chasing tails

Despite the lack of words, instrumental music has an amazing capacity to invoke narratives, images and feelings. You can think of composers and performing musicians rather like authors; and like authors, they are only part of the story! The really exciting transformations happen inside the mind of the person perceiving it: meanings and associations take shape, change, and linger all by themselves…

I often think about something the violinist and quartet leader Peter Cropper used to say to students which went something along the lines of: “feels great, sounds crap”. He was getting at a mental balance all musicians have to strike between one’s own internal perspective, and what you actually sound like to somebody listening. Being able to inhabit that second zone comfortably and regularly is a really important part of performing…

These recordings are enthusiastically anachronistic, and it’s been a fascinating, rewarding and exponentially-expanding process of discovery. For me, it’s also a chance to try things out, get better at my instrument, and get comfortable with recording equipment and software. In this article, I wanted to have a brief look at the process of making the recordings you hear on the first album, both creatively and technically…