Monthly Archives: December 2011

What an instrument pedal steel guitar is – what a wonderful sound – and there is no better player this side of Nashville (and possibly anywhere) than BJ Cole. The sounds he gets out of his instrument are just incredible. In this session his performance danced around and merged with the other instruments on the album in a really intriguing way – there is now a lot of ambiguity of source on the pieces.

BJ was the last session with Phill Brown on this album. After a glass of champagne it all felt rather strange driving home. Some more work in my home studio and then the big task of mixing.

Byron had a heavy cold and an horrendous train journey to the studio but his performance was still sublime – a natural and warm tone that worked really well with the material. He played mainly flugelhorn but also trumpet on some pieces including a ‘scream’ that really pushed the limits of the instrument and player. I am really looking forward to working with this material.

Just finished an extraordinary session with tuba player Oren Marshall. The sounds he coaxed from his instrument made it hard to believe that this was a tuba at all: snorts, grunts, wolf howls and something that sounded like garbled short wave radio, as well as more traditional tuba territory. Some beautiful moments where Oren merged with the warm textures of Thomas Bloch’s Cristal Baschet. Can’t wait to work with this new material.

The image is of a reflection on the tuba bell.