January Looks Forward

The beginning of a new year always gives a nice sense of rhythm to the wandering line that is my life (and yours?) - a chance to delineate a fresh mental space.

And so while I am planning to realise work based on ideas I've been developing over the past year or more, I also want to leave some room for spontaneity and surprise. Fish finger fox.

And so here are some things that'll be going into the Chameleon Lectra mix - as listed in the last CL Newsletter but with additional comments - bearing in mind I haven't gathered all of the ingredients yet:



• RMusic 003: work has already begun on a new Motile album to be titled 'Inlets' Daughter' and due for release in early-to-mid '08.

This album is emerging as an extension of the territory explored in 'Inlets', with contributions from other musicians; its main influences are sea and sky. ID will be available in a range of formats and the primary album cover will be in the form of a mug - a development from my rethinking of the album.



• The four ongoing Consemble projects are continuing to grow, with more projects planned for the coming year; your contributions are welcome.

Parallel Music eTude 23, based on my experience with Consembling, will be premiered as part of the Sound and Film (Voices Festival) on Sunday 24th 2008 in the Jill Craigie Cinema, Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth. This strand of the event is being organised by John Matthias.

Amongst the various contributors to Consemble are composer John Matthias and mail artist Martha Aitchison [Consemble D: 'warm surroundings'], Martin (of headphonica) [Consemble B: 'Dusk'], Teofo M from Botswana [Consemble C: 'the idea of voice'] and Cyrus, who lives in Seoul, Korea [Consemble A: 'Snapshot'].



• Parallel Music releases, in the form of interactive Singles, are currently being developed for purchase and download (Mac and PC) - initially via lulu.com. The free, earlier Singles can be heard here.

A PMusic album is pencilled in (2HB) for a 2009 launch.

Working on releasing some new PMusic in the form of Singles will allow me to continue to develop the form and content of some relatively short PMusic pieces for this year while giving me time to complete and promote the RMusic 'Inlets' Daughter'. The experience of selling the Singles will also inform the distribution of the first PMusic album. I'm very much looking forward to creating this first Parallel Music collection - it's certainly been a long time coming! (over ten years!)



• Bookworks, paper and pixel, on a range of subjects including sex, music, the sea, insect life and salt crystal painting etc. are being prepared for publication.

I released a number of publications (with some collaborative works) on my own imprint 'Alembic Books' in the early '90s and these proved to be very popular. My intention is to re-present some of this material - and also develop some new bookworks - for sale via the web, both as paperbacks and computer-based pieces (lectra). This will also fulfill my intention of extending the range of artistic activity within Chameleon Lectra.


• Work will also continue on the collaboration with Steve Thorpe (Rockworks and Soundworks), the updating of paulramsay.co.uk and the recomposing of the music of Miss Beatrice Harrison...

'the map is not the territory'

Post-It Notes

The whole process of delivering 'Inlets' to the world has been extremely educational. Now that the album has been available for several weeks there are many ongoing threads I must attend to.

Firstly: I find myself constantly re-evaluating the Chameleon Lectra website and making adjustments. Two things still need to be addressed here - a clearer mapping of RMusic and PMusic and the development of the sketchBook area.

Secondly: 'Inlets' needs to be promoted. I have a series of ads in the Wire magazine arranged and I also plan to contact Resonance FM to see if I can do something with them. I must send out some review copies.

Thirdly: (and this tends to interfere with the previous two points) I am currently creating new music. This, in itself, involves an ongoing process of evaluation and selection.

What is clear from this post to myself is that I need to have an effective strategy to attend to all necessary areas. My advice to anyone getting involved in music creation and distribution, from what I have learned so far, is: be prepared to keep things flexible and be curious about new developments, both cultural and technological.

Launch

The Chameleon Lectra website was officially launched last Tuesday 8th June 2004. And so Motile's first CD 'Inlets' is now available to the world. I've had around 40 hits on the site in the first week but this hasn't been matched by sales, as yet. To paraphrase a character in a recent cartoon series: 'now my work can be ignored by 90 million people' ;-)

First Tracks

I have recently created a record label called Motile which is due to issue its first release, 'Inlets', very soon. One of the things this Blog will do is document the process of creating this record label.

Ever since I was a young child I've been in love with the gramophone record and it has long been my ambition to own a record label that released 'new' music in fresh formats. Finally, nearing the resonant age of 45, I've been able to bring together all the strands of my experiences, coupled with the development of new technologies, to take me to where I've wanted to be for a long time.

Since adolecscence I've been conceiving the world in terms of albums. 'The album' is my favourite creative unit (even better than 'the book'): a musical, and sometimes visual, statement of a way of describing the world.

To have a record label is therefore to have a means of publication for all those creative units. There are many problems and dilemmas naturally enough: problems of solipsism, copyright, distribution, saleability and so on. There are even problems of 'shape' - with the advent of digital downloads from iTunes and Napster et al, ideas of the album and ideas of the record label are changing through the use of new technologies.

But my overriding view is that it's worth it just to live an idea first formed so many years ago. If there's the opportunity to give something a shape, and a new one at that, let's take it before the music ends forever.