Iain Cameron's Diary
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2003-10-30 - 11:13 a.m.

Fires in LA sound really tricky. One of the advantages of the English climate

Apart from that it has been an enthusiastic 24 hours.

I have come across some good finds on the net including some free software which plays all kinds of non-standard scales on the portable. Its called Scala, Simple but fascinating in the insight it gives into alternative musical worlds. I must avoid getting sucked too far into the bowels of the machine.

Then I came across a great site, ubu.com, dedicated to collecting artistic material from the margins � sound poetry, conceptual art, strange magazines from past decades, readings. I have downloaded Patti Smith �reading� in 1975, Cage reading from �Silence� a few years earlier, some Laurie Anderson, some David Behrman which is very much to my taste.There is even the famous Robert Ashley piece, �I am Sitting in a Room.� How kind of someone to have collected all this material and made it available. A really great service.

I also discovered that Steve Reich has 12 minutes of his Music for 18 Musicians available on his own site from a performance of his ensemble in the mid 70s. Wonderful stuff. I don�t yet have this on record although I have heard it performed by the London Sinfonietta with the guidance of the composer. There�s also a load of material about Three Tales.

Stefan and I went over to Bilston which is on the opposite side of Birmingham to Leamington, near Wolverhampton, to entertain one of our customers. Fortunately for all concerned, the entertainment involved the 21st Century Schizoid Band who were playing at Robins 2. They were even better than I expected. It�s a long time since I�ve heard such great flute and sax playing in a rock band � quite a provocation to be honest. The back line was great as well � Peter Giles told me he thought it was getting tighter. My idea of corporate entertainment. In fact most people there thought it was the business.

Andrew K is right that the ability to reference jazz deepens the music. There were times when it reminded me of the Frith-Zorn-Laswell band I heard at the Barbican a few years back.

I bought the CD and also Ian M�s latest. Said hullo to Ian and Mel C.

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