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IAN BLAKE

  • Home
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Olympic fever 

Light the Flame, a song by Lynne Pilbrow that I recorded a while ago, has received something like forty kiloviews on YouTube. Must be the most listened-to thing to have emerged from the Blue Bear Studio complex...

08/27/2016

Messiaen at Westminster Cathedral 

Heard my favourite Christmas music at a Westminster Cathedral concert yesterday: organist Peter Stevens played Messiaen's 'La Nativité du Seigneur' on the mighty Willis. And for all you organoraks out there, some details:

http://www.westminstercathedral.org.uk/organs.php

12/24/2015

Skrying into my beer. 

Apropos of nothing in particular, gratuitously to boot, here's a picture of a fine pint of Guinness, plan view, taken on St. Patrick's day at Canberra's salubrious Irish Club.

The busy barstaff attempt to draw a shamrock in Green Goo on the head of your Guinness. As the day wears on, these designs become more abstract and creative. And indeed, I became more abstract and creative too, easing into the flow state before you can say 'Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi'.

Somewhere in New Scientist - and I wish I could…

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08/02/2014

Vocals, gloves and rumbles 

It was a voicy sort of evening: last night I attended David Howard's Gresham College lecture on 'The Science of Singing'. A musicianly engineer's approach to the structure, care and use of our vocal equipment, the talk featured a chorus of 3D-printed vocal tracts standing up on their driver units like a litter of wee aliens with an alarming affection for barbershop.

After all that it was time for a stroll to Finsbury via Clerkenwell, just so I could wander down SANS Walk, pausing only for a swift half at…

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07/01/2014

Ni! 

More Folk Festival fallout: a deal was done and I'm now the (proud, needless to say) owner of a Rauschpfeife. And before you ask, it's one of that 'pneumatic bedpost' family of Renaissance winds which I've fiddled (?) with over the years. It all started when I got hold of David Munrow's LP 'The Medieval Sound', in which he gives a running commentary on a number of pungent sounding reedthings - including the ultimate snartbox, the regals. And I was hooked.

Fast forward a couple of years and I was at college…

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04/28/2014

Help with compos(t)ing 

I was recording at the Blue Bear Studio complex with John Shortis. Noticing this book lying around, he wondered wryly if I'd bought it thinking it said 'A Practical Guide to Composing'. I'm sure there are processes common to both disciplines…

OK - how about this: gather, combine and layer material, leave it for a while, turn it over/re-arrange it, leave it alone and perhaps forget about it for a bit, come back to find out if it's turning into something with an interesting texture and hopefully nourishing…

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10/05/2013

All over the place... 

The MAMAS are on tonight: that's the MusicACT annual awards, where The Pocket Score Company is a finalist in the 'Best Four-Piece Male Vocal Ensemble Doing Mostly Renaissance Repertoire Plus A Dash Of Newly-Composed Music And The Occasional Bit Of Tom Lehrer' category.


The awkward but worthy 'classical' stuff will be dealt with early in the evening before the serious fun begins, so whether or not we triumph, I can get a nice early night so as to be daisy-fresh for a carol concert in Coburg VIC with Mike…

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12/06/2012

the night cafe 

Here's the new website for the night cafe, who I recorded here at Blue Bear Studio.

www.thenightcafe.com.au

05/21/2012

‎...and more guitars... 

The Guitar Cases return to work on songs for a forthcoming CD.

At the Blue Bear Home for Retired Amplifiers the poor old Selmer Truvoice combo has been working overtime, trying to keep up with Andrew Tatnell's merciless Fender Twin...



www.facebook.com/pages/The-Guitar-Cases/128126533878357

03/18/2012

David Yardley's new mediæval carol CD 

The recording sessions for David Yardley's CD of his new mediæval songs and carols went well, in the company of some fine singers (some fully imported from Sydney) and sound engineer Kimmo Vennonen. Good to hear what other soundpeople get up to - you always learn something!


www.davidyardley.com.au/main/page_new_medieval_songs.html

02/21/2012

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  1. 1
    from Verklärter Bungalow 0:43
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  2. 2
    from Masque 1:39
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  3. 3
    Kern 5:41
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  4. 4
    Sofðu unga ástin mín 7:39
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  5. 5
    from The River Daughter 1:26
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  6. 6
    from Starling 11:38
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  7. 7
    Green Bushes 6:56
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  8. 8
    La Rivyer Tanier 5:02
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  9. 9
    Ema Haual/Hällilaual 6:16
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  10. 10
    Le Chat à Jeanette 5:18
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  11. 11
    ..the burning Thames I have to cross... 8:50
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  12. 12
    Bergomasca Bonza 1:39
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  13. 13
    3am magpie solo 0:16
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  14. 14
    High Plains, Drifting 4:11
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  15. 15
    from 'One of Us' 11:24
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  16. 16
    from The Umbagong Grooves 2:40
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  17. 17
    generations 4:51
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  18. 18
    Hares and Plantations 2:05
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  19. 19
    King in a Tenement Castle 3:04
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  20. 20
    The Old Joe Set 4:03
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