Saturday 2 October 2010

Exhausted from wage-slavery (of the least toxic kind). Hooray for the weekend company of WFMU and also for this from I Fedeli sent by Catherine Motuz, which features some really wonderful chromatic ensemble playing in meantone. 

I wouldn't normally link to a dodgy download, but as Ivor Cutler's Prince Ivor is currently available nowhere else (and my cassette is wearing out), whether you follow this link is up to you. The transfer's not the best quality, but cultural gems like this shine even when tarnished with surface noise, rumble and scratches. In fact, at a BBC training course many years ago directed by the legendary Piers Plowright, who produced all of the plays on Prince Ivor, he played the opening of Silence, and I recognised the scratches as coming from the same vinyl copy (owned by Nye Parry) as my cassette. Altogether now: 'Hey you! Is this your spoon?'