The Announcement Of A Gig, A Single, And A New Album (copy)
Hello everyone,
I hope you are all well. The warm reception of my singing gig on Saturday was very heartening, and has given me the confidence to think of more interesting things to do with my voice. Thank you to all who came or sent me encouraging messages.
The big news today is that The Hectet has a new album, called French Politics, that will be released on 9 July. I am really proud of this music, and will tell you more about it in due time. You can preorder the album and listen to the single, Le Trahison Politique, on whatever service you choose or through this link:
We will be playing a very special show at Vogelmorn Bowling Club on the day it comes out to celebrate the release. As well as presenting the album, we will debut a few new tunes that I’m sure you will like. I will be joined by Jasper Holloway (electric guitar), Seth Boy (double bass), Abey Sparks (drums), and Lily Shaw (tenor saxophone). You can buy tickets for the gig here:
6pm Thursday 9 July @ Vogelmorn Upstairs
Lately, I have been practising the piano and singing regularly, and have been going through the process of transcribing my musical ideas from the last year or so in anticipation of upcoming projects, which is proving very fruitful.
For the past 6 months or so, I have been diving deeper and deeper into Bob Dylan’s discography, with a particular focus on the latter half of his career. Albums such as Time Out Of Mind (1997), Modern Times (2006), Tempest (2012), and Rough And Rowdy Ways (2020) have been rocking my world. Like all great US artists, he has been condemned to never being understood by his country and never having his socialist views reflected by a major political force.
He has made great literary efforts in these songs, passionately situating himself within canons of the artists he likes e.g. Blake, Melville, Ovid, Burns et al. These efforts have been similar to those that came before him: to portray the world as it is and to expound upon ideas about it. This often causes the songs to be very ‘long’ and very ‘repetitive’, in a way that forces you to listen; to the words and the music. I have found this incredibly rewarding.
I saw a great movie, Jeanne Dielmann 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) by Chantal Akerman, which uses time in a similar way. She describes this approach well in this interview:
“…cinema is about space and time… [It is] mostly done to escape time… When people [say] ‘Oh, I had a good evening, I didn’t see the time passing by…’ They were robbed two hours of their life. I want the people to feel the time passing by. … Then they can really see … and I respect them. … [This] is … ethical.”
In terms of new music, Ruth Garbus’ new album Profound is a bit of a revelation. Just unbelievable song writing and a very refreshing sound — using only electric piano, electric guitar and voice, the occasional drum machine. Again, she’s interacting with canons, notably adapting two pieces by Fauré.
This and many other works of art, interviews, articles etc. have made me want to extend my rigorous approach to the study of popular musics and (recently) cinema to literature, visual arts, classical music, theatre and opera. I have a lot more to say on this.
Thank you, as ever, for your support and encouragement.
Hector
