

this evening wolf hall. 

for the tree that has sheared in half in the bottom field horsemouth worries that further strong winds will snap the remainder of it. horsemouth will now think about clearing enough space in the woodshed for the logs from it eventually. 

his real worry is a big silver birch growing on the banking uphill from the house - now if that were to fall on any part of the roof that would be real trouble. 

horsemouth's monday he expects to be take up with a journey to the forge (and back again). thursday evening bell-ringing (and probably the pub after). saturday afternoon zoom beers with howard (probably) after another journey to the forge.