A Lark Ascending

Not quite a landscape...but almost... An autumnally coloured leaf is photographed covered in dewdrops near Oberstaufen, Germany A different landscape: Portions of the Martian surface shot by Nasa’s Mars reconnaissance orbiter show channels on a scarp in the Hellas impact basin. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/oct/03/the-20-photographs-of-the-week

I knew there was a reason I bought it...helping the recovery. If I can find some grandchildren to look after I can have two.

Oak Tree: Nature's Greatest Survivor (BBC Four) Beautiful 90 minute film - they filmed an oak near Oxford and conducted various tests over a year starting in August to see how it worked and how it dealt with the stresses of climate and predators. Utterly extraordinary; as well as all the science bits some marvellous history - the Victory, medieval ink and whisky! Stunning photography.

I only picked it up from the shop on Friday. So it's still young love. So far declaring eternal devotion.

Did not know that. But then I was under the impression they were Scottish (think I was confusing them with Linn).

It's the timbre of McGarry's voice that gets me. Really appealing. One of those voices I think I could identify instantly.

Have most things rigged up now. Record player needed a separate box (advised of this by the shop I got it from (Moorgate Acoustics in Sheffield) and bought with the main item) but works fine. Except that when I came to plug in the Pro-ject turntable, there were no left and right markings on the lead!!! What? Will sort out tomorrow with something I have on CD and LP. Radio is just marvellous - also does BBC iPlayer so you can listen retrospectively (though this evening's Jazz Record Requests has yet to show). Can easily link my computer to play through the system if I'm listening to things via there. Still puzzling out the CD-Recorder - but there is a USB socket on the phono amp that links to a PC for recording from LP (should be able to do that direct through Total Recorder software) so I might be able to retire the recorder and free up some more space. Just need the right lead. Absolutely delighted with the sound - beyond what I'd expected. As Sidewinder said, Naim is a Brit company based in Salisbury (which endears it to me even more being a West Country lad). Not sure how far worldwide it is known.

Autumn creeps forward in north Nottinghamshire (last Wednesday): Different landscape - Spurn Head in East Yorkshire, a 3 mile sand spit where all the bits of Yorkshire that fall into the sea get washed up: Looks like this from above: Real bugger hanging onto that seagull to get this shot.

Finally modernised my main listening system yesterday with the arrival of: Naim Unitilite. Had my eye on this for about three years and decided to get one as a retirement present to myself (normal people sail round the world but...). Basically everything in one unit apart from speakers. Plug and play - no audio necromancy required. Expensive but probably my last major Hi-Fi buy. Spent yesterday just listening to the CD player. My experience of upgrading in the past has been of marginal gains but this sounds so much better than what I had before. What was immediately noticeable was the separation between instruments, something I've never got as I'd like. I was playing a folk record yesterday and was hearing backing vocals in a way I've never heard before. Even a very old recording, Michael Garrick's "Troppo" sounded superb - the bass in particular had wonderful definition. And a relatively flat early CD remastering of Hank Mobley's 'Workout' still sounded flat but had much more presence. Best news is that I still can't tell an mp3 from a CD! Just plugged in the net cable and have BBC Radio 3 going via internet radio. Hurray! All that nasty eggs and bacon interference I've had on my DAB radio portable has vanished. Also had a quick experiment plugging an iPod in at the front - worked to perfection. Still to connect up the turntable and to try playing mp3s from a hard disc. But so far delighted. Only weakness is a lack of inputs/outputs on the back (can't fathom how to connect the CD Recorder that I use infrequently) - but that just needs me to work out the digital connections and perhaps get a splitter box. There are threads about individual steamers (like Sonos) but thought I might put my excitement in a dedicated general thread as I imagine quite a few people will be looking down the streaming route in the future.

Thanks. Aw, which net, BBC? Then I could have seen it myself. I still hope to catch it some time. The book is lovely too, but I want to listen to the music, so I need to watch the film itself. I'm a fan of Susanne Jones too, btw. That Doctor series I have heard of but not seen yet. Think it was BBC4.

A breathtakingly beautiful week of foggy mornings and sunny days. Indian Summer as hoped for. I think it might be the first time this year I've seen cloudless skies.

Love her voice. After first hearing it I woke up in the middle of the night with her version of Fred Hersch's 'Endless Stars' (retitled Stars with what I believe is a Norma Winstone lyric) running through my head on a loop. https://youtu.be/H8dr2RI9EkM She's also excellent on John Hollenbeck's two albums of arrangements of pop/rock songs ('Songs I Like' and 'Songs We Like').

Someone a while back was asking about slightly bigger sleeves. I've just received some at 140 width instead of 130 and they do the job brilliantly: http://www.covers33.co.uk/shop/cd-pvc-covers/cd-pvc-140mm-no-flap-pack-of-50/ What I wanted them for were things like those Proper and JSP box sets so I could file all the discs together so they don't end up jumbled. I comfortably got 5CDs and a booklet into one of them, even though the CDs and inlay card are already in standard sleeves.

Some astonishing satellite imagery: More: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/02/satellite-eye-on-earth-august-2015-in-pictures

Nice picture, Shawn. Curbar, Derbyshire woke up to a blanket of mist on 26 September. Photo by Ian Letchford. Atmospheric sunset over a bog pool at a nature reserve in Sutherland, Scottish Highlands on 29 September. Photographed by Alan Hendry. Watching the sun rise at the summit of Mam Tor, Peak District. Photo by Adrien Hay, taken on 26 September. http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/34391831

And seeing things from a different perspective, interesting article here from a current British Member of Parliament: Kerry McCarthy: 'David Cameron was a Phil Collins obsessive' Even though I don't share her musical tastes her opening paragraph could describe my background: Replace demolition with military and delete the studying Russian. And I love this bit:

Engine Room Favourites At Seven Arts, Leeds (not my picture - from a previous performance) Martin Archer - sopranino, alto & baritone saxophones; Mick Beck - tenor saxophone, bassoon; Laura Cole - piano; Corey Mwamba - vibraphone; Graham Clark - violin; Seth Bennett - bass; Peter Fairclough - percussion; Johnny Hunter - percussion; Walt Shaw - percussion; Steve Dinsdale - percussion Archer, Mwamba and Fairclough were known to me and I have a feeling Graham Clark is the chap who used to play with String Driven Thing and, for a time, Van Der Graff Generator in the 70s; the rest, as far as I know, are local musicians. [Edit: wrong - the violinist was Graham Smith!] One set of large ensemble, structured but freeish jazz in the 'Ogun' tradition. A second set of more indeterminate structure - Archer described it as consisting of three distinct layers, one layer consisting of a five part composition that could be played in any order though the musicians playing that layer had to agree before. Can't say I could pick this out but it made a fine noise. Great closing version of Julius Hemphill's 'The Hard Blues'. Peter Fairclough (who I know from his work with Keith Tippett) was a clown throughout, swapping drumsticks, bothering the other percussionists and generally not playing the po-faced 'serious' musician. Archer has a very odd onstage presence...and looks like a smaller Eric Morcambe! 10 musicians on stage. 10 people in the audience! How do have the spirit to keep on? I'll go and see Archer's curious projects again - he operates from Sheffield which is rather nearer than Leeds (especially when they close a stretch of the M1 at 11.00 pm for roadworks and you have to negotiate darkest Wakefield trying to remember if your diversion is the yellow square or the yellow triangle).

That would seem to be part of it. There was also a change in the sound of the music which had a lot to do with technology. Bill Bruford has commented how playing complicated twiddly bits was a waste of time if you were playing in large arenas and stadiums as it would get lost in the cavernous acoustics. This affected the music recorded which needed to sound like the live experience up to a point. Multi-track technology came into its own in the mid-70s and along with it that tendency to use every space. For my ears something was lost there - there's a spareness in a lot of the music I like from the early 70s (might be tied in with the influence of The Band, something cited by so many musicians of the time, away from the wall-of-sound techniques of psychedelia) that vanishes. Even in 1973 I can remember being disappointed by a certain 'sheen' on Fairport Convention's Ninth album that got even more pronounced on their 1975 album and the last two Sandy Denny albums. The arrival of cheaper synths and, above all, the polyphonic synth changed textures dramatically. One of the beauties of the music of the early 70s for me (and it's worth remembering that the 'album rock' of the early 70s was much wider than what is termed 'Prog' and that even that, as popular as it was, was not what most people were listening to at the time) was the textural breadth you had using electric and acoustic instruments in all sorts of combinations. The relegation of acoustic and 12-string acoustic in Genesis, for example, created a much less interesting music for me...but one that proved to be in tune with the way tastes were changing. I find the music of late-70s/early 80s Yes, for example, uninteresting for many of those reasons - but someone who did not hear this music at the time and place I did is going to hear it very differently. And one of the reasons that I've enjoyed some of the current bands after several decades of not listening at all is because they seem to address those issues. What is termed 'Prog' was just a style of music that emerged at a particular time according to particular circumstances. At the time to many of us it sounded exciting, new, full of possibilities and envelope pushing - but as with all styles it generated a number of excellent bands and musicians; and a host of not so interesting ones. There is no reason that it should be of any interest to anyone beyond those of us who enjoyed it at the time, are grateful for the doors it opened and who enjoy a nostalgic waddle as part of a broadly based diet. It's gratifying to know that 40 years on some young listeners still find things to enjoy here and some younger players want to revisit some of the approaches (hopefully without the gnomes!).

Long may we all respond differently to different pieces of music based on our own very different musical contexts without assuming everyone else has got the wrong end of the stick.

This is the authorised version of rock history - akin to the idea that the financial collapse of the late noughties was caused by the British Labour Party. I'm not sure 'cultural' areas ever 'need' anything...but change happens. My own memory recalls an era from 70-73 (dates chosen purely because that was when I started listening) of enormous creativity when you were constantly surprised by what was emerging. And then a period from 73-76 when the music got less and less interesting, probably because you were dealing with self-taught musicians reaching the limits of their knowledge and (in the case of the successful ones) becoming very distracted by recreational activities and squabbles amongst themselves. I understand the appeal of punk and I think part of it was a distaste for rock music adopting some of the pretensions of classical and jazz (you can read that in Peel as early as that '71 article), a feeling that rock music was 'working class' and ought to be 'real'. Worth noting that punk was almost over when Thatcher came to power - I somehow doubt that it was a rebellion against the late-70s Tory opposition! The mid to late 70s were a time of financial difficulty, traditional industries closing, rising unemployment, industrial dispute, racial tension, unstable government culminating in the 'Winter of Discontent' of '78/'79. All of that was a consequence of factors much wider than any one government; but, much as it grieves me to say it, the punk discontent grew on Labour's watch. The really popular music of early Thatcherism was the much brighter New Wave, synth band and New Romantic styles of the early 80s. If I recall correctly the 'protest' element was continued through the Two Tone bands and the likes of The Specials who seemed to retain something of the spirit of '76. Middle class types looking for something 'alternative' to distinguish themselves opted for those emerging Indie bands, reggae or the emerging 'World Music' fashion. Or, as in my case, simply decamped to the already well established classical, jazz or folk world (though 'folk' didn't really become fashionable again until the late 90s). [Even though I loathed it at the time, I rather like some of those punk tunes now - Pretty Vacant, God Save the Queen etc.] And meanwhile just a couple weeks ago the yearly Prog Awards were held...and there are more progressive rock bands I like running around in 2015 than there was at any point since the 1970s. I believe Steven Wilson just finished up multiple sold out nights at the Royal Albert Hall... The resurgence of 'Prog' (ugh...horrible term) over recent years is something I would never have predicted. I don't think this has been the case worldwide, but in Britain it became just about the most unfashionable music around. You just could not admit to liking it if you wanted 'cultural' credibility - yet more and more I read all sorts of the great and the good owning up to liking King Crimson, Yes and the like (I seem to recall Tony Blair choosing 'In The Court of The Crimson King' as a favourite album...imagine he had '21st Century Schizoid Man' on permanent rotation in 2003!]. I occasionally pick up a copy of that magazine 'Prog' which is associated with the awards. It's not very good - rather fan boy and superficial but it can be interesting reading the interviews with famous people from all walks of life who espouse their love of Gentle Giant or Hatfield and the North. ***************** The idea of the sweeping away of dinosaur Prog by youthful, virile Punk is interesting from another perspective - this habit of seeing music as the rise a fall of dynasties. What actually seems to happen is an enormous amount of continuity but what changes is the attention paid by the media and taste-makers. After all, Trad Jazz appeared to have died in Britain in the 60s (it still turned up on TV variety programmes well into the 70s). But I bet you could go into any British city (and many smaller towns) and find that music being played and enjoyed today. Sometimes what is written as the 'cultural' history of specific areas of the 'arts' like music is little more than the history of when the media paid attention.

Not strictly so - the two tracks on KofB I did not warm to on initial acquaintance - Freddy Freeloader and All Blues - are very much like that. But 'Flamenco Sketches' has beautiful chordal contours - right from the start I was aware of the scale at the peak of the sequence with a Spanish/Arabic feel to it. I also wonder if it was Bill Evans rather than Miles/Coltrane/Adderley who I was responding too. Didn't know it at the time, but there's a lot of Chopin/Ravel/Debussy like harmony there. I take your overall point - but I wasn't intending to analyse the records; just indicate my perception at the time. The one track on BB I did get right away was 'Spanish Key' - it's the only track on the record with a dramatic key change. The world of the type of rock I cut my teeth on was built on creating incident with sudden and unexpected key changes. So it connected. Of course later I discovered what could be done with minimal harmonic variety...but that took some listening and learning.

Nice 1971 interview here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/30/john-peel-1971-interview-melody-maker-michael-watts-rocks-backpages Quote relevant to discussion above: A huge over-simplification but I know what he means.

It was shown on the TV over here some time back. I had no idea what it was apart from having Cuban jazz as the soundtrack. I recorded it on the digi-recorder and forgot about it. Scrolling through for something to watch last night, there it was! I was surprised to see it was an animation. Very well done. The story is slight but the animation is very impressive and the music wonderful. And you can play spot the famous musician - Woody Herman, Chano Pozo (his murder takes place in the story), Monk, Dizzy, Parker, Webster etc.

I was listening to this today (mp3 of my 80s vinyl version...rather crackly) and thought it deserved a mention here: One of the great semi-lost albums of the 70s. The Watersons had stopped performing when it came out in 1972 (they regathered later). Whereas Watersons records were mainly traditional songs, these are all written by Mike or Lal. I think I've heard it referred to as the folk revival's Sergeant Pepper and it has something of the fairground atmosphere of that record with a cast of equally odd people though living darker, even more disappointed lives. Deeply in touch with the countryside and the seasons (they were from a farming background after all), some of those songs like 'The Scarecrow' are straight out of The Wicker Man. Fits here because of the prominent role played by Richard Thompson and other Fairports (plus Martin Carthy who was yet to be inducted into the Watersons). Thompson's guitar is wonderful throughout - he'd yet to move to the more rockist style of later years; if anything you hear the influence of country guitar all over the record. To my ears one of the great records of the 70s (though it will sound a bit strange at first if you know the Fairport/Pentangle world but aren't too familiar with more hardcore English folk). Unfortunately, has yet to see a proper CD reissue as the chap who owned the rights refused to reissue it. He died a while back but whoever has inherited the rights seems in no hurry to allow reissue (along with a host of major folk revival records in their grasp from the likes of Nic Jones and Robin and Barry Dransfield). Article about it from a few years back when a bunch of worthies toured it: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/10/bright-phoebus-waterson-toured-hawley-cocker-album

At first I thought this was some ornate 18thC door. Hanover, Germany: Aerial view of the Great Garden, part of the Herrenhaeuser Gardens. The Great Garden is a baroque garden that includes lawns, hedges, walkways and statues arranged in strict geometrical patterns Photograph: Julian http://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2015/sep/29/photo-highlights-of-the-day ********************* London-centric Some beautiful shots of London along with a short essay balancing up London's achievements against criticisms of its dominance.