Iain Cameron's Diary
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2002-06-05 - 11:21 p.m.

Several topics - Southern Counties Radio did a show of Dylan covers tonight including the Fairport Convention doing It takes A Train To Cry - Ian Matthews singing lead, Sandy doing the second line, R Thompson lead gtr - fresh as a daisy. Also a "retrograss" version of Maggie Farm from a US banjo picker - wish I had caught more of the programme.

I have taken to reading back copies of The Wire - which is what i did while I waited for the car to finish its MOT testing. There was an article about a new(?) form of Japanese improv - using only a mixer. You feed the output back into the input. I tried it on my Tasacam Portastudio - such fun - just as the article promised the controls take on a completely new functions. I put a multi-fx in the feedback loop - even more possibilities emerged.

I was looking at the widescreen TV deals in the local SONY dealer when I noticed a new product line. To cut to the quick I stumped up and got it home asap. Its a UBS to optical junction - the installation was as easy as promised and now I can get WAVs out of the PC and onto a Minidisc without going through an analog phase. This is my first step into using UBS as an audio port. I even managed to use the MD as an analog-digital converter on the assumption that it does a better job than the soundcard. This is only a one way device - but the omens are promising.

Tonight it was Sister Paula's Labyrinth event - a rainy night. In the end I did four pieces - the Em minor sonata first movement, Pavanne Au Bois from Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, an old acoustic gtr instrumental and smething based on Fifths. Maybe the last item was too far for this group of people - I actually felt pretty good about the way the piece had moved on using the D-Horn instead of the flute. It is now quite abstract - but the Tascam feedback will be more abstract. Bought a copy of Jazzwise for the interviews with Wayne Shorter - thats real abstraction there - and with Bill Frisell which is apparently the opposite but maybe not. WS disclose that he did a philosphy course at NY Uni as a lad. Herbie Hancock, M Brecker and the backline from Herbie's new quartet are playing London in July to explore the spirit of Miles and Trane. The reviewer of the CD expressed unease at the proposition - something I shared at first - but the CD is absolutely on the button apparently. I last saw HH and WS at the Barbican doing duets - I always promised myself that CD.

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