web analytics

August 2022

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2022.

The release

August 24, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

There are really three parts to the creative process. First there is inspiration, then there is the execution, and finally there is the release.

Eddie Van Halen

It takes, it would seem, somewhere around a year and a half to create and to release what I will persist in calling an album. That, at least, is our experience in Anam Danu.

The Chanteuse and I started working on our third album – ‘Soul Making‘ (to be released this Friday, August 26th) – shortly after finishing our last offering – ‘ Winter Blue and Evergreen‘.

As I have observed before in these jottings, it seems that I am able to write and record basic tracks at the rate of about one a month – and in the case of ‘Soul Making’ I wrote half as many songs again as appear on the finished product.

Once the basic tracks are complete The Chanteuse gets to work on the vocal tracks, which can take some time to record depending on the complexity of the arrangements. We then mix the tracks and carry out any final snagging before all is ready to be sent for mastering.

In this instance the release date of the finished product would undoubtedly have been earlier had The girl and I not gone on our trip to the UK and Europe in July. We decided to wait for the end of August for the release itself so that there would be enough time on our return to mount a campaign to try to draw attention to the release in advance of the event.

Anyway – the time is finally upon us. As of Friday ‘Soul Making‘ will be available on the usual streaming and download services (including Spotify, Amazon Music, Youtube, Apple Music, iTunes and Bandcamp). The best way to locate these links is to browse to the music section of the Anam Danu website.

We hope that you enjoy our music. If you do so, please recommend it to others.

We thank you!

 

Tags: , , , ,

In Arcadia

August 22, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam, Photos | Permalink

On our first visit to the old country in three years (and not knowing when we might be back) there were certain things that we wanted to be sure to do and to see. One such was to visit an English stately home. These properties – many now in the hands of the National Trust or English Heritage (and thus preserved for the nation) – are not only somehow quintessentially English but also play an important role in the cultural life of the nation.

After some consideration we agreed to spend a morning at Hatchlands Park in Surrey, the which we had not previously visited in spite of its relative proximity to places that we know well. Wikipedia can, as ever, provide useful information about the estate.

Herewith some photographs from our sojourn there:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid
I am not sure why it should be so, but there is something about an old fashioned beech wood that just whispers ‘England! to me:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

Tags: , , ,

Welcome back my friends…

August 20, 2022 in Life as we know it, Life in BC | Permalink

“…to the show that never ends”

Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Though it did look for a while there as though the show might end after all…

Welcome back indeed to the Brentwood Bay summer season of Music in the Park. This year – for the first time since the COVID pandemic struck in 2020 – we have again been able to indulge ourselves with the weekly free concerts that have for such a long time been such a splendid feature of life on the Saanich peninsula. I have no doubt at all that similar stories can be told for other al fresco summer music seasons on the island – but the Brentwood Bay events are local to us and much beloved by all of the communities in these parts.

Now, you might – with good reason – cavil that there is little point in my writing about this splendid seasonal entertainment… when the concert series has just finished!

Good point – well made!

The thing is, of course, that we were out of the country for the first part of the season and sufficiently badly stricken with the hideous lurgy that we were unable to attend the first couple of events subsequent to our return. We did, however, get to enjoy the final two weeks of the program and I did not want to miss the opportunity to raise a cheer to mark the occasion.

We are particularly grateful for the return of this relatively safe form of entertainment. The Victoria Fringe – in a somewhat truncated and localised form – is also upon us, but frankly we are very unlikely to partake of any of the offerings. One weighs in the balance the risks of sitting in a small, crowded venue with others who may have contracted the virus against the desirability of the fare on offer. Frankly, nothing in this year’s festival moves us sufficiently that we are prepared to take that sort of risk.

The same is true of the local music scene (when not in the parks!). Local venues such as the Mary Winspear in Sidney have started booking acts again, but one really has to want to see something to overcome the reluctance to expose oneself to another dose…

I guess such things will improve slowly over time and, though we do somewhat resent the way that a huge chunk of experience has been denied us, we also acknowledge that these are our choices.

I guess that life was ever just such an ongoing battle of risk versus reward.

Tags: , , , ,

Looking at the trees

August 17, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam, Photos | Permalink

“Where did I learn to understand sculpture? In the woods by looking at the trees, along roads by observing the formation of clouds, in the studio by studying the model, everywhere except in the schools.”

Auguste Rodin

The second splendid day out on our recent expedition to the heat-scorched shores of our former home was again courtesy of those with whom we were visiting – and an inspired choice it was. I did not know that such things as ‘sculpture gardens’ existed, nor that there was a splendid one in Churt- in Surrey. A most magical and bonkers-ly (is that a word…? it is now!) inspirational collection of all different shades of the sculptors art – displayed (and indeed for sale) in a beautiful and peaceful garden.

Best – frankly – if I just let the pictures tell the story:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

 

Tags: , , , ,

Two birds

August 12, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam, Photos | Permalink

Looking back at our recent trip across the Atlantic the thing that strikes us more than anything was just how much we were able to pack in to a relatively brief visit. The reason that we were able so to do is because all of those good and dear folk that we were able to see went out of their way to ensure that we were not only able to catch up with them (worth the price of admission in its own right) but also to visit – or indeed re-visit – places that we miss through living on a distant continent. We thank these folk most gratefully for going out of their way to facilitate this.

These next few posts will contain images from our first few busy days; the first visit being to the motor and air museum at Brooklands near Weybridge in Surrey.

Hmmm! Nice blower Bentley there if I am not mistaken!

Now, if you know nothing at all about Brooklands (the world’s first purpose-built banked motor racing circuit and later home to Britain’s largest aircraft manufacturing facility and the Wellington bomber) you might care to let Wikipedia enlighten you a little. My ‘connection’ with the old circuit comes from growing up about a mile away. As young teenagers we would on occasion play on the concrete struts of the bridge that carried the old circuit (which had closed before the second world war) over the river Wey – in spite of the notices informing us that such activity was strictly verboten, not to mention dangerous.

Much of the circuit had been swept away by then, to be replaced by the British Aerospace factory at which Vickers VC10s were built. The runway at Brooklands was famously too short for the VC10 to take off fully fitted, so the aircraft were flown out with no seats aboard to nearby Wisley aerodrome, where they could be finished off.

On many summer weekend afternoons we would hear all too clearly the VC10 engines being tested. Later my oldest friend’s father – who worked for BA – arranged a visit to the works for the scout troop of which I was a member – and we were able to admire the parts of the prototype Concorde on which they were then working.

Now, here is the potential next F1 world champion receiving some team orders before heading out onto the circuit for some ‘hot’ laps. In spite of nearly mowing down a steward, bouncing off the paddock wall and turning the wrong way onto the members’ banking she still came within an ace of setting a new lap record!!

The girl may be dangerous but she’s got some talent…!

Tags: , , , ,

Hoorah!

August 7, 2022 in Life as we know it | Permalink

‘Nuff said…!

Tags: , , ,

Out and about

August 2, 2022 in Flotsam and Jetsam | Permalink

My last post – written in the shadow of the frustrating discovery that we had not, after all, contrived to visit parts of the world in which COVID appears now to be endemic and is yet, ‘irregardless’, largely ignored by the local inhabitants – we had not contrived by our diligence and native cunning to avoid succumbing to the same! In short – we got caught!

Now – the wording of that post might perhaps have given the impression that this regrettable lapse had inevitably taken the shine off the trip. Not so! Not so! We had a wonderful time and – could we but turn the clock back – we would do very little differently.

To any sensitive readers with whom we met in the UK and who might perhaps be fearful that they may inadvertently have played a part (so to speak) in our infection, we say: “Unlikely, chum!“. We suspect that a two hour delay in the Eurostar terminal at St. Pancras – where we were reluctantly obliged to share the space for an extended period with the teeming mask-less hoards who comprised the passenger compliments of four (or more) different trains – may have proved the straw that landed the camel with a hefty physiotherapy bill.

Over the next few posts I am going to share some images and impressions of our joyous travels, but first I just want to say a little about the nature of the expedition itself, because – for all sorts of reasons – this trip was very different to that upon which we ventured back in 2019. For a start regular readers will be well aware that we were extremely nervous of traveling abroad at all, in the light of the events of the last few years. That we were eventually persuaded so to do was in part because we had had encouraging conversations with those who had already done so, but also because of the invitation that we received to a celebration of good friends that we did not want to miss. The nature of our trip was inevitably defined by both of these considerations.

We rapidly abandoned initial thoughts to tour extensively because, at the time that we would have needed to make the necessary bookings, so much was yet up in the air and we would have created too many hostages to fortune. As a result the trip that we eventually planned was good deal shorter than one that we first had in mind. The celebration itself was to take place a considerable distance away from the capital – the which would inevitably skew our physical presence throughout our stay.

As a result we had sadly to accept that we would not get to see all of the good friends that we would have liked to have seen. We are most grateful to those with whom we were able to spend a little time; to those with whom we could not – our humble apologies and we hope that you understand.

Anyway – enough with the words… Next time – photos!

Tags: , , , ,