August was tricky. We returned from the US in the early part of the month and thereafter dealt with exceptionally bad jetlag. My own chronic migraine issues really came to a head this month as well, and after several days in a row of being unable to work due to my disruptive migraines, I started a new medication which so far, one week in, seems to have already made a good difference. Being able to go an entire day without needing to drop everything and lie down in a dark and quiet room for several hours feels almost too good to be true.

What is coming in September

  • I’m playing bonang barung in a small gamelan ensemble/pit band in support of a play being put on as part of Dublin Fringe Festival. The play, called BEASTS., is by Morgan Savidan & Sasha Carberry Sharma. We’re doing six performances from Sept. 17-21.

What I read

  • Records Ruin the Landscape, by David Grubbs. This books looks at the uneasy relationship between mid 20th Century experimental composers and record-making. John Cage is one of the centers of this study–he was quite famously disinterested and even dismissive of records, record making, and record listening.

What I watched

  • となりのトトロ (My Neighbor Totoro), dir. 宮崎 駿 (Miyazaki Hayao). This was showing at the Irish Film Institute, and it was my first time seeing it on the big screen. A real treat.

What I listened to

  • At The Margin of The Sensate, a collection of work by the composer/artist/philosopher/ecologist David Dunn [2023]. Dunn continues to exert a strong influence on my own thinking about sound, place, and listening.
  • Dét, som ikke kan kaldes tilbage, from a trio of Søren Nørbo, Wadada Leo Smith, and Kresten Osgood [2024]. Excellent improvised music
  • I got super into David Sylvian this month. Especially digging Brilliant Trees [1984], Gone to Earth [1986], and Blemish [2003]. I had always know him as a collaborator of Robert Fripp as well as Ryuichi Sakamoto, but hadn’t really dug into his solo work. I’m loving it. The early stuff is like a more proggy David Bowie, but his trajectory pushes more towards free improvisation which is extremely exciting to me. Blemish is pretty astounding–and it has Derek Bailey playing guitar?!

New releases this past month

  • American Standard, by Uniform. This is a challenging, heavy record. Really good. The first track is an absorbing 20 minutes, followed by three “shorter” pieces that combine unhinged vocals with heavy riffs and bleak ambiences.
  • æbæd: through imagining eternity, by Pé. Last February I loved Pé’s previous record, and same goes for this one. I love the focus and care put into these pieces.
  • Steamroom 62, Jim O’Rourke’s latest. One track–“The Chords Are Already Made For You”. Beautiful, as always. I think this must come out of his recent work with the kyma software?
  • Complete Works 06, Bernard Parmegiani. Into the 80s now. 3 more fascinating longish-form pieces.

What I did

  • I spent 3 days in Black Mountain Recording Studio, Dundalk Co. Louth, working on an album with Whozyerman?. We spent 3 days in total, each day around 10-12 hours. It was the longest recording session I’ve ever been part of, and was terrific fun. (Three days probably doesn’t seem like much compared to how long some records take, but my background is extremely no-budget DIY punk music, and the only other time I’d recorded an album in a proper studio before this, we did the whole thing in 1 long day.)
  • I saw Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy perform at the National Concert Hall. My second time seeing him. The first time was magical and extraordinary–a top concert experience of my life. This time was very good, and at times wonderful. Those seats in the NCH are uncomfortable though, and the concert was long, and seeing him in a big venue like the NCH is quite different from the much smaller venue where my partner and I saw him in Portland, ME, years ago. That said, he is a remarkable performer and it is a joy to see him in his element.
  • Returned from Maine, a difficult trip.

What I made

  • An album with my band.