A day creating a survey using the Software Tool of Fear, to be run on The System Beyond Redemption.
Evening, and a welcome call from old friend Gil, who had, I thought, moved away but hasn’t. He’s suffered serious illness and serious treatment over the last year, and seems to have fully recovered.
At odd moments over the last few days I’ve been dipping into Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus, which was shown on Arena on Sunday night. I watched the final part tonight. While I’ve been steeped in ambient music, in Arabic music, in Frippian music that avoids all nuances of folk, blues or country, I realised how much that old Southern cracked-and-broken stuff, the tired lament of doomed people, speaks to me. It’s been there in some of my songs – Anywhere But Here, Roadblock, even Empty – but I’ve often tried to escape it. The song that nearly came the other night had that feeling. I can’t quite find the way to contain both musics at once right now, and put forth something that rings of them both, but that would be something to do.