Saturday 25 November 2006

I'm listening to the not-quite-finished new album by Moishe's Bagel, which Greg dropped round with late last night, as a prelude to the two of us sitting laughing at one another. Great music as expected. 

Yesterday Alison and I were in Edinburgh at Noel's place to rehearse for our Perth concert in a week or so. I've been lent a Nagra ARES-M, so it was also a chance to test that out - and what a clever piece of kit it is. On the way back to Glasgow, Alison asked me if it was time we played some new repertoire and I wasn't convinced (yet), as there's something nice about playing music you know really well. It's not as though we play it the same way every time; in fact we never do, it always comes out differently. I've spent enough time in the past scrambling through concerts, knowing the music well enough to get by, but not -really- knowing it, just reading very fast. 

On Thursday I had the chance to meet Barnaby Brown and hear him playing his reconstructed 18th century highland pipes for the first time. They're made of native hardwoods, they make a great warm sound, they have a major third in the scale that's actually in tune, they're very light to carry, what's not to like?