variousing

Back again, * - just busy with, amongst other things, making birthday invites for *! Good fun...! Thanks for making your home the venue. I've told * - just got his reply. 7.45 at mine is earliest he can manage. So be at yours sometime after 8pm. That OK? I'm fine on basic route to yours, but which entrance off * Road is best to take into your estate? I listened to your two excerpts - three times each, actually; eyes closed a couple of times; then I 'played along', on my acoustic guitar, as it were. I've downloaded them, too; so I can maybe manipulate in a playful way, if ok with you. I do this a lot with a friend from back home's work. It seems a little lame to simply say I 'like' your material; but I do. I like the idea of clipping resonances from sounds which you've made, gathered, and appropriated - changing their envelope, and so on. I like this as an idea; and I like it as a 'sound event', also. It all suggests to me a restless and involved interest in searching for new sounds, new ways to make the ear in the brain go 'wow, that's beautiful' or in some way meaningfully evocative, aesthetically-rich, etc. Your attention to detail is powerfully-evident, and, for me - in thinking of you as a potential cohort - it betrays a similar rigour and work ethic as I have myself. The stuff in and around your soundart - the concepts, writings, and such like - are similarly interesting to me. You obviously take it all very seriously - in the very best sense of that word. It's a lifelong thing to you, I guess. Me too. I make stuff and always will, no matter what. I like that drive. **************. Glad that you appreciate my drive; thanks for saying so. Groups should be like a little economy, I think - if you see what I mean. Groups should offer participants support - emotional, in terms of feedback and interest, as well as creative, in terms of artistic collaboration. Mail Art had that. We are reading from the same page in that respect, I know. Pleased that you got the Feldman/Scabies/Bailey reference! Though it's a comic reduction of the situation as may be, such things can be useful! I'm pretty versatile myself. - so Bailey is only part of the equation. Versatility is fine, of course; but so is clarity, single-mindedness. In that sense - the best sense again - I like your clear attachment to minimalism; as a core value and conceptual destination. I like the purity and ultimate nature of it - in the best senses of those words, too. * is similarly, I think, open to experiment, kind of versatile - so the Scabies reference is massively reductive, I should think. The scenario I described, though - laptronics with eruptions - was only one possible scene. I have a keyboard; I use MD and CD players - for loops, complete pieces, samples, tiny sounds, and so on; I have the laptop now, too; I use voice even; and I use lots of processing on the basses. Plus, I play guitar. I can play all these 'conventionally' - to lesser and greater extents; but I see these things as sound sources, and am always looking to stretch things. As I said to * at the outset, I'm not looking to play anything of a rock nature - not avant rock, postrock, or even what * do. The fact that I play bass, guitar etc. is not an indication that I want to pump along playing riffs, even atonally, in some notion of being experimental! There are other, more interesting options. Once again, we are of the same mind here, I think. All of this is great and interesting, and what I am looking for in essence. It does all come down to whether we click chemically, as you say. That remains to be seen! Thursday, then, is a starting point... I'll bring some of my stuff - burn you copies to keep. Not be as gorgeous-looking as the CDs you kindly gave me, I'm afraid! The stuff on them will be kind of out-of-date, too - being heavier than I want *. But you will be able to hear something of the soundart stuff I've made, and how I approach playing the bass. Anyway, the proof of the pudding will be when we get together ourselves - past glories are fine, but I'm for looking forward. Massive good luck with the conference. It sounds pretty complex and serious, but I'm sure you'll be fine. It's a good challenge; a nice adjunct to your soundart activities. I hope it opens some doors for you. Looking forward to Thursday. Best wishes, Anthony