A curious salamander Nearly all the pieces featured in these pages so far revolve around electric or acoustic versions of the guitar or the piano (or both). And tracks with neither drums nor other forms of percussion are even more scarce. So that salamander could be forgiven for being curious about the band I have…Read more Salamander
classical
The Gathering
A nighttime gathering. Dancing at a rave in the woods, perhaps? A review of Mark Wingfield's Elemental album on the Cirdecsongs blog prompted another expedition into unknown regions of cyberspace. The burning question was "Who is that guy?". It turns out that Mark Wingfield is an English jazz guitarist with strong connections to some of…Read more The Gathering
Fundamental Values
The human touch Spotify searches on the topic of "core values" threw up several pleasing tracks: Justice's Groove by Stanley Clarke, Compassion by the Dalai Lama, and Fundamental Values by Nils Frahm were particularly enjoyable. I could have chosen any of those for this blog post, but (as you can see) I plumped for the…Read more Fundamental Values
Fever Dream
The stairway from a heavenly sleep ... The Third Age Trust runs a number of interest groups online (collectively known as the IGO groups). A new one was started about 3 months ago; it's called Exploring Prog Rock. So, of course, this third age gentleman and fan of the genre had to sign up. At…Read more Fever Dream
Luminous Giants
GoGo Penguin's compositions often have an astronomical theme. I was drawn into their orbit in 2018 when they released their album, A Humdrum Star, and I've been floating around them ever since. When they chose to call one of their latest tracks Luminous Giants, they were almost certainly thinking of a type of red giant…Read more Luminous Giants
A Symphony of Amaranths
A symphony of colours, but probably not a natural Amaranth flower. A Symphony of Amaranths is a collection of jazz tunes composed by Neil Ardley. It's the kind of jazz that serious composers would recognise as carefully constructed, high quality music, even if they didn't warm to it themselves. It is scored for an orchestra…Read more A Symphony of Amaranths
Pictures At An Exhibition
Readers of this blog will, no doubt, have heard of Emerson Lake and Palmer's version of Mussorgsky's piano suite, Pictures At An Exhibition. And you may be wondering what Katsushika Hokusai's painting, The Great Wave, has to do with it. The answer, unsurprisingly, is not a lot. You see, the Tim Kliphuis Trio has curated…Read more Pictures At An Exhibition
Deerand
How long can a hot-air balloon stay aloft? Deerand is a Persian term that means 'duration' (of instrument's tones). It is also the title of the latest album from Quartet Diminished. https://open.spotify.com/album/4elRzwcxhHDW5swyjtlrsy?si=HdJ7yhWxTDG0nOqe0EN8pQ Quartet Diminished's latest album, released to Spotify 15th November 2024 According to Spotify, the band was formed in 2013, and it can't have…Read more Deerand
Signs of Life
Is it alive? I am going to give Signs of Life the highest accolade available to me: after one spin it was ordered for the Crotchety Collection and will soon make a small dent in the bank balance. It's a curious beast, though. More an album of poetry than music. And it sits well off-centre…Read more Signs of Life
From a Fading World
There's a programme called "I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue" on the BBC's Radio 4 channel. It's a comedy show, described as "the antidote to panel games". In each episode, the host (currently Jack Dee) gives the four panellists silly things to do for no other purpose than to entertain the largely intellectual audience of…Read more From a Fading World
Crotchety Man 