i reduction to sleep (a broken consort)

work by louise skelton & richard skelton
(sustain-release)

music by richard skelton:
( )= moniker name

-(a broken consort) box of birch, 2007
barbed wire blues, berkmanan and j f glidden.
bowed metallic figures suspended from ivied trees.
dense thickets of slack, rusted snares and splitting bark.
accordion mists gathering in the early morning light.

-(riftmusic) riftmusic, 2007
iridescent blues. a slow burning late summer fire - its motes carried on the breeze and dancing in the twilight. restless, tumbling chord arpeggios the colour of fading heather and bracken. shimmering filaments of acoustic guitar blown over fields of charred violin

-(a broken consort) the shape leaves, 2006
deep forest drones and lunar blues. fragments torn from live recordings ~ serrated, bowed dulcimer, scraped guitar and wounded violin, all bound with muted, tangled percussion

-(harlassen) a way now, 2006
hypnotic, tidal blues. memories of spiralling currents, driftwood and undertow. fragments of acoustic guitar and piano swept along in choking streams of violin. lost in shimmering waves of distortion and turbulent percussion

-(carousell) a dead bridges into dust, 2005
the rattle of barbed wire fences and the distant drone of machinery. a muffled, plaintive piano and the piercing whine of a violin. fragments of acoustic guitar, interleaved, and looping endlessly in the twilight

-(heidika) there is no cure & other songs, 2005


things not unrelated:

-the music of colleen
-henryk gorecki: symphony 3 "sorrowful songs"
-the viol playing of jordi savall & early music
-the music of j.s. bach, esp. cello suites & the sonatas and partitas for solo violin
-choral/sacred music/gregorian chant
-alchemy
-the music of six organs of admittance
-rural united kingdom
-bowed metallic figures
-"tread softly because you tread on my dreams..." william butler yeats
-krzysztof kieslowski's la double vie de veronique
-the music of william basinski
-the music of steve roden
-the music of frédéric chopin & franz schubert
-accordion mists gathering in the early morning light (full of haunting melodies played on a little bowed mandela, wrapped in a fog of harmonium and accordion swells, with briers of tangled percussion creeping in at the edges…)
-the famed inventor of barbed wire joseph glidden
-the music of nick drake
-unintentional, unrepeatable sounds
-improvisation
-fallen leaves


my observations of the work (using à la recherche du temps perdu - du côté de chez swann):

for a long time i would go to bed early. sometimes, the candle barely out, my eyes closed so quickly that i did not have time to tell myself "i am falling asleep". and half an hour later the thought that it was time to look for sleep would awaken me.

pour à longue temps je suis aller pour chambre premièr. tantôt, la bougie à peine extinction, mon oeils passage si vite ce je jaire n'avoir pas temps pour dire moi-même "je diminution dormir." et demi-heure postiérieur la pensée ce être temps chercher sommeil suis réveille moi.

to a long weather i swiss i'm leaving to room first. sometimes, there; (here) candle a sorrow, grief lost my eyes driving through and buts quickly the i to make n'credit not weather to according to me - same (even) "i reduction to sleep." and half an hour later (behind) there: here thought the being weather to look for sleep swiss waking i.

(1999 translation)


i have found myself lately listening excessively to the music of richard skelton, and thinking about the beautiful work of louise skelton. this post has taken me near 2 months, because i have been so overwhelmed by the work and the cd packages (that feature the work of louise skelton), that i found it impossible to say anything about it, except that the work is wonderful, sublime and beautiful.
instead, i offer an interpretation using the words of proust, hoping that he would find a more suitable description.
looking through proust's books, it seems every 5th work offers a beautiful compliment to this work, so maybe that is a more interesting method than to read the words of this old catscratcher (meaning myself).


some links:
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(*****), (******), (*******), (********)