septembermass is now out and available to subscribers. this edition of the monthly release lasts some 79 minutes and features a range of musical delights in both mp3 and wav formats for your listening convenience. szabo 1 and 3 are fine examples of this little understood genre with spitting electronics and additions. szabo 3 in particular has the quality of constantly driving forward as further waves of musical energy pass over and beyond. wilderness appears to be lush and attractive until some ghastly monster is uncovered beneath the vegetation. all over sinks back into relaxation. abnormal has hints of balkan gipsy brass about it - kalashnikov, anyone? smoothing over is as sweet as we can manage, the bassline shadowed by alto sax. jazzbo slim is a quirk all of its own. i have seen it described as 'frankly jolly'. i have no idea starts with a piano figure and develops uncontrollably over an extended period. operational load is a soft duet. and finally strict elephants features an invasion of ghostly trombones and can be sampled at the moment on the meshmass soundcloud page as a demonstration of what is available to our lucky subscribers. i recommend the septembermass to you as a good example of our work - most of it was the product of one week's session and it was very hard indeed to reduce the production to the quite excessive length it stands at.

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.

meshmass played at the fourth FESTIVAL OF BROWN. they were AUGMENTED by GUESTS. they played for an hour and a half. the guests were: ANNIE KERR : violin TIM WOOD : tenor saxophone NIGEL FRENCH : percussives they all did remarkably well considering they hadn't the faintest clue what was going on..... but then again nor did we, of course. there is a recording of the performance.... in fact i think there are 2 recordings. if we post one to the 'meshmass live' page on soundcloud we will let you know. we remain available for living-room performances at domestic volumes. get in touch at auralwitness@gmail.com

meshmass are playing at the festival of brown on sunday 23rd. we reprint here a text about the event: one and all you are cordially invited to attend the fourth FESTIVAL OF BROWN, an art event celebrating that most downtrodden of colours. From 4pm until 10 on Sunday 23rd of September 2012 at the coach house, 22 walpole road, kemp town, brighton there will be performances and events including music: Annie Kerr (violin) re-interprets bach, the choir of rolls, meshmass, and also various improvisers. dance and performance from Carolina Diaz and (independently) VV. A slideshow of international photographers. films and projections by Sabine Portela (and others.) spoken word performances by Dr. Peter Pick, E.L.Wisty, Annie Kerr (recently runner-up in a BBC poetry competition), and Tim Wood. Various examples of brown art including feltwork, pottery, painting, sculpture and hangings. (no public hangings of people or animals are scheduled.) The coach house is a most secluded and special little venue which you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FIND. There will be cake and other delicious things to eat. Those attending can be assured of a most unusual and interesting exposition of the range of brown and of a warm and friendly atmosphere.

going out any minuet now (or a waltz would do) the all new august meshmass subscription packet - 100% meshmass or your money back. this (last) month yielded a bumper crop of unstrumentals (and some strumentals as well) and we have after great effort whittled the supply down to 13 tracks at a total of 80 minutes or so, just short enough to fit on a cdr (after a bit of a panic). they include: 2 selections from a solemn crimsoballad called 'snoring ghosts' - with good reason as it reminds us of early progressive rock (it's not our fault it just happened like that). 2 pieces of 'fat reduced edda' entitled 'elfsdottir' - somewhere in there is a sinuous tune. 3 separate and individual improvised guitar and saxophone duets ranging from 5:30 to 8:05. 2 bits of 'any known carrot', one of which features the frightful spectre of mariachi trumpet (and one of which does not). another 'loungecrime' piece, called 'uncle smooch'. a short, loud metalfunk excursion called 'doppo' (not one of the marx brothers). and 2 other pieces quite impossible to describe..... most pieces are around 5 minutes long (amazingly enough) and only one exceeds 10 minutes, and that by only a smidgin. (a smidgin is a technical term, don't worry about it, we professionals like to display our esoteric knowledge by adopting an impenetrable vocabulary). 'snoring ghosts part 1' is the featured soundtrack to a splendidly atmospheric video by 'art conspiracy' which will soon be posted to their vimeo site. august. a good month after all.

it's time for the creatures of the meshmass archive to slither out from their holes and publish the junemass compilation - 66 and a half minutes of crunchy goodness from this month - which includes at the edge of the world - a desolate cry involving the sounding stones of pinuccio sciola, some car-horns and a little bit of soprano saxophone. ossuary - rather a delicate piece with alto saxophone. it starts with a sort of rippling and looped saxophone. the end is quite calm, by which time the sax is a soprano. relinquish - a lush duet with alto sax and fretless guitar. mentholated corpse - the cool alternative. more sounding stones and some strange twanging noises accompany richard's fretless. misreading rune 2 - a fairly driving piece utilising samples drawn from the work of rune martinsen a composer of drones and atmospheric pieces to be found on soundcloud. it starts with some zithery sort of sounds from richard's collection and even includes some actual singing. felafel proof - soprano sax and fretless guitar support themselves on a bed of snarls. it ends with surprising delicacy. swim - a fairly long duet with quite unexpected twists in its development. there's a lot of richard's extraordinary 11-string fretless guitar-thing on these recordings which cover a broad range of mesmass' field of expression.... we commend this package to the house.

even as (with palsied and trembling fingers) i type these words meshmass are sending out the MAYMASS package to lucky subscribers on various continents (some of whom have paid money for the privilege and some of whom seem to have forgotten.) this month the recipients will get 6 tracks totalling 64:34 including one violent duet (giving out) 3 pieces involving the 'sounding stones' of sardinian sculptor pinuccio sciola (the veiling earth 1&2 and hinterland), a driving pulsework with several drumkits (plumb) and a big long fat instrumental called hummer (which either does not know the words or is modelled on unreasonably large american military transport vehicles - possibly both.) the sessions involved richard's yamaha 12-string guitar and his godin fretless sort-of-guitar-thing which also has too many strings and both soprano and alto saxophones. . . between you and me may was rather interfered with from a meshmass perspective since peter went off and played the soprano saxophone in various peculiar locations (outdoors, underground and so-on) and there was a limited amount of time for meshing and massing. so it might not be a classic month, although i think 'giving out' is unusual and interesting and 'hummer' is a very strong piece. 'plumb' starts slowly with a fat, distorted pulse but after the piano entry more and more drummers join the party. it also features richard playing ghost organ. 'hinterland' is very pleasant and includes a sample of some very excited chickens doing soul-singer impersonations as well as typically incompetent piano playing and some rather charming alto saxophone. 'the veiling earth' is split into 2 contrasting sections, the first is more or less dominated by soprano saxophone and the second much darker and more full.