The strange, silent house

 Without the clicking of pooch paws on laminate floors, without the wildly enthusiastic greeting when you come in, without the roar of unfettered delight when a tin of dog food is opened, without the constant companion who follows you from room to room, forever under the feet but always welcome, always loved. Without. 

I deliberately didn't take a 'last' photo, but here's a set from last October that seem to fit. 

Friday now. I buried him deep and under stones to prevent anything digging down. Had a walk with Tony this morning which was nice. It's still early enough to drink and hopefully ease the back pain I can feel. I might write some soppy, sentimental music (from which Tim would recoil in horror). Ultimately, I'm a soppy, sentimental kinda guy. 

It hasn't been easy. I keep checking when I open a door to see if he's lurking on the other side, curious to know where I am and get to me. I've seen him running through long grass in dreams, I've half seen him when I look up sometimes. My pal Tony's 15 year old lab came to the end too, so I guess we should go for a walk and be miserable together.  

Time has passed, I still haven't finished this blog entry, not sure why. In the meantime I've got Rick's first string part - cello and viola over the piano / wind thing I was close to abandoning. Did my first mix of it yesterday and it's good - wish I'd taken more time over the notes now as this was an afterthought really and sometimes sounds like it. I have ideas for a couple of harmonic touches on Minimoog that could give it some extra interest. We'll see. Oh, Martin's theremin and subtle guitar worked really well, did I tell you about that, dear diary? I expect so but my mind is mush. Maybe still needs some flute and manic guitar from Mark, although he says he no longer plays. 

Did a thing yesterday that sounds promising. That was before taking delivery of a Vermona DRM1, which I swapped for a couple of modules and which I've fancied since reviewing it. 

I think that will be the album cover - no text. Fits the idea, plus it's a photo I took on Jeffrey Hill and all the trees have since been cut down. Going with the faded/sepia look to squeeze out max nostalgia. Rick says he'll have the violin part on Monday - that's the one I spent a little longer on and the blend with synth strings should work nicely. 

Farewell old friend

 Well, Pat pointed disapprovingly to my belly and suggested I was drinking more beer than usual. So that's nice. Good she looks out for me though, I'll hide the bottles in future ;)

The conservatory has a small leak. It explains the wetness over quite a long period that we'd put down to all sorts of nonsense without really investigating. Pension dude reckons my tax bill is about right, which is sobering but I think I understand. It will probably mean we pay very little next time due to their dodgy estimation algorithms. Anyway, rather a drag having to get cash at this stage (especially after we just did our annual 'legacy' thing) but has to be. I'll maybe keep some of the PRS back in the coming year rather than blow it on toys. That's assuming it keeps coming, of course. 

Possibly the BB is coming today but no delivery info yet. Went shopping but it was the shit sushi woman so didn't buy any. 

Friday again, yay. I'm thinking of a couple of places in the Accidental Hermit where some Rick Curran violin (and cello if poss) would really enhance it. The BlackBox slotted in perfectly, as I knew it would, and in a Cirklon environment I can do things like close the filter smoothly over loop transitions, for those times I was noodling too far away from the BB to see the loop coming to an end. I do sometimes forget to end with a similar sound to how I started but automation from within a Cirklon pattern is the perfect solution. Pointed out a few simple flaws in recording, say, a 32 bar Ck pattern in terms of visibility but at least I do finally have a use for Cirklon's A/B knobs - recording my tweaks. The MIDI Learn of the BB was as easy as I hoped too - and I see how using Cirklon's sequencer to trigger samples is going to be a logical next step. 

I think some cello over the windy piano track (the one Tim isn't keen on) might lift it from so-so to go-go. Will offer to pay Rick something though, only fair. 

Where are we? Could be Tuesday. The book about Klaus Schulze arrived and I had a mess with the oil paints. Realised the canvas boards I bought are way too large for a 'getting reacquainted' session so abandoned the woody one in favour of a smaller self-portrait. I can come back to it, of course. So far I'm much happier than I was using acrylics, although I'd forgotten how messy I get when using oils. Will definitely need more paint and a couple of extra brushes, and some more turps than the wee bottle they sent. Still, pretty happy so far and it's better than sitting on my arse. 

It's raining and it was sulky sushi lady's turn at Sainsbury's today, so none of my favourites prepared. Woe is me!

It's a rainy Thursday and we've decided Jasper has suffered enough. Had an awful few days with him - he's barely managed to crap at all. I suspect I'm going to blub but I think we need to go through with it this time. The periods where he is able to function normally are getting smaller and smaller. Made a start on a painting yesterday but don't feel like doing much today except sitting around. Bad news about conservatory too - was made with several important errors. No wonder they went out of business!

Nearly done

 A few bursts of inspiration, some ruthless deletion and I'm at version 1.4 of Accidental Hermit and it's hanging together fine. Three tracks of 20-23 mins, just need to be sure all sections work then get it mastered and do some artwork. I ordered some oil paints and a couple of boards and even a palette knife just cos I've never tried one. 
I sold my 0-coast and bought another BlackBox - to attach to the Cirklon rig and hopefully make it more productive. It'll fit in where the RC-505 is now and be able to sample from the two mixers in that area using a bit of bus routing and spit. I am hopeful this will spawn yet more groovy shit!

Tax bill is larger than last year when my earnings were more. Depressing but we'll need to grab some more pension money to pay it. New single / EP is out.  to almost universal lack of response despite the Marc Riley 'exclusive' that resulted in us pulling it from bandcamp last Friday when the release was meant to happen. 

Had a walk and took some pix. 

Think I'll put the 1.7.4 beta on the BB when it arrives and see how it handles. 

HNY

Another year. I will start to compile the stuff needed to do my tax return. Not so much this time as there's almost no SOS income. PRS still higher than I'd expected but I doubt it'll be high enough to cost me too much. I really should advertise some stuff. Had contemplated selling the Pro2 but sometimes could see myself keeping it. I do like its keyboard feel/length for one thing and I was getting some fun stuff from it yesterday despite its hated envelopes. Thing is I rarely use it in recordings, replacing it at the last minute. 

Gear combinations of the moment: Odyssey & Tapographic Delay. Also: Blofeld and Magneto. Adding crinkle to its PPG noises and mellotrons is very cool. Thinking the only good use for my modular is to grab a few individual modules for processing other things. 

Recorded a few things, ambient and much more the kind of thing I want. Parking idea of new album for a bit and see what else appears. 

Just noticed it's Friday. 

Just pix from evening poo walk. All I have right now. 

Wednesday now, Jan 6th, little to report other than fear and panic all around. Ordered some slightly more expensive whisky. Walked with Tim this week, missed going with Tony but may catch up tomorrow morning. Must see John next week, feel I'm letting him down. 
Our new EP will be out on Friday.