The Month in Music

As far as music goes this has been an interesting and worthwhile month.

The Eclipse trio has gigged and formally released the Frailty of Dreams album (available here). Now we need to gig more and promote it. Our piano player is off to New Zealand for a month so the guitarist and I intend to do some gigs as the Eclipse trio Duo, maybe with guests. I’ll post any confirmed dates here.

The recent gig was a chance for me to go back to playing upright bass and, for this band, I loved it. I’ve been putting the work in to improve my intonation and to adapt some of the more bass guitar centred songs to it.

My other band is gaining confidence and expanding its material. We are now a four piece and having a (very good) singer, with opinions, means we now have the melody lines that were missing from our original compositions. Everyone in the band contributes and the resulting songs sound powerful, fully charged and enjoyable. This is the band that started with a conversation, on a train about writing music my guitarist pal and I wanted to hear. A trip to a recording studio will happen in the next few months and then you can make your own mind up.

I don’t get out to many gigs, but this year there are two highlights to come. The first is the Neil Cowley Trio. I can’t say enough good things about this talented and astonishing band. Essentially a jazz trio (piano, double bass and drums) but with the energy and approach of a pop band. Their new album, which is being showcased at the gig, seems like a change of direction but I’m excited to see what they can do in this new territory.

The other gig is Kate Bush. I was 15 the last time she toured. Her albums are, mostly, works of art and I’m intrigued to see what brought her back on stage.

The one area of music that is going nowhere is my Spingere project. The touch guitar is in its case and the electronics and recording software sit unused. There are plenty of ideas, not to mention the Rain album which is still almost finished. But playing live with other musicians is too alluring and there just aren’t enough hours left to put energy in to anything else.