Iain Cameron's Diary
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2002-11-28 - 4:42 p.m.

Drove to the Rocky Bank Hotel in Milverton this morning listening to the GI/IC short stories - wondering what the tale might be. If they were songs it might be clearer. I could hypothesise � maybe in the area of narrative and ordered time � its potentiality for being filled with beauty, dullness and hostility. This is perhaps especially true in the second half where the middle piece might be about the tyranny of beauty in relation to any kind of liberation agenda. But freed from the thrall of velvet there is the roughness of the unrelieved everyday or the brutality of the unwelcome eruptions into the life-world. We are soft machines best clothed in velvet rather than shaking our fists at fate � only Beethoven can find ennoblement in an aesthetics rooted thus.

Maybe I should read more Byron.

Woww � this must be me letting off steam after a day of the global automotive standard TS 16949. Actually they are an interesting bunch to work with � one guy on my table has worked in Johannesburg for several years in the mines and the other person comes to UK automotive with the benefit of a training in systems theory as applied to social work in Germany. Her company only has 19 people in it but they are going for this world class certification alongside companies amongst the top 20 largest in the world in this sector.

This morning I started to think about the next piece in my alpha archive. It is one of the Airburst Suite � another group of 10 pieces - that I assembled around 1997-98. Six of them appear on Serious Music and five of them are songs. One is recorded but unreleased and this next one which has come to the surface is a song which only exists in one recorded variant with some ropey vocals by yours truly plus some unprocessed guitar fills from the Maya � its first outing I think. Anyway � there it is � with a history dating back over ten years � currently as a setting of Ash Wednesday. And it has come to the surface as the next tune to work on. I have loaded it into Cubase Go and run it through the softsynth which suits it pretty well � and I have just started putting some guitar fills on. Will I be motivated enough to try the vocals again? That�s what I call hard work.

Sat in with Mr Band�s band � Autumn Leaves, So What, My Funny Valentine and Christopher Columbus . I managed to miss Giant Steps � pphhhewww � Gavin said he had never heard A Love Supreme. John had his seven string bass which goes up to the F just above the octave on the top string of a normal guitar � he really makes it fly. Not in the cellar this week but upstairs in Regency splendour. But it does make me wonder about the sustainability of the jazz life

As I write I am listening to Adam Postgate � with some improvised lines � it�s a bit of a lark. Some parts very ordered � others a bit adhoc. But he has won a place in my heart. I could keep on tinkering forever.

E-m from Gilbert saying that he is ready to despatch another CD.

Errrrmmm � how to put this � I had an idea at the weekend that I would rip a track from Gilbert�s Solo Works and give it the shortstory treatment � and that�s what I have just done. It�s a muted lyrical piece on Spanish guitar which now gets harassed by motifs from Hammond, sax, tuba and the occaisional splash from tubular bells and a less intrusive spluge from the harp.

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