DIARY:

Saturday, December 31, 2005:

Friday, December 30, 2005:

Thursday, December 29, 2005:

Wednesday, December 28, 2005:

Tuesday, December 27, 2005:

not much sleep for me. i took the train back to Hamar and my very cold apartment.

in the mail box: Trevor Rabin - Can't Look Away CD.

Monday, December 26, 2005:

an early morning. a trip to Strømmen with the whole family, to visit an aunt and uncle and two cousins. a lovely dinner and some playstation playing afterwards (which i won, by the way, we played some kind of music question quiz), and then back to Moss.

in the evening and night, i drove to Råde to visit my good friend Gunn, and Morten was also there. we played poker with Gunn's dad and another relative of hers, then we talked for a long time. after Morten left, Gunn and i talked until 04:40 am. then i drove back to Moss.

Sunday, December 25, 2005:

my brother, his wife and their two children came to my parents house today, so no more quiet time for the rest of my stay, but that's nice too. the other grandmother came over for dinner, my mother worked most of the day, and my father, brother and i went for a christmas jog to get rid of some of the christmas food.

a two hour telephone talk with a cozy crazy cat in the night.

Saturday, December 24, 2005:

this morning i opened the cat's christmas gift to me, as we had agreed. her gift was a promise of us taking our portrait sometime in the coming year, a very nice gift indeed.

a quiet and cozy christmas evening with my parents and grandmother. all three of them got opera tickets from me, and i got things for the kitchen. reasonable gifts, not to fancy or expensive, i like it that way. if it were up to me, i'd rather no one gave me gifts, as i think this tradition as gone a little too far. but luckily, vereyone i know are reasonable, so they either give gifts that matter, or they don't at all.

Friday, December 23, 2005:

Thursday, December 22, 2005:

a visit with the crazy cat, who had bought an aquarium. then work, then Erik and i visited Aloysius guitarist Ola, and he showed us his newly built studio, where Aloysius will start recording early in the new year:

Wednesday, December 21, 2005:

before work, i bought the last part of my christmas present to the girlfriend: an electronic tuner for her cello. from ReR records, in my mail box: Skeleton Crew - Learn to Talk/The Country of Blinds (2005 reissues) and Massacre - Killing Time (2005 reissue). they both seemed very interesting.

in the evening and night: wrapped christmas presents and cut my hair.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005:

Monday, December 19, 2005:

Sunday, December 18, 2005:

Saturday, December 17, 2005:

Erik and i went to Oslo, where first, i ran amuck and bought lots of cds: Massacre - Meltdown, Bailey/Tacuma/Weston - Mirakle, John Oswald - Plunderphonics 69/96, Meshuggah - Chaosphere and Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame.

i also found a few christmas presents. then Erik and i had dinner and a few beers (for me, at least, Erik was the designated driver). and, at last, we went to John Dee to see the show. Gazpacho opened with an "acoustic" set, lacking drummer and bassist. it was different and fun, and Pete Trewavas as guest guitarist on a cover version of Marillion's "Now she'll never know" was a highlight of their set.

then, Nightingale played their set, which didn't hit me in any way. a bit uninteresting, really.

i got to talk with a couple of the guys from the Gazpacho forum, and Corne from the Netherlands even revealed he reads this diary from time to time, which surprised me quite a bit.

then, Kino got on stage, and blew everyone away. they played just about all their songs, plus a couple of It Bites songs and one by The Urbane. John Mitchell is a fantastic guitar player and has a great voice. actually, if Arena sacked their current singer and John took over, Arena would be many times better, in my opinion.

unfortunately, Erik and i had to leave early, so we had no time for mingling, but i had a short chat with Ohme before we left.

Friday, December 16, 2005:

Thursday, December 15, 2005:

Wednesday, December 14, 2005:

in the mail today: Marillion's fan club christmas cd and Trevor Rabin's Live in LA, a latter an incredible collection of music.

in the evening, at the cinema with Erik, watching King Kong. an entertaining and moving picture.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005:

Monday, December 12, 2005:

Sunday, December 11, 2005:

Saturday, December 10, 2005:

visit commenced. after some shopping, cat lady and myself went to visit my grandmother, and we stayed there for six hours straight, listening to lots of interesting tales from the old days. my grandmother is such a lovely person.

in the night, sparkles flew.

Friday, December 9, 2005:

Thursday, December 8, 2005:.

a redesigned kenneth-holter.com and filled it with a short text in Norwegian (sort of "poetic naturalism", which is also what the site is called).

a short visit with crazy cat lady in the evening before work, i handed over a gift to her today, just because she deserved one: Steven Wilson's "Unreleased Electronic Music" on very limited vinyl.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005:

Tuesday, December 6, 2005:.

Monday, December 5, 2005:

Sunday, December 4, 2005:

Saturday, December 3, 2005:

Friday, December 2, 2005:

Thursday, December 1, 2005:

obviously, i'm a bit more positive today, as i was dreaming about a "deluxe edition" release of my solo album, thinking about possible ways to pull such a thing off. i don't think i would sell any, though.

in the evening a visit with my own crazy cat lady.

Wednesday, November 30, 2005:

in the mail today: a periodical in which i have an article printed, actually more of a short story.

a great idea came to me at work for this years christmas presents, but obviously i can't say too much about it on the internet.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005:

Monday, November 28, 2005:

Sunday, November 27, 2005:

Erik came early and played guitar and bass on "Prologue", and i tried to sing, but for some reason the volume of the recording was very low. have to troubleshoot later. we went out to eat afterwards.

in the evening, a visit from the girlfriend. i handed her some notes i'm hoping she would want to play on 78-9 Exultation Wave Ensemble's album, on her cello. also, she helped me out with InDesign, the program i'm using to prepare the printing of my first book (a poetry/prose thing).

Saturday, November 26, 2005:

Friday, November 25, 2005:

Thursday, November 24, 2005:

back from work, i wrote more words for "Fear", and made a demo recording of the vocals so as to not forget the melody. that is, i had written simple notation for the song, but notation does not always catch the feel of the melody, so i wanted that in bits and bytes for later.

i was really satisfied with the lyrics for "Fear", it's almost done, too, so lets see what i've got so far:

1. Dream (all words and most music written, half recorded)
2. Fear (most of the words and music written)
3. Belief (most of the words written, needs some serious arranging)
4. Idea (everything written, only need to record vocals)
5. Cause (two melody parts and some words written)
6. Love (grand idea had, need to write lyrics, will record soon)
7. Effect (this has almost nothing, just an idea)
8. End (grand idea, but nothing more)

the work on this is going very slow, and most of what is done is writing and arranging, very little recording is done. there have been a lot of working night shifts altely, which is draining me.

new reading: Friedrich Nietzsche - "Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik", in norwegian translation.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005:

in the mail today: Neal Morse's musical Hitman, a release purely for the fans, containing only a few of the demos and recital recordings from the musical that was never performed.

the night shift saw me finishing the Strindberg book (wonderful, wonderful!), and then going on to write quite a few words (and a melody) for the song "Fear" for The Heffernan Effect.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005:

Monday, November 21, 2005:

Sunday, November 20, 2005:

i woke by the door bell ringing, i was being picked up for band practice, and i was totally unprepared. we got there in time, though, and had a good rehearsal. we even worked on a new song (the one we had an idea for last time), and had some arguments about how to solve the middle to last part. i think it's quite cool, as it has three solos, i have one on keyboard, and then there are two guitar solos.

new reading: August Strindberg's "Röda Rummet", the original swedish edition, which i find a delightful pleasure reading. somewhat archaic swedish is really beautiful.

Saturday, November 19, 2005:

in the morning, after work, my creativity continued to flow, and i came up with a new part for the song "Cause" and recorded a demo vocal track so i wouldn't forget it.

in the evening, i watched the new Harry Potter movie with Erik. then a short visit with the study girl.

Friday, November 18, 2005:

another insignificant day.

but on the night shift i got plenty more ideas for the album. i wrote the concluding lyrical lines for "Dream", which is the first song, and i also figured out the melody line for that part, and had some ideas for instrumentation. i also came up with a few lines for "Love".

Thursday, November 17, 2005:

i did little of significance until the night shift.

at work, i got a whole lot of ideas for the song "Love" from The Heffernan Effect, and how to record it, how to put the pieces together. it will be a song mainly consisting of piano, cello, some clapping, vocals, and an extended guitar solo at the end.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005:

i need to get my act together, i haven't done anything useful for ages. it's that damn sickness that won't let go of me.

new reading: "Il Gattopardo" by Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (in norwegian translation). a bit of ambivalence in me towards this book, i can't really decide whether it's good or terrible.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005:

Monday, November 14, 2005:

a lazy day before night shift. at work i had the chance to call the girl, and we had a long, nice talk (more plans molding). then the power went, and the last two hours of the night shift was spent in the dark, waiting.

Sunday, November 13, 2005:

time for another Aloysius rehearsal. i wasn't too optimistic about my voice, but it went really well given my sickness. couldn't hit the highest notes, though. thus a few laughs. at the end of rehearsal we all switched instruments and started jamming, we came up with some beginning of sorts, it might turn in to a new Aloysius song.

later a visit with the girl, before night shift.

Saturday, November 12, 2005:

a day spent watching some movies and listening to music. i just love my Venus Handcuffs cd! you can go buy it, too!

Friday, November 11, 2005:

a very lazy day.

Thursday, November 10, 2005:

at the doctor to acquire his report on my sickness.

in the evening i worked a bit with the song "Love" on The Heffernan Effect, but it didn't turn out quite the way i wanted. i got some new ideas to work on, though.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005:

another day recovering from sickness. exciting plans for a trip in december arising.

a long and interesting chat with wonderfully talented person in the evening.

Tuesday, November 8, 2005:

i felt a little better in the morning, listened to some music and relaxed.

Monday, November 7, 2005:

i woke up sick, caught a flight back home, called in sick at work, and went to bed. i slept for twelve hours.

Sunday, November 6, 2005:

a late morning. i borrowed a book full of keyboard-chords from my brother. i'm not a trained musician, so i don't know all the common (or un-common) chords. this book might prove to be useful for me, actually it already did, as i sat down by my brother's piano to try some of them out, i got an idea based on the chord Cm13, an idea that might find its way to The Heffernan Effect.

in the evening i attended my brother's concert for french horn and percussion in St. Mary's Church. the percussion part was handled by Craig Farr. Christian and Craig played odd arrangements of religious folk music.

on a few of the tunes, Christian used delay, shifter and loop effects on his horn, which made for some really cool renditions of religious folk tunes.

in the evening, me and my brother watched some of the King Crimson dvd before we went to sleep.

Saturday, November 5, 2005:

an early morning, to catch a flight to Bergen for a visit with my brother and his family. i helped them out buying a new computer, and went for a trip to the town, were i ended up buying some music. on lp: Pere Ubu - The Modern Dance. on cd: Ulver - Blood Inside (limited edition), Fantômas - Delìrivm Còrdia, Aghora - Aghora (Immortal Bliss European release) and John Cage - Variations IV. on dvd: King Crimson - Eyes Wide Open.

in the evening a long talk with my brother about my current musical projects and the direction i'm heading in, which he found interesting. also, he agreed to add his horn playing to the song "Belief" on The Heffernan Effect, even though he hasn't heard a note of it yet.

Friday, November 4, 2005:

another day trying to work on "Dream", but the computer and/or hard disk wouldn't cooperate. digital recording has it's pros and cons.

in the evening a visit at girlfriend's house to say goodbye before tomorrow's trip.

Thursday, November 3, 2005:

this evening i worked a bit on the song "Dream", and got some ideas for further development.

Wednesday, November 2, 2005:

new reading: the aforementioned book on Improvisation, by Derek Bailey.

at work, i had a couple of new ideas fall into my head, mainly for "ek seth" experiments, but i also came up with a solution to some problems (pace/monotony) relating to the Aloysius song "O, Morpheus' Daughter".

in my mail box: the 3 newest releases on ReR, all wonderfully eccentric.

Tuesday, November 1, 2005:

at work, i laid down further plans for the work on my debut album, The Heffernan Effect. i've gotten some feedback backing up my own ideas on how to solve a few dilemmas in the recording of "Dream", and this has encouraged and inspired me.

in the mail today, a bootleg dvd+r of Gazpacho's gig at Rockefeller, Oslo, May 11, 2004, as support for Marillion. i was there, so it's fun to have. i can even see myself in the audience.

Monday, October 31, 2005:

in the mail, 3 cds from Radiant Records (all featuring Neal Morse in one way or another).

after work, I and Ola (guitarist of Aloysius) went to Ådalsbruk, to producer Terje's place to mix our tracks for the soon to be released compilation. we didn't manage to finish it, but the overall sound was improved, and Terje will work on it some more during the next week. my singing on these tracks is ... not unlistenable, but not exactly my best work, either. that is the result of too few studio hours. (i'm being overly critical, as usual). it will sound killer when it's all done.

Sunday, October 30, 2005:

painting day, though not in the creative-on-canvas way. the non-creative-on-walls way. they weren't even my walls, but a very beautiful person's walls. a nice time was had painting with miss beautiful. an early night.

Saturday, October 29, 2005:

today in the mail: the 2005 reissue of No-Man's "Flowermouth" cd, plus Derek Bailey's book "Improvisation. Its Nature and Practice in Music". exciting stuff.

onto Aloysius rehearsal, which went really well for me, i think. i was on good form, though i need to practice my keyboard playing. i recorded guitarist Kenneth's contribution to "Grain" onto my macintosh, which leaves only mixing, and perhaps a couple of more vocal takes, i have not decided yet.

i get a bit frustrated with my band mates, sometimes, and people in general; their impatience and restlessness, not being able to sit still through an 8 minute song, argueing it's 'boring' or 'too repetitive'. i guess it's a sign of the day and age: people don't have time to 'waste' time, thus missing out on all those things that crave your attention for a little more than 3 minutes to catch your attention. yes, i'm contradicting myself. yes, it's on purpose.

it makes me more mad than sad, though, and mad is better than sad. mad makes inspired. so i'm going to spew out an hour-long, boring and repetitive drone just for the fun of it (or not).

Friday, October 28, 2005:

in the mail today: drum loops from Beta Monkey Music, well worth the money.

in the evening, i was on a visit and indoor picnic. in the night, i figured out the keyboard parts to "Woman", so as to be prepared for tomorrows rehearsal.

Thursday, October 27, 2005:

another one of those lazy days.

new reading: James Joyce - "Giacomo Joyce". James Augustine Aloysius Joyce is obviously the reason i proposed Aloysius as the name of my band.

and then (since "Giacomo Joyce" is such a tiny little book): Robert Musil - "Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless" (in norwegian translation).

Wednesday, October 26, 2005:

this evening, i was picked up by Ola, guitarist of Aloysius, and we attended a meeting at our rented rehearsal place, joined by bassist Erik and drummer Arnt, and a few other musicians, including the one we rent from. we didn't decide on anything, really. a fruitless meeting.

new reading: a poem collection by norwegian poet Øyvind Rimbereid, almost finished it during night shift.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005:

watched some movies.

in the evening, at work, i started reading "A Tomb For Anatole", a collection of unfinished poems by Stéphane Mallarmé, translated to english by Paul Auster. i finished it, too, during the night shift.

Monday, October 24, 2005:

picked up some dvds at the post office today, will watch in the coming days. a short visit to girlfriend recovering from sickness. during the night shift, i read through the book on Kafka.

Sunday, October 23, 2005:

a lazy day.

Saturday, October 22, 2005:

started the day with Aloysius rehearsal, we used much of our time rehearsing a cover tune, "Woman" by Brother Cane, a good tune to sing for me.

the evening was spent writing, recording and e-mailing a "get well" song for/to my girlfriend, who's sick. it became a sort of ambient tune, with very little instrumentation, and heartfelt vocals. i really like it, so i'm guessing she'll like it, too.

Friday, October 21, 2005:

new reading: Gustav Janouch - "Conversations with Kafka".

in the evening, treating/mixing the latest drum recordings for Aloysius.

Thursday, October 20, 2005:

at work today, i finished reading Audio Culture, while even more ideas were born. this one idea regards a tape recorder and its possibilities, and i'm gonna use this idea for a full-fledged experimental recording, and then i'm going to use the same technique in a smaller scale on the song "Fear", which is the second song on The Heffernan Effect.

the track listing for The Heffernan Effect for the moment:

1. Dream (half finished, avant-prog tune)
2. Fear (experimental recording using only a tape recorder to record)
3. Belief (to include crazy choir and horns)
4. Idea (revisiting a theme from "Dream", almost finished)
5. Cause (a sort of a ballad, Opeth-ish)
6. Love (an epic/anthem, in the vein of Porcupine Tree or Marillion)
7. Effect (rhythm-driven, atonal)
8. End (an epic piece built around a bunch of solos)

notice all the song titles include an E. there's a reason.

i'm thinking of trying to get all sorts of known and unknown guest artists on this release, some of my inspirational heroes and heroines. most of them are highly unlikely to even answer an enquiry from me, but i'm hoping at least a few of them would want to contribute.

back home i ordered a new book for me to get inspired (and learn a few things), Derek Bailey's "Improvisation".

Wednesday, October 19, 2005:

another work day with plenty of ideas. one sort of inspired by Sonic Youth, another by a text piece on "cut and mix" (from Audio Culture), the third an idea about compositional form. most of these ideas to be used on The Heffernan Effect, so i'm guessing i'll be doing some work on that again soon.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005:

at work today, a couple of new ideas for The Heffernan Effect, one arose from listening to Grey Eye Glances, the other from where my mind's at for the moment (indeterminate land). this is what's interesting with experimentation: it's a space for trying out something in an extreme sense, then deriving from it the interesting bits and bringing them into other spaces. the 31:51 piece is only the first of many "ek seth" experiments to come, and there's a good chance that more ideas will arise from such future experiments.

a piece of advice:
bike + dark + dog = poor dog + bruised knees
i was certainly more concerned with the dog, though it turned out it was perfectly fine, while the owner of the dog was more concerned about me, which really wasn't necessary either. bruised knees after bike impact with dog might look like this:

Monday, October 17, 2005:

Starfish Underneath, Hamar.

before work: wrote lyrics for thursday's idea, the 31:51 long "ek seth" piece. i wrote the lyrics in no more than 31:51, recorded the sound of me writing it, and then went on to record the singing of it, totally improvised, and without rehearsal, with no reference to the background tracks or any set meter. the lyrics turned out super cool.

after work: recorded solo guitar for the same piece, totally improvised, no rehearsal and no tuning. no reference to the other tracks other than that i knew when there were pauses in the vocal track.

next for this piece: a piano track and some sort of rhythm track, then listening to the whole, trying to figure out what to keep, what to cut, what to edit and replace, probably will do the vocal track all over, with corrections relative to the final meter set. might add some strings or effects in the end.

Sunday, October 16, 2005:

Thon Hotel Cecil, Oslo.

a walk to the Vigeland park, food and the train back to Hamar.

next week, "ek seth" recording and Alf Ludo website work. oh, and Aloysius drum treatment. hm, how to make up for time lost?

Saturday, October 15, 2005:

Thon Hotel Cecil, Oslo.

in the course of one day, i ended up with 20 vinyl records, 8 cds (and a 5 cd box), a few books and some scores.

among the vinyls: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Tangerine Dream, Jon & Vangelis, Jon Anderson, Everly Brothers, Godley & Creme, a-ha, Toto, Tears for Fears, John Farnham, Climie Fisher, Creation, Pages, Narada Michael Walden and Shakin' Stevens! that's what i call an assorted collection.

cds were by: Derek Bailey, Gavin Bryars, Luc Ferrari, Merzbow, Rishaug Marhaug, Sun Ra, John Zorn and the entire Naked City collection (in a 5 cd box). so i'm reading about experimental music for the moment, what's new?

books included authors: Robert Musil, Gustav Janouch (on Kafka), August Strindberg, Øyvind Rimbereid, James Joyce and Stéphane Mallarmé.

the scores were some of the world's national anthems and an excerpt of a Debussy piece.

in the evening, we were to attend Arne Nordheim's Composer Prize, with piano pieces by Fartein Valen, Asbjørn Schaathun, Arne Nordheim and prize winner Sven Lyder Kars, all played brilliantly by Einar Henning Smebye. also, a piece written by Lasse Thoresen for piano, violin and cello ("Bird of the Heart") was performed by Grieg Trio, a really stunning piece and performance.

an inspiring event for me. late dinner eating delicious palestinian food.

Friday, October 14, 2005:

work, then cat, then Oslo.

Thursday, October 13, 2005:

i went through the hazzle of bringing my studio equipment to work, and set it up beforehand, so that i could start recording from the minute my shift started (at 6 am). initially i had planned to record for 40-45 minutes, whatever was suitable, but i forgot that my recording program only can record 999 measures of whatever time signature i set (incidently 4/4). with the tempo set by default to 120 BPM, that meant approximately 33 minutes, which in hindsight was just about enough. so i got 33 minutes of environmental recording for my free improvisation / chance composition.

by pure chance (suitable, then, for the forming of this piece), the next cd in my cd pile (that i brought to work for listening) was a recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Helikopter-Streichquartett, which is a single piece (and quite experimental, one might say) that clocks in at 31:51. that's just about a minute less than what i got out of my recording, so i decided that i would cut my piece down to 31:51, in salute to Stockhausen.

lots of ideas arose for the forming of this piece, and i made a list of the different tracks that will be contained in it:

1. environmental recording of the exact place where the initial idea for the piece came to mind (machines at work). no human interference with recording. recording cut down to exact 31:51.
2. environmental recording of the composer writing the lyrics for the piece. 31:51 is the exact time the composer has to finish the lyrics, when this time is reached, the recording stops and no more words will be written. the last ten or so minutes of recording will be used for googling the word "indeterminate", and picking words from the resulting pages (first word on the page of result 1, second word on the page of result 2, third word on the page of result 3, and so on).
3. live recording (first take) of the composer singing the lyrics for the piece, in improvised melody. no rehearsal. no reference to the other tracks. no meter. open for interferences (cell phone ringing, recieving e-mail, visitor coming, birds singing outside, etc.). leave a few minutes space in between singing. no effect used on vocals.
4. live recording (first take) of the composer playing an electric guitar. this instrument is chosen mainly because the composer does not know how to play it, which gives a high degree of unpredictability. no reference to the other tracks (other than knowing where there are pauses in the vocals, so as to play in more of a "solo" fashion there). no meter. the guitar is horribly out of key, and will not be tuned beforehand. also, the upper string is missing.
5. live recording (first take) of the composer playing a piano. to ensure a higher degree of unpredictability, the composer will play it blindfolded. no reference to the other tracks and no meter (though it will be played significally slower than the guitar, for instance).

more tracks might be added as i go on, but these are the main ideas. it is very much an experiment on my part, as i've never been involved in chance recording, nor free improvisation to such a degree as this.

back home, ny new fridge arrived.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005:

continued reading of "Audio Culture" gave rise to grand ideas that may take decades to accomplish, it's an idea for a one time performance to be filmed to dvd, the event a cross between experimental/improvisational music and performance art, by a sort of a piano trio, and sort of influenced by John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and the likes. i won't reveal the rest yet, though. i'm going to look in to the possibilities of having this thing happen.

another idea arose out of the sentence "a work should include its environment", and since the idea for this experimental piece (bordering on chance recording / indeterminacy) came to me in the environment of my work place, i'm taking my studio with me to work tomorrow, to make an environmental recording of machines and various sounds present. this probably to become something completely new, apart from all other projects i'm working on, so i thought of possible names for this project. currently voting for "ek seth". don't ask.

back home, it became evident that my fridge was certainly dead as can be, and it smelled really awful, so i threw it out and informed the landlord (as it was his fridge, he just laughed and said it was all ok). then i went out and bought a new one. it will be delivered to me tomorrow.

i was considering using the old, dead fridge for some experimental recording of sorts, but i'm not sure when the landlord is going to have it picked up and thrown away. and do i have the time? and do i know what i want to do with it?

Tuesday, October 11, 2005:

at work, i had time to get back to reading the book "Audio Culture - Readings in Modern Music" edited by Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner. a very interesting, and fantastically inspiring book about vanguard and experimental music.

at home, i seriously mutilated my fridge in an attempt to rapidly get rid of redundant ice. i think it'll be fine, though.

Monday, October 10, 2005:

three hours sleep, but worth every waking second preluding it. then onto work, then onto sleep.

Sunday, October 9, 2005:

cat visit continued. i loved this weekend, and look forward to the next.

Saturday, October 8, 2005:

didn't get much sleep in the morning, suddenly it was time for rehearsal with Aloysius. Ola picked me up and we went to Ajak. we had only one guitarist today, so we rehearsed through all our songs (or most of them), then went on to recording drums. we finished recording drums for 4 songs, namely "Figurehead", "Unveil the Betrayal", "In Time" and "Reminding". lots of work for me the following days and weeks, to clean up and treat those drum recordings. but lots of fun also.

later, visiting a cat. a cat with good taste in music. and food. (and boys, obviously).

Friday, October 7, 2005:

slept most of the day and were out on the town with Erik in the evening, then listened to music all night.

Thursday, October 6, 2005:

the night shift birthed ideas for another Alf Ludo contribution (perhaps more disturbing than entertaining?).

slept too much in the morning/day, so i hadn't much time to do elsewhat. i did some tiny bits of mixing and tweaking on Grain, and i'm very satisfied with the way it's sounding so far.

in the late evening, at work, i got some ideas for words to the latest Aloysius song (the one perhaps to be titled Journey). heading into the realm of vocabulary acrobatics, it seems, more like the stuff i've written for the side project with Erik (78-9 Exultation Wave Ensemble). it's perhaps a little less accessible for people to listen to or read, but more fun to write and sing for me.

Wednesday, October 5, 2005:

not much sleep this morning, as i'd invited Erik, bass player of Aloysius, over to record his parts on the song Grain. that was done pretty fast, so i called Ola, one of the guitarists in the band, and asked him if he wanted to do his parts, so he came (with a friend of his for audience) and recorded rhythm guitar and a smashing solo in an hour's time or so. when they all had left, i recorded some vocals that weren't too good, so i'm going to do them over later on. poor landlord.

then, away for night shift.

Tuesday, October 4, 2005:

another interesting mail day. recieved the remastered version of Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts, originally from 1971, and listened to it several times before work. lovely, lively, quirky stuff!

i started working on an official website for Alf Ludo's Partyband before i had to leave for the night shift.

Monday, October 3, 2005:

in the mail today, a big package containing music. 1 lp and 4 cds, all of them from Steven Wilson's headphone dust mailorder. that mr. Wilson certainly has a great impact on how i see, hear, think, understand, make, do, live and breathe music. specifically, his droneworks (released under the moniker Bass Communion) recently made my creative juices flow, which in turn may lead to the release of drone-ish music made by yours truly. i already have about a quarter hour worth of material, so a couple more "drone" sessions may be sufficient.

i do have a lot of projects going on at the moment, though. both Aloysius, 78-9 Exultation Wave Ensemble, Alf Ludo's Partyband and my solo project craves attention and time. we'll just have to stumble along and see what happens.

Sunday, October 2, 2005:

today i bought the domain ascendingmoon.com for own private record label, and made a hasty index site. in the evening, on a visit, listening to The Notwist's Neon Golden, contemplating the importance of the song Consequence. indeed a wonderful song, and beautiful memory. then onto night shift work.

Saturday, October 1, 2005:

a great, big tidying day, at least the bathroom got the overhaul. in the evening, i did some singing for an appreciative audience of one. who are you?

Friday, September 30, 2005:

after work, i had to spend the evening finishing the story on christmas traditions. it took some time, but i got it done.

Thursday, September 29, 2005:

at work today, listening to good music. then, more lazyness.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005:

an early morning, i went to the library to pick up on some sources for an article i'm writing (more like a fictional story, on christmas traditions). i had some time to wander in the record store afterwards, and ended up with three cds: Fantômas - "Suspended Animation", Mew - "Frengers" and Redemption - "The Fullness of Time", then onto work.

a funny thing happened at work. one of the repair guys was talking about an unexpected "awful" noise coming from a machine, and i replied "i thought that was a good sound". whereas he replied that it "didn't surprise" him. i think that might have been a hint that he thinks the music i listen to at work is to be considered "noise", not then, considering that almost all music contains noise. it all comes down to your perception of sounds. if you want to percieve environmental sounds (like machine "noise") as music, you'll percieve it as music. if you want to hear noise, you'll hear noise.

back home in the evening, being "at it" (spending lots of money on music), i subscribed to the so called ReR Record Club, which means i will be sent every new ReR release, press release, Megafon newsletter and occasional extra materials. exciting stuff!

in the late evening, the usual lazyness.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005:

after a short meet-up with Ea at her school, i went back home and finished the 'drum treatment' on Grain, before work.

after work: started recording my organ parts on Grain, and finished them. then onto sleeping, so as to get up early in the morning tomorrow.

Monday, September 26, 2005:

a lazy day at work resulted in a crazy idea for an Alf Ludo song. it's about a tiny midget with a really huge dick, and he's horny all the time. the problem is he passes out, because of all the blood that leaves his least important head.

in the mail today: the cutest little 3" cd, by a project called 2partiMOLLItremolanti. i haven't heard it yet, but supposedly it's weird stuff.

Sunday, September 25, 2005:

today was rehearsal day for Aloysius, we had a fine six hour rehearsal, playing through all of our songs, writing a new song (i haven't written lyrics yet, but i think it's going to be called Journey) and recording the drum track of the song Grain on my macintosh. even though we have neither drum microphones nor any drum recording skills, the result was rather good. not that it matters, cause we're going to replace the real drum sounds with sampled drum sounds. i worked a bit on that when i got home, and i'm confident it will turn out superb, i'm just about half finished already.

next i redesigned the Aloysius site, used all evening and most of the night for that, and it turned out great, i think. hope the guys in the band like it. i made a new logo as well, not quite sure about it, though.

Saturday, September 24, 2005:

spent some time this morning working out a piano part for the song Dream, which will be track 1 on "The Heffernan Effect", and then considering doing the vocal part again, for that to fit better with the music. the piano part made the song a bit groovier, you see. so the vocals should be more groovy, too.

later on, bassist Erik came to visit, bringing some cool pictures of the band's performance 3 weeks ago, that i immediately put out on the band web site, which i should redesign. then we went out on the town.

Friday, September 23, 2005:

it's been too long a time. now this page is temporary, though i dig minimalism (sometimes, anyway). i also dig where my mind and creativity have been at lately, it's wonderful to be and to be creating. upcoming things (in anticipated order):

the solo album thing is turning out crazy, i can tell you, and i've only recorded about a minute of it for the moment. i tried to be minimalistic with that, too, but i'm obviously not very good at it, at least not if we're talking about the amount of notes played. i'm looking forward to ... well ... everything that's ahead, basicly.