All I know is a door into the dark

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I found out a week after he died, a brief foray onto Facebook where someone had posted about his last words to his wife. I felt sad and tried to remember as many of his words as I could. The wonder of when they fall into place with new meanings.

A Door into the Dark was the first book of his I got hold of. I was 14 and bought it with a Christmas present book token from a book shop located by the market in the centre of Leicester (it’s not there now, it closed before the 1980’s were out, I think). Back then, bookshops seemed to have more poetry in them, but back then, summers seemed longer too so you can’t be sure. This book was full of incredible imagery and discovery, for me, that I still feel when I read them now even though my circumstances are so much different than they were then. Such is the power of words and their pull on the memory.

“All I know is a door into the dark.”

Some more Handmade

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It was a few weeks ago now but it’s still firm in the memory. Handmade was such a fantastic event – it was wonderful to see so many people walking around my hometown going to see the acts and arts at different venues, the real buzz of people enjoying it.

As for my bit, I’d spent a lot of time worrying about it, thinking about it, trying to do something special for it and hopefully I managed to show that. It was a magical space and I had a wonderful time.

Peter Wyeth 457
(Photo courtesy of the lovely Ian Nutt – go check him out)

Here’s a short video of me talking and playing on the day via The Grade

Handmade

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With Handmade Festival but days away I’m still trying to figure out what to do and play. It’s a special gig in a special place for a special festival and I want to try and do something that respects that.

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Consequently, I’ve grabbed as many things that make and play sound as I can that I think I can get away with to come up with something. This includes instruments I haven’t used for ages and trawling through 14 years worth of minidiscs of field recordings for help with what I’m trying to do.

Hope I can create something to reflect what I feel about it all.

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I was interviewed by Demon Media ahead of the event too. Get your tickets here – http://www.wegottickets.com/f/5930

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About two weeks ago, I was on a barge travelling down part of the Northamptonshire arm of the Grand Union Canal. There was banked up snow a metre thick in places along the road side. Our first morning on water was spent breaking through the ice of a frozen canal. We travelled back through snow at times, leaping on and off the boat to open and close locks, snowflakes falling around us.

But now, after what seems like about 3 days of sunshine, spring is EVERYWHERE! Bold, bright dawn chorus. Birds singing over the hedgerows as I ride home from work. And blossom. Blossom, blossom, blossom.

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Which lead me to this wonderful piece of music by
Loren Connors & David Grubbs

Gig envy

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Lucy Stevens is a East Midlands based ( I think ) audio and visual artist whose work looks at the relationships between the human world and the natural world. I’ve followed her work for a bit and found ‘the pigeon stuff‘ a really interesting – turning the mundane and everyday into something special. Her latest residency though looks amazing and is sooooo my dream gig.

 

 

 

For her latest project, Lucy is going to Ricklundgården, in Southern Lapland to create recordings, drawing and digital prints of birdsong. Yep, she gets to sit in idyllic beauty listening to birds and nature and drawing all day. Like I say, MASSIVE GIG ENVY. Am really looking forward to see what comes of this and also reading about the work in progress via the blog she has especially set up for it here – Drawing Birdsong