august in october

Help, help, we are terribly late! The augustmass has not arrived in September, and all the little birds are a-twitter with amazement and chagrin. Or some sort of grin anyway. It is already October, and raining, and there is a hurricane on its way and we have not even sent out august yet. Heroic efforts by gangs of startled rodents, chewing desperately at the ancient mastertapes handed down through the generations have led to the new meshmass monthly clocking in at a mere 2 hours (or so). ‘praise be’, cry the poor porters and carrier pigs of the internet, whose thankless and entirely wage-free task it is to convey brimming barrels of meshmass over the invisible waves to your computer. But this will in the end avail them little – more meshmass is being prepared in bubbling vats and arising spontaneously in noisome pools. so do not fear, dear reader, meshmass is coming, enough meshmass for all..... more than enough! and this month we even remembered to include the lovely cover photograph we always promise and often forget.

desperately sprinting on our milipede legs towards the end of august we realise we have to release JULYMASS 2016 before the boiler explodes and huge gobbets of MESHMASS are deposited hither and yon. teams of carefully trained lunatics have been chiselling away at the piles of material we have accrued but despite our best efforts it seems that there will be no less (indeed, there will be very slightly more) than 3 hours of meshmass this month, for which we do not know whether to apologise or demand extra money - perhaps we will do both. in line with our policy of constant redefintion this monthly edition will include not less than a couple of pieces based on saxophone improvisations recorded in churches across sussex, england. i think of 'slow action in the science lounge' and 'translated from the gibberish' in particular, but there may even be others. i think the longest pieces are about 13 minutes and that there are 4 or 5 duets. there are 20 pieces in all. other innovations include richard's new guitar, a yamaha mg-k which features a 'sustainiac' pick-up and unlike most of his guitars is tuned in the 'standard' or 'spanish' style. peter is playing more tenor saxophone than before, mostly because he has got one he likes at last, a 'king marigaux' which was made by SML in paris, so now he plays SML soprano, alto and tenor saxes. the 'king marigaux' saxes are identical with SML gold medal mark 2's. meshmass are due to play the closing of sabine portela's exhiition of abstract canvasses at 3 fisher street, lewes, east sussex on saturday 3rd of september at about 7. we hope that next month's selection will be shorter (and easier to edit).

Inspired by justin hopper’s failure to update his blog I have decided that we must share our latest schemes and notions with the world, which is to say you, since you are the only person who will read this. We (that is to say MESHMASS) have been working away as usual on the monthly subscription releases, and sent out an e-mail circular seeking subscribers with the opportunity to download ‘maymass 2016’ free. some might think that 2 hours of meshmass is enough for a year – or indeed a lifetime – but some might not, and it is to these rare few we sought to appeal. But apart from this entirely normal behaviour we have also engaged in playing live at the open house in brighton and in remote internet collaborations with European poets Karin Tarobochia (austria), Henry Koek and Catherine Estrade (france) and scots exile Dave Migman in italy. Similarly, we have a sort of song made remotely with ‘crayola lectern’ supplying words, piano and vocals. this acts as a sort of response to the national vote against european co-operation which we have just been through. They have all been surprising and worthwhile, and we may seek to make a release out of them in due course. Further spoken word/vocal collaborations are planned. In terms of our own production we have embarked on a new phase of using saxophone improvisations to generate ableton material to use as the basis for yer actual meshmass, a process which is quite labour intensive, time-consuming and messy (messymass?) but rewarding. It’s time now that we should turn our attention to the ‘junemass 2016’ release: as usual we have no idea what will be on it or how long it will be – except that there will definitely be more than an hour of it and it will be provided to subscribers through the auspices of aural witness and ‘WeTransfer’, a very useful free service I truly recommend. There we are now, I almost feel better.

MESHMASS played at the regular improvised music night 'on the edge' organised by the safehouse collective in brighton, england. this happens on the last wednesday of every month and is often at the 'good companions' pub near 7 dials or at 'the verdict' more or less opposite the law courts, police station and american express building, a triumvirate or even trinity of holy powers. they played in support of the excellent 4:33 and what they played was an entirely improvised duet lasting 30 minutes or so which can be heard at the moment on soundcloud in its entirety. it went surprisingly well. the evening started with the 'wildcard quartet' drawn at random from the membership of the collective and then it was us. we were followed for no reason that could possibly justify such a thing by a duo who played what they described as 'standards' and which included the pathetic jingly earworm 'i don't know why i didn't come' made famous by ravi shankar's most anodyne daughter. standards! (my, but how they have slipped.) at an improvised music night. no bottles were thrown, which is a testament to the patience and good humour of all concerned. anyone interested in improvised music in the brighton area is hereby encouraged to come to the safehouse's regular improvising night hwen quartets are drawn at random from the attendees and they then perform for 10 minutes or so to the rest of the group. there are many good players involved and i think the event the best entertainment in brighton. it happens on the first wednesday of every month, again either at the verdict or at the good companions.