My round up of what I did at Americana UK in 2021 is here, but I’ve only just felt moved to write up the year generally. I’m feeling more than ever that it is time to look forward rather than back… That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some great albums out this year. The best however are rooted in artists’ responses to the Pandemic and its fall out.
Bill Nelson’s ‘My Private Cosmos’ ended up as a six CD set and is some of the defining music of these times. If you read his journal you will discover that this time has not been kind to him but has resulted in some of the best music of his career. Buy it at Burning Shed.
From May 2020 Robert Fripp issued weekly ‘Music for Quiet Moments’. As I’ve always been more a fan of his Soundscapes than King Crimson I collected them as he went along. The 8CD box is still tempting though as a record of some of the sounds that supported me. Again buy it Burning Shed.
Fripp’s diary is always interesting and occasionally fascinating. The latest is here.
Fripp and Nelson along with other artists working in the more Ambient end of music have been something I have listened to for a long time. I wrote about them here a bit over a year ago, and everything I said then holds good now.
I mentioned Cloudland Blue Quartet in that earlier piece, and while he doesn’t always operate in the stiller places that Fripp and Nelson often live in, his music is another place that I have gone to regularly for relaxation and energising. His recent ‘TwentytwentyOne : The Orginals’ is one I missed over Christ
mas and have just picked up from Bandcamp. ‘The Fourth Moveable Sky (2021 Remix)’ could well be my get myself moving soundtrack for a while I feel. ‘My favourite of his many albums at present is ‘Variation on Brian Eno’s “Music For Airports“‘. As I suggested in my earlier piece I tried Eno’s music and found it satisfying. David Reilly has brought a new appreciation to Eno’s work for me, and I find myself listening to both regularly. Buy Cloudland Blue Quartet’s work at Bandcamp, and the emphasis there is on the word “buy”.
Lastly and back in Americana world, the always fab Continental Record Services have done their usual round up of the year on two compilations. They have some great artists on their roster, Robert Jon and The Wreck being the best for me. I’ve reviewed them and other CRS artists here and at Americana UK over the last couple of years and they maintain a consistently high standard. The compilations are here on Bandcamp.
And that is where I am at the start of 2022. If you look at the top of the page you will find an “About” tab which will point you at other places you can read my my musical witterings, should you feel the need.
