A productive few days, though I feel less productive than I probably am.
On Monday I started to compile my short stories into a collection. I wrote these from 2011 to 2015, with my novella in between. For some reason I thought that these stories spanned a much greater time period. All are strange tales, usually with a twist; little imaginative vignettes, often with a fantastical quality. There are no limits to the imagery to present the tale, these are dream images, rather than sci-fi. You could think of them like episodes of The Twilight Zone, or The Outer Limits, or short stories by Terry Gilliam, if he should ever do such a thing.
Yesterday Deb went I went to meet David Lawton in Chester, an artist of great energy, and passion and knowledge for painting. His meticulous, typically miniature portrait, work barely shows his boundless energy and intellect, perhaps discernible only by its extreme attention to detail. A lovely friend and a wonderful and inspiring day all round. How I wish I had more time to paint!
But this is a time for music, and today we worked out the set-lists for the four Fall in Green shows so far this year. Each requires a lot of music, and new projections - I need to make a film for each track (and our songs/tracks/poems are short, typically under 3 minutes, so we have many per show, this in itself presents artistic challenges). The way the projector works means that I can't easily have some tracks without films and some with; for a smooth performance, everything needs some image or video. This attention to the smoothness of presentation is a key difference between an amateurish and professional looking show.
I'll try to perform three of these four events with three synthesizers too, for the first time. This means designing lots of new sounds as well as memorizing every piece of music and the transitions between. I can't read music well enough to perform from it, so I perform every show from memory; each is normally over an hour, and each is a very different mix of music. This isn't that difficult for my generally good memory. The trick is to know the mood, the feeling, the key... then anything is authentic.
The job of loading, carrying, setting up the equipment, testing the audio, putting the amplifiers here, the projector there... this work is the most tiring and difficult. Each show takes at least an hour to set up in situation, and three or four in the day beforehand, and all again at the end. I can barely focus on any aspect of the actual performance given the exhausting work of setting the heavy equipment up. Still, this must be done.
We will be performing at least one new work this year for the Knutsford Music Festival, which we will open on the evening Thursday the 11th of June. Our other two confirmed shows are at Crewe Library on Tuesday 19th May, and a short performance based on War is Over in Crewe Town Centre on Saturday 11th May.
The time for me to paint something for my Nantwich solo exhibition is scant. I might have to start this in July.
