Listening: Bert And John

26 Thursday Mar 2015

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On the passing of John Renbourn.

Whenever I listen to John Renbourn or Bert Jansch I always come back to this album. Two guys recording around a kitchen table, guitars mixed hard left and hard right so you can hear who’s playing what – and such incredible playing. Loose and tight at the same time, taking from folk tradition and extending the repertoire of the acoustic guitar almost casually. I feel very lucky to have seen both of them playing live (but not together, sadly).

Update 27th March: this appreciation by Pete Paphides is fantastic.
And this interviews is well worth an hour of anyone’s time:

Listening: Surface Tension

20 Friday Mar 2015

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Surface Tension, by Rob St. John

Surface Tension is a field recording, photography and writing project by Rob St. John exploring pollution, life and biodiversity along the River Lea in East London.

It was commissioned in Summer 2014 by the Thames 21 charity for the ‘Fixing Broken Rivers‘ project as part of the Love the Lea Campaign, which raises awareness and takes practical action to improve water quality of the rivers of the Lea Catchment.

I’ve listened to the full album pretty much in its entirety every couple of days since I downloaded it a week or so ago. It’s a relative rarity in the world of soundscape/ambient music in successfully combining field recordings with music; often these things end up as soundscape with music tentatively weaved in, or music with ambient noise that sounds layered on after the fact. There’s a dynamism in the transition of sounds through the piece that doesn’t sound forced, taking in the sound of the river, train doors closing, Sunday League football, and sounding true to the location; not a bucolic rural setting, but the everyday sound of a river in the post-industrial semi-suburbs.

The album can be downloaded here: http://surfacetensionriverlea.bandcamp.com/releases – good value at £6 inc. photobook.

 

Thames Foreshore / Camera Test; March 2015

14 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by in Down by the river, London, Photography

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untitled-30 untitled-29 untitled-28untitled-25untitled-27untitled-23 untitled-26untitled-24I finally cracked and bought a new Fuji. The X100T should, I hope, wean me off the iPhone through a) fitting in a coat pocket, b) auto-focusing enough to catch my daughter on the move. That’s the theory, anyway.

I took it down to the Thames Path near the Barrier to try it out. Some looking-forwards shots should follow these looking-downwards efforts.

First impressions: it’s very, very good (but I’m probably going to have to read the manual).

 

New Charlton; March 2015

14 Saturday Mar 2015

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Stag do paintball events meet industrial estate churches just behind the Thames in New Charlton. Next door there’s a go-kart track, and beyond that the Thames Barrier. The area off the river is an odd and largely undocumented corner of the neighbourhood; a trading estate and light industrial zone fallen on hard times, tucked up against the aggregates and tarmac plants, waiting for redevelopment to come.

 

Charlton Lido; March 2015

08 Sunday Mar 2015

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Regular readers (both of them) will know that I’ve been swimming at Charlton Lido most weekends since it re-opened after refurbishment. Over the winter I’ve managed to squeeze in a mid-week, evening swim; a particularly amazing experience when the moon and stars are visible. So I’ve been feeling a bit fitter as a consequence, and while the ambient temperature still isn’t warm, it’s warmer than it was in January.

This morning the whole pool was in direct sunlight at 9.15, and the sky was a mid-blue: not the deep blue of summer, nor the pale washed out winter skies of the last few months. Spring has arrived.

Whether it was the sunshine, or the fact that I hadn’t been out late playing rock’n’roll guitar on Saturday night unlike the previous couple of weeks, I felt inspired to push on from my usual 1km and swim a mile. And in the end it really wasn’t too bad – a reminder that much of the perceived tiredness in my swimming is actually just the process of getting warmed up. I’m not sure I’ll do it every week, but I’m very glad to know I can do it.

February Antidotes

28 Saturday Feb 2015

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Things that diverted, engaged or otherwise distracted me in February.