Well, finally there is some actual news! The Blackbirds’ Revenge will be out on Jozik in March, as part of a batch of four tapes. It will come in a rather lovely fabric sleeve (see the Jozik website for examples of this)! I should hopefully have some concrete news on an actual date (or rough date, at least) nearer the time.
There’s some further news on some collaborative pieces, too. The Off Land version of ‘May’, ‘May Second’, should be appearing on Tim’s Bandcamp page on… May 2nd, funnily enough. He’s done a wonderful job reworking the track, starting with some deconstructed versions of the main chord sequence, before heading into a really beautiful climax section and eventually fading away again. Elsewhere, my collaborative work with Craig of Loose Link is complete, and will bear the name ‘Rooms and Trees’, under the cunning alias of Sturmazdale. He’s taken a lot of my basic tracks and put them into a very different context, reflecting his current life in Melbourne. It’s not quite as dark as the original Sturmazdale, A Room and The Tree – although retains a fair bit of the sinister mood. I’m carting that off to a couple of labels who may be interested in it. Oh, and Jerky Oats closed, finally, a couple of weeks ago, with great releases from Thom and Gregg. Quite relieved not to have to go through the stress of releasing stuff there again.
It’s nice to finally have a release date for The Blackbirds’ Revenge, as I’ve recorded pretty much all I can in Maidstone with my current equipment. I need to do some mixing, mastering and a lot of listening to work out what I’m going to do with my current set of compositions. I reckon the next one will follow close behind Blackbird, but given that album’s ‘transitional’ status, that might not be such a big deal.
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