meshmass played the festival of brown on sunday 23rd at brighton's eminently brown coach house, the world's least visible venue. they were joined by guests tim green (tenor sax) annie kerr (violin) and nigel french (percussion) and played for 90 minutes. having guests is good and interesting but it was a relief to sink back into a duet towards the end. we had our usual recording session on tuesday and produced just over 50 minutes of new music some of which (strict elephants, i believe) is even now available to the discerning listener (and the other one too) on soundcloud. on friday peter played alto in a scratch quartet supporting a trio led by ken vandermark at the safe house in brighton. ken vandermark is a well-known improviser from chicago who has played with all sorts of famous people. it was quite startling how high he could make his clarinet go and he was impressive on the tenor sax too. the drummer mark sanders was extraordinary. not only that but peter has bought himself another alto, this one being a selmer mark Vl which has had some alterations made to it. this means he has 3 altos at the moment, so if anyone wants to buy a conn 6M 'ladyface' they know where to come. only the cruel would suggest he needs so many saxophones because he hopes to find one that he can play. meshmass will have a week off now but should reconvene for a recording on october 9th. some time before that we will have to select and distribute the september edition of the monthly mass. i can hardly wait.