Musical and geographical offerings from GeoBlogs: a 365 blog project for 2026.
It's 1994 or 1995.... and I am teaching in King's Lynn. A group of friends regularly meet to chat and enjoy a drink. The album that gets played more than any other is an album called 'Fumbling towards Ecstasy' by the Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan.
Here's a Sunday morning treat for you apropos of nothing....
Ralph Towner and Gary Burton playing 'Icarus' from the album 'Matchbook'
Some more contributions from people via the Google Form.
A few months ago, I posted about Desert Island Discs and invited people to share their choices. One person has responded to the request so far - thanks!
I've been thinking of my music choices. These are subject to change of course, but at the time of posting, I reckon I would take the following:
Piece 1: Ommadawn Part One, Mike Oldfield - the GOAT
Tubular Bells is the one that people always talk about when considering the work of Mike Oldfield, and his debut certainly had an impact, and launched the Virgin empire. This, his third album involved working with a wider range of musicians, and once again lots of overdubs and multi-instrumental virtuosity from Oldfield. There are also guests such as Paddy Moloney from the Chieftains who played the uillean pipes, and Les Penning.
Piece 2: Ará Batur - Sigur Rós
This is one of those pieces that builds and builds to a huge crescendo and I was fortunate to have been in the Royal Albert Hall when it was played live for only the 2nd time (the first time had been the night before...) There are several recordings of this moment online.
Piece 3: Headlights on the Parade - The Blue Nile
From the classic album 'Hats'. They remain one of my favourite live memories.
Piece 4: The Road not Taken - Bruce Hornsby
Unrequited love in the Appalachians, with a nod to Robert Frost's poem.
Piece 5: Close to Home - Lyle Mays
The final track from Lyle Mays' first solo album, released in 1986.
Piece 6: Goodnight America - Mary Chapin Carpenter
An excellent version of this song from the 'Songs from the Movie' album which I first heard on the radio one evening driving back home. I saw Mary play this song live a few years after that.
Piece 7: The Lake - Mike Oldfield
No apologies for including a second long Mike Oldfield instrumental. This one was released in 1984, and later that year I made my first visit to Norway.
I had it on cassette on my Sony Walkman (remember those?), and listened to it while sat by a lake in the sun.
Piece 8: The Garden - Rush
The final track from their final album made with Neil Peart.
It's a perfect piece of music.
In terms of books, I am going to have to go with J. R. R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings'. I have a special Deluxe edition of the book which I was given for a birthday present over well over 40 years and is worth anything up to £2000 apparently.... it dates from 1979 and has gold leaf on the front cover and came in a special box.
And my luxury of course will be a stash of single malt whisky, specifically this one:
Please let me know your own Desert Island Discs.
I will share more contributions later in the year hopefully.
And sort of up to date with the music of last year.
My Spotify Wrapped was dominated by Bob Mould whose 'Here we go Crazy' album I played a lot during that year, and it was also stuck in my car CD player (sometimes literally) for weeks on end for my work commute.
Musical highlights included gigs from Tangerine Dream, Yann Tiersen, Public Service Broadcasting and Sigur Ros - the latter featuring a live debut for Ara Batur... I blogged about that separately.
It was an interesting musical year for releases. Crown Lands were a key one...
Cold War Steve has produced a cultural collage representing the West Midlands. He has previously created work specific to Birmingham (I have a framed and signed copy of that one). This covers a broader area. Slade in pride of place at the top there.
A list of the artists featured is on the web page if you want to test how many you can identify.
You can buy a copy of this, or some of his other work from the website.
Check out his Manchester version here too, which I'd missed seeing.
From 808 State to Herman’s Hermits, via Georgie Fame, Marcus Intalex, Happy Mondays, DJ Paulette, Mark E Smith, Mr Scruff, Lonelady, Space Afrika, the Bee Gees, Demdike Stare and so many more.
Phil Collins' first solo album was released in 1981.
The album features one of the most recognisable singles of the 1980s.
I hadn't realised (or had forgotten more likely) that L. Shankar played violin and added vocals to several tracks on the album. I saw him play live several times in Peter Gabriel's band and he has also worked with Jan Garbarek.
Here's a live performance from 1984 of 'Song for Everyone'.
Lakshminarayana Shankar - electric violin
Jan Garbarek - saxophones
Zakir Hussain - tabla, percussion
Trilok Gurtu - drums, percussion
From my Spotify Wrapped for this year, there were a few albums which I listened to the most during this year. I had a busy year working on writing projects, and other related consultancy work.
This was the album I listened to the most. The band has created the best option for anyone wanting to listen to the music of Yes.
Via Instagram I came across a piece in FarOut magazine investigating the song that Talking Heads released in 1979.
I'm a fan of the composer Erland Cooper's music, which is often connected with particular places, and evokes those places... often in Scotland.
Their latest work has been released as an EP.
It features a piece of music themed around Bass Rock: a well known rock outcrop and seabird colony off the E coast of Scotland near Dunbar and North Berwick.
Here's my image taken in 2008 along the John Muir Way, with Bass Rock out to sea.
For Tunisia, I am going to refer to the music of Anouar Brahem.
He is an oud player from Tunisia.
The oud is a stringed instrument which is a little like a mandolin or lute, but with a rounded back and a neck which includes an angled headstock.
Anouar has recorded a number of albums for ECM. Here's a live performance of a track from his latest album.
One of the albums I listened to the most in 2023 was the album i/o by Peter Gabriel.
This was released one track at a time on the day of the full moon through the year, which guaranteed lots of listens to the earlier tracks in particular.
2026 has seen the same strategy used for the o/i album.
I was also able to get a ticket to see the concert on the i/o tour, which was the most I've paid (to date) for a concert.
My favourite track from the album perhaps is this one....
Taken by my wife earlier today at the Royal Academy where the Summer Exhibition is on.
There is a chapter on the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
This is the track most people will associate with the band.
The album this was from was released in 1978, and called 'Music from the Penguin Cafe Orchestra'. Credit was given to Simon Jeffes. He was an acolyte of the composer John Cage.
The book explores the story of the "found harmonium". In 1982, Jeffes found it abandoned in a Kyoto side street while in Japan collaborating with Ryuichi Sakamoto. He picked it up the following day and took it to his apartment and then back home to London. It was then taken across the world. This piece was to do with found objects (objets trouvés).
There were connections with the new age music released by Windham Hill, and Brian Eno and Michael Nyman's music.
The book is available from all the usual places and comes highly recommended.
I have a memory of purchasing this track when it came out in August 1982. This was the summer before I headed to start my undergraduate studies. The long summer when my future was ahead of me...
My Spotify Wrapped for the year 2022 had a lot of tracks from 'Urban Dreams' from Kebu
A Rura album was also heavily played that year, which had the theme of 'Home'.
I went to a number of concerts this year as well, which is always a highlight of my cultural year.
What were your favourite musical memories from 2022?
Here's my Spotify Wrapped
Frank Beard, drummer with ZZ Top has sadly passed away.
They recorded various songs featuring their famous spinning furry guitars... and their custom car.
And of course ironically Frank's surname was Beard when the other two members were the ones with the famous beards.
Here's one of their classic hits:
2021 was five years ago, and the pandemic was still fresh in people's memory.
Crown Lands were the break out for me.
It was 2023 until this made it to an LP and was then turned into a CD which finally made it to the UK.
Very influenced by Rush, this Canadian two-piece has since released several albums and EPs.
Some splendid guitar work here.
Public Service Broadcasting released their 'Berlin' album: 'Bright Magic'. This had more tracks which were purely synthesiser driven. J Willgoose had obtained a 'Blade Runner' synthesiser.
This blog post outlines the process of creating the album:
Band leader J. Willgoose, Esq moved to the city in 2019 to begin both research and writing. As with all PSB full lengths, their fourth album tells a story, leaning even further into the projects cinematic nature. Split into three parts, ‘Bright Magic’ looks into Berlin’s past, present and future as we learn about the cities history and the characters that inhabit it.
Here's 'Im Licht' from the album:
I saw the last date of their tour in support of this album, at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.
Aimee Mann released her most recent album to date (we are overdue another one please, although she has been quite busy in the last year or two with other projects).
This is a short album (just 40 minutes) made of 15 exquisite short pieces which provide themes from a project which was derailed by COVID.
It was inspired by Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir Girl, Interrupted, about Kaysen's experience in McLean Hospital in the 1960s. This was set to be made into a musical. The title came from a poem by Anne Sexton. Another of her poems was adapted into 'Mercy Street' by Peter Gabriel.Being on the road with ’Til Tuesday was so intense that she once contemplated cutting her hand – enough to wound, not maim – to enforce a break. In the mid-90s, Mann, now solo – and repeatedly battling label execs who said they “didn’t hear a single” on her albums – found herself on Geffen, also home to Nirvana. “I remember having a conversation with someone at Geffen [who was] very shocked that Kurt Cobain had killed himself. They had a minute where they were like, maybe we should consider the mental health of artists on the road because it’s very unnatural.”
What are your musical memories of this album?
