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Quite possibly the greatest and most gifted record producer of the age.
Definitely irreplaceable…
From the many, many obituaries and retrospectives published since his passing, this piece from the Guardian seems to me to illustrate best the sheer breadth and depth of Quincy’s talent.
Rest in peace.
This news item appeared recently on the Anam Danu website:
Siobhan and Andy of Anam Danu have written, recorded, and self-released three original albums over the past five years. Back in 2023, they decided to focus on growing their creative partnership. They enjoy being in the studio, but like many musicians, they know that performing live is the true test of their music.
They realized that the music they create as a duo often needs more musicians to perform it live. Over the last year and a half, they searched for other artists who could help bring their ambitious work to life. In late 2023, they met Adrienne Dyer, whose beautiful soprano voice added a powerful element to their music. Together they started to create fresh tracks for a new album.
“Euphoria” explores what it means to be a mature adult in today’ s challenging times. It includes songs about storytelling and creativity, the value of long-term friendships, teaching and learning, the search for our roots, and the important choices we make as we grow older.
Most importantly, it highlights the need for joy.
Siobhan, Adrienne and Andy are particularly grateful to Mairéad for her gorgeous and striking cover art, which encapsulates the essence of the album perfectly.
“Euphoria” will be available for streaming and download from November 22nd.
Tags: album, Anam Danu, Euphoria, Music, release date
I posted this update on progress towards the release of the new Anam Danu album – ‘Euphoria‘ – on the Anam Danu website. For completeness I thought I would reproduce it here:
Progress continues toward the release of the new Anam Danu album – ‘Euphoria’.
The ten chosen tracks have been polished and given final mixes and the whole sent off to our mastering studio of choice – CPS Mastering in Vancouver. Brock McFarlane (who has mastered all of the Anam Danu albums thus far) has now sent us the first mastered copies and we are in the process of listening intensely in as many environments as we can – preparatory to signing off the album and sending it to our distributors and CD manufacturer.
We also now have the cover art for the release. Those who have followed Anam Danu’s exploits will know that we like to commission local artists to create the cover for each release. In this case the wonderful artwork that can be seen on this page is by Alberta artist – Mairéad – who has, in our view, captured the intent of the album perfectly.
Of Mairéad Siobhan writes:
“Mairéad is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Alberta, Canada. She expresses her art in paint and textiles. As a visual artist, she creates vibrant multi-media paintings and collage. Her love of detail, color and texture is evident in her one-of-a-kind unisex handbags, backpacks and wallets. She is an expert knitter whose cable-knit outerwear is beautiful and expertly made. Mairéad creates custom dog sweaters and jackets that are both stylish and playful. She is passionate about interior design and customizes existing pieces through upholstery, refinishing and fabric furnishings”.
Not long to wait now! I will post the release dates for ‘Euphoria’ just as soon as they have been confirmed.
“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do”.
B. F. Skinner
Before I retired from The School back in the UK I persuaded one of my chaps there to build me a new computer for my studio. For those readers unfamiliar with such things, modern digital studios are based entirely on the computer, which not only handles all of the recording and editing tasks, but which can also (by means of samples and virtual instruments and processors and so forth) generate orchestras on demand… apparently out of thin air!
As the techniques required for such feats become more complex and sophisticated over time, so the processing power required to effect them increases. At the same time, any computer that has been in use solidly for a considerable period (more than a decade in the case of my studio machine) tends to become increasingly prone to failure – the which could result in the loss of precious and irreplaceable creations.
The long and the short of all this is that the time has finally come for me to replace my studio computer.
No big deal – you might think – but there are serious implications in so doing. My machine is used primarily for the creation of music – but also for my online teaching at the College. As indicated in my last posting Anam Danu is currently in the process of finalising a new album. The fall term – one of the two in which I teach – starts at the beginning of September. There is a relatively brief window in which to get everything working correctly.
Replacing a computer is not – in this case – a simple matter of buying a new device, plugging it in and firing it up. My musical pursuits require the use of a considerable number of musical applications, virtual instruments, sample libraries, software appliances and suchlike. All of these need to be installed on the new machine and all of the musical and other data that now virtually fill my old machine must be transferred to the new beast.
These are definitely non-trivial tasks and there are many potential pitfalls along the way which might cause important functions not to work correctly. These must all be patiently trouble-shot until everything is as it was before – but considerably faster and with storage capacity for much new creation over the coming decades.
You might get a sense from this brief discourse as to why I have repeatedly put off effecting this transfer over the past couple of years. I have – however – now reached the point of no return and all must be completed and tested in the shortest of orders if disaster is not to ensue.
Fingers firmly crossed!
I normally restrain myself from posting too much to this forum on the subject of my musical endeavours with Anam Danu – out of deference for those who have no interest in such matters. However, there has already been much activity this year and it felt to me that an update was probably a little overdue.
I posted this item to the news feed on our website at anamdanu.com:
The recent lack of activity on this news feed should not be interpreted as a sign that nothing is happening. Anam Danu have been busy behind the scenes; with results that are already becoming apparent.
A quick glance around will reveal that the website itself has undergone a considerable face-lift. We like to think that it is now fresher, cleaner and somewhat easier to navigate. Do let us know what you think.
You will also observe that we three have recently done something that we had studiously avoided doing for the past four years – to wit: participating in a photo shoot. Such things do not come naturally to any of us, but we hope that you find the results helpful in gaining a clearer picture of who we are.
In our last news update – which revealed the arrival of our new member, vocalist Adrienne Dyer – we also announced that work was well underway on our fourth album, with an intended release date later in 2024.
Well – we are still on target for that release, having written and recorded ten tracks for the album. We are currently mixing and sequencing them, following which they will be sent for mastering. Cover artwork has been commissioned and the pace is picking up.
If you would like to be notified when the new album becomes available – which for subscribers will be in advance of the general release date – subscribe to the Anam Danu newsletter by using the link below.
On our way from the Orkneys to Skye we spent a single night somewhere that I have not visited before – the north-western fishing port of Ullapool.
Though only there for the briefest of sojourns we liked Ullapool. It had a busy, unexpectedly youthful feel about it – in some ways not unlike Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
We stayed in The Arch hotel, the which is right on the harbour front. This is the sort of place where there is no check-in desk… you simply go into the bar and the barman leaves his post to show you to your room.
This barman also advised us that there was to be live music that night in the bar, featuring an extraordinary young accordionist called Ruairidh Maclean, who himself hails from Ullapool. As we were staying within yards of the venue I thought I would pop in for a number or two… and ended up staying for the majority of his set.
Maclean plays an accordion that is not only equipped with pickups (for amplification) but also not one but two MIDI interfaces. By means of these devices Maclean can add instrumentation to the accordion – for example, guitar and banjo to the keyboard and bass guitar and kick drum to the buttons. He explains fiercely that he does not use backing tracks but that all of his extensive palette of sound is delivered live. That his repertoire includes AC/DC, Fleetwood Mac and Tom Jones says a lot and he delivers with a fierce joy (and not a little anger).
He also plays this original number, written by a friend of his who has moved to Canada – the which I found particularly moving:
https://rumac.bandcamp.com/track/poaching-days
I am very glad that I attended the gig.
The Girl and I are touring in Scotland.
Now, The Girl is something of a genius when it comes to planning a trip. Not only is she unbelievably thorough – leaving no stone unturned when it comes to the small detail – but she is also quite brilliant at orchestrating the greater movements on which such an expedition is based. As we arrive at each place on our itinerary – taking each new step on the journey – we discover that she has (in only marginally obsolete parlance) once again ‘absolutely nailed it’ when it comes to choices of where to stay and what to do!
My role in all of this brilliance is far more straightforward. It is my job to experience whatever comes our way – to live the moments and to absorb the impacts thereof, complete with thei underlying narrative and subtexts. It is my small (yet important) task to take photographs and to formulate pithy jottings that can then be imposed on the casual and unsuspecting reader of this journal – in the name of some arcane form of art (see this recent post for further information).
There is also the added bonus that I may – if I am truly fortunate – be able to draw out the germ of some nascent composition… to uncover the basis for yet another song.
Here’s hoping…
i hear mutterings at this point that I have clearly been falling down on the job – that I have not posted an update since we were in Edinburgh more than a week ago. This is, sadly, true… What happens is this: I get so wrapped up with the breathing in… absorbing what is happening and what we are experiencing… that I don’t have the time or capacity to exhale – to share with gentle readers that which we are living through…
…until now, of course.
Today we arrived on the island of Skye – and not just any part of the island, but one of the more remote corners thereof. We have three days here to rest and recuperate.
I will take advantage of this welcome downtime to bring these scribblings up to date.
That’s a promise…
“I’m here to tell you the tide will never stop coming in. I’m here to tell you whatever you build will be ruined, so make it beautiful.”
Hala Alyan
I find myself sitting here – on a blustery Valentine’s day – gazing from my studio window at the grey, choppy sea and the distant mountains – pondering questions of (im)permanence.
There is no question – regardless of anything that we might do – that this sea and these mountains will exist long enough to register as permanent (certainly by comparison with our measly four score and ten)… whereas the cherry blossom which is just starting to bloom on the tree at the bottom of our garden will be gone in a few short days (weeks at most).
A few years back – shortly after we came to Canada – I wrote a song which bore the title – ‘Cascadia‘. The lyric started thus:
Where I come from we are rooted in the land
Sinking where we stand in the slow sand
We know who we are – we’ve been here for so long
That even when we’re wrong we don’t care
In new found lands – where cities tremble on the brink
Closer than they think to Armageddon
Machines turn to rust and tremors shake the crust
Dominions of dust are blown away
The song came about because I was fascinated – having just moved to Canada – that in a country in which everything was considerably inflated by comparison with its north European counterparts (distances greater, climate more extreme, animals wilder, terrain more difficult) and subject to all manner of extreme events (snow storms, earthquakes, heat domes, avalanches, wildfires, arctic outflows, etc, etc) – domestic construction is, as far as one can tell, a good deal less robust than that to which we ‘old-worlders’ are accustomed.
Back in the UK I owned – at various times – portions of several houses constructed in the 1740s. Such buildings may have their short-comings by modern standards but they were clearly intended to last and tend to be fairly firmly embedded in the dark soils upon which they are erected.
Here in British Columbia most residential properties are constructed primarily of wood (no surprise there) and sit lightly upon the land. They are also considerably less valuable than are the plots of land upon which they are built. In many instances – should one see a house of maybe thirty or forty years of age for sale – one is not surprised when the purchasers simply tear it down and build a new one.
Even the fabric and fittings of these buildings seem destined not to be long for this world. Our house dates from the late 1970s and is thus positively ancient by Canadian standards. We were advised upon purchase that it had had its roof replaced some twelve years before our purchase – the which was therefore around halfway through its expected life (the shingles at least). The slate roof of our apartment in Buckinghamshire in the UK dated was back to sometime in the 19th century! The hot water tank here (powered in Canada by what we Brits would call an immersion heater) was replaced (cheaply!) when the house was put on the market in 2015. The Girl assures me that it is thus nearing the end of its useful life and must needs be exchanged for something more robust. I am sure that she is not wrong!
I am not entirely sure why I am musing upon such matters at this point – though the long wait for spring might have something to do with it. Yesterday and today have been particularly blustery and we were without power for a number of hours overnight – though fortunately all was restored by the time we awoke (thanks BC Hydro!).
Anyway – I feel that it will not be long until the news here, at least, takes a turn for the better.
If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started.
Drew Houston
In these recent posts – ‘Adjusting the Sails‘, ‘One and One and One is Three‘ and ‘The World of Work‘ – I sought to bring the gentle reader gently up to date with how things had come to rest for The Girl and I at the culmination of a particularly – er – ‘eventful’ year (though aren’t they all nowadays!). What I have not yet done is to peep out from underneath the metaphorical duvet – to see if I can detect good news anywhere betwixt where we are now and the distant horizon of 2025.
So – this is what we know currently about what 2024 has in store for us…
In terms of travel 2023 was – for us – a complete shocker. Without incessantly ploughing the same furrow it is worth reminding ourselves that there was a point last year when we seriously thought that our travelling days were over. Not so – you will be happy to hear. We are already well advanced with the planning for another expedition for April/May this year.
“Which exotic part of the globe will you be visiting?” – I hear you cry. Well – I’m sure we all have our own definitions of ‘exotic’. This is one of ours.
The Girl and I have for a considerable while now felt drawn to visit the mystical realm of Scotland. Even casual viewers of these witterings will be aware of my love for – and great pride in – the home of my ancestors (the which I inherited from my father). My family travelled many times to the highlands for holidays just as soon as we were old enough. My father was a great hill walker and he and I (and sometimes my younger brother) climbed many a peak in different parts of the land. I have regularly over the years visited both Edinburgh and Glasgow for work and – with my theatrical hat on – ventured to the Edinburgh Fringe on more occasions than I can now enumerate.
The Girl has toured parts of Scotland just once before – with a good guide and great friend – but she and I have not been there together and we feel a very strong urge so to do.
Anyway – more on that trip as it unfolds…
In ‘The World of Work‘ I wrote:
“During the autumn just past The Girl reached the conclusion that her eight years at the volunteer service was enough. As it happens the service was undergoing some restructuring and she was able to do a deal whereby she would hand over the reigns to a full-time replacement, with a negotiated package that would enable her to take some time to figure out what – if anything – she wanted to do next. She is thus once again retired (for now!)“.
Following what might just be the shortest retirement ever… The Girl has just this week started an exiting new venture, about which I can currently reveal nothing at all, but concerning which I suspect a great deal will be said in the months to come. Watch – as they say – this space!
I have already dropped huge hints about creative developments in the musical department. We are firmly expecting a new album to put in an appearance at some point this year – and if we could play live somewhere to welcome it, then that would be splendid.
As ever at this time of the year there are many other exciting prospects bubbling under and – though there are also many very good reasons to feel nervous about 2024 – I like to approach the year under an umbrella of optimism. (Google assures me that – somewhat to my surprise – I am not the first to coin that particular euphemism. Oh well!).
Very best wishes to you all for 2024.
Tags: Anam Danu, Music, New Year, plans, The Girl, Travel, work
“He roller-coaster, he got early warnin’
He got muddy water, he one mojo filter
He say, “One and one and one is three”
Got to be good-lookin’, ’cause he’s so hard to see”
John Lennon – ‘Come together’
It is – as I have repeated many times before – my habit at around the turn of the year to look back and ponder on the twelve months that have recently ended, before turning my thoughts toward the nascent year just arriving, there to surmise what might be expected in each of the most important areas of our lives. At around this time last year my wits were full of the then recently taken (and, as it proved, fateful!) decision to mount a trip-of-a-lifetime safari to Botswana. My meanderings concluded thus:
“Such is the mental magnitude of the undertaking that we don’t have much space left in our imaginations at this juncture to conjure up other aims and ambitions for the year – with the exception of a musical ambition on my part. The Chanteuse and I have decreed that this year we should prepare ourselves to perform live. Even should we not manage so to do before the year’s end – we will be ready and raring to go immediately thereafter. More on this also – later in the year”.
So – how did we get on?
Well – we haven’t played live… yet!
These things are complex and take time. Our music is emotional and cinematic and not easily transcribed to a single acoustic guitar and a washboard (neither of which either of us plays). The whole business clearly required careful consideration and not a little experimentation.
What we did first was to release a couple of singles – ‘Perfect‘ and ‘The Journey Home‘ – with the idea of keeping our music in the public eye. Through these releases we achieved a number of firsts:
We also had enjoyed another first… but more of that later.
The trouble with playing complex music live is that there are basically two different ways of achieving it: one can work with a lot of technology – or with a whole bunch of people (musicians!).
Finding the right musicians is difficult. One is asking folk to voluntarily give up a lot of their time and expertise to do something for which the rewards could be precious but nebulous. When one is young finding musicians is easy and in my chequered past I have done so many times. Young people have energy and ideas and want to get involved. They don’t much care about being rewarded and they tend to be only partly formed – which makes it easier for them to adapt and to meld themselves to their chosen project.
Older people tend to be more set in their ways – more cynical – more particular about what they want to do and what they won’t do – and also about whether or not they expect to get paid for it.
In short – putting a band together when you are young happens almost without effort. When one is older – it don’t!…
…hence the interest in the technology. Using all this wonderful gear is very much the thing of now – but it does have down-sides. It is expensive and complex to do well – and it is difficult to get a truly human result unless one is very good at it. We spent a chunk of the year playing around with various setups trying to see if we could get things to work as a duo, but the truth is that our music properly requires real people, playing together.
So – our other first… the first time we played with another musician – the fiddle player who provided a session for one of our singles (thank you)…
…which led ultimately to this year’s really big news: we now have a new member! – who shall, for the purposes of this blog, be awarded the sobriquet – The Jongleur.
This exciting development brings us a most important second voice – the which will be essential for playing live and one which miraculously blends beautifully with The Chanteuse.
Welcome! Welcome!!
Of course, this won’t just affect playing live. The other looking-forward news item is that we are writing furiously and have already compiled more than half the material needed for a new album – the which we anticipate appearing in public sometime around the middle of the year.
So – much excitement – much to look forward to.
Find us here:
Tags: album, Celebration, Music, single
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