And here we all are, sliding towards the weekend with tired smiles and hope brimming over the edges.
I’m at my deskspace in Forest Hill Library, just about to head up north on the London Overground to meet my partner-in-crime Matt Rudd for some pale ale and table tennis at Shoreditch House. I love working here in the library. It’s a dedicated room at the back – quiet, air-conditioned, super-friendly and with delightful little touches like a key to the secret garden where the scent of summer flowers and the sight of industrious bumblebees is the perfect antidote to anything you care to name. Some days, new mums come in with their little babies for sing-songs and book reading groups, which is a lovely thing to hear on the way to make a cup of tea. We have to head to the basement for that, and the kettle is so rubbish I’ve just ordered some fancy Breville one-cup boiling water dispenser thing from Amazon.
There are also some excellent spaces beyond the garden, used for events and performances. I’m hoping to snaffle one of them to put on the ambient guitar gig I did with Jules Maxwell in France earlier this year. We want to do Noyelles in France, London, Aberfeldy and Bangor. Watch this space.
I’m listening to disc 2 of David Sylvian’s charming record, Gone to Earth. The guitars are great.
Speaking of Jules Maxwell, he dropped in to our house this-morning for a cup of tea. He has been living in France for some time, but when he comes to London he always leaves his car in our street (he used to be my upstairs neighbour in golden times). I just finished putting about twenty tracks of backing vocals on a track of his – The Boy who Cried for the World which will be on his next album. It’s one of my favourites songs of all time. We performed it as part of a show called Fat Girl Gets a Haircut at The Roundhouse some years ago, and it always gave me shivers.
While working on the cinematic ident this week, I had to do a lot of research to find some great springtime birdsong. Eventually I found this delightful recording of the dawn chorus by a very fine fellow called Peter Toll, and that’s the one we’re going to use. Peter is a specialist in nature recordings, with some very interesting experiments on Soundcloud, including a “dub in nature” thing where he creates an awesome dub baseline from a skylark’s song slowed down so it is six octaves below the original. I love people.