Thursday 20 October 2011

A shout OUT about NEW stuff

Double A side SINGLE RELEASE 24th October

1.Claw & Tooth
2.Window

3. Animation by Betsy Dadd
4. Cine film by ICHI
5.An original piece of artwork in a badge


This is the second single to be released with these bite of the mountain badges. For previous single Balloon and all other release have a peek in the Broken Sound shop.

The badge comes complete with a download code to get all of the above, and the badge itself is a small part of the album artwork for album Bite the Mountain - a very big stitched mountain I made from old paper (sea charts, old book covers and scrolls from Japan, my scale book from school etc)

watch a film of me making the badges

There is a code to track your very piece. And there is an invitation to join the photo project, the idea being that the squares can be tracked to their next destination. News on the next stage of the project will follow when we've had enough photos sent in snapety-snap

here are the youtube quality versions of the films (you will get them higher quality with the single download)






TOOT TOOT
Also just around the corner is....

Japan Album Release BITE THE MOUNTAIN 5th November

Very excited to be having my album released in Japan. The first 100 purchases from SweetDreamsPress in Japan come with a free cdr of live and home recordings, (but just to warn you this may be an obstacle-course if you can't read Japanese. I'm reasonably computer illiterate so you may well have more luck than me if you're willing to persevere!)

Wednesday 12 October 2011

Tour Adventures Around Europe



G E R M A N Y



HANOVER

making old songs new again at our first date in Hannover with Emma Gatrill

Throughout the tour Emma added a certain magic touch with clarinet, harp, accordion and voice, and played some of her solo harp songs which were beautiful to hear in the many places we played. Chris Lucraft who runs Broken Sound played percussion - a hidden talent if ever I heard one. He also is responsible for many of these photographs (the reason he's not in many in fact). And Ichi played steel drum with me, as well as his own set in which he tried newly build instrument creations
peek at ICHI's cargo session here

Ichi, Chris and Emma
Thank you chaps!



MAGDEBURG

We had time in Magdeburg before 2nd date of the tour, and found a real life Hundert Wasser building to explore which we went on a mission to find after it was spotted from this wall




BERLIN


While in Berlin Dennis of Burning Eagle booking organised a house concert in his home, a cosy event with pumpkin soup to ward off the wind and rain. Thank you Dennis for the street roaming, the trip to the lake, for turning your bedroom into a dormitory. And of course thank you for organising all the lovely shows.


LAKE ON THE OUTSKIRTS

post-swim


LEIPZIG


one of our favourite places on route - Fischbar LEIPZIG, with it's piles of books and checkered floor, table-foot-ball in the next room, and a 3-storey-junk-shop-come-museum to visit the next day, not to mention Madeline and her amazing hot apple juice


One of Emma Gatrill's solo performances on harp,
and below a film of her joining me on Moth in the Motor








P A R I S


BOTANICAL GARDENS and NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM





ICHI'S CARGO SESSION

filmed in Paris with Renaud (the creator of The Cargo Sessions) and his daughter

see ICHI'S cargo sessions here





THE TEXTILE-ART CREATIONS OF AURELIE MATHIGOT


Since getting Aurelie Mathigot's book I've wanted to see her beautiful work up close, and while in Paris she invited us to visit her studio which was a true inspiration. I'm excited about our future swap - an embroidered cardigan for one of her incredible creations - I reckon I'm going to come up trumps


THE MAGIC LANTERN

while staying with Kate and Jesse of This is the Kit we experienced some lucky timing when Jamie of The Magic Lantern arrived to play with them in the Shakespear and Co. book shop in Paris. Usually with an ensemble but this time solo, his performance somehow managed to transport me to some serene far away place. As well as guitar he used kalimber which is a favorite of mine at the moment. The album is very highly recommended **********



T H E N E T H E R L A N D S

Ichi played at two experimental nights in The Netherlands on the final leg of our tour. The first was a regular event Gifgrond, and the second was in Rotterdam. Both nights were shared with a pair from Dresden - Schnaak - who performed some incredibly inventive guitar playing using a chopstick sized stick and some thwacking of drums with a bundle of canes, among other pleasing ear suprises





and finally home to the UK

and a new discovery - the beautiful PANGOLIAN-
Horniman Museum, in London



favourite animal of the month