this occasional society january newsletter
hello friends! hoping that this newsletter finds you well.
this occasional society update
i get that there hasn’t been much of a gap between this newsletter and the last one, but that’s the system.
by the time you read this, a new ep - ‘impossibly impermanent’ will be out on bandcamp. it’s a collaboration with the fantastic post-rock / ambient guitarist james hastings and i’m really pleased how it all came together. i wrote some background about it.
here is your exclusive ‘unvarnished, work in progress, music sketch’.
the next newsletter will be with you 2.2. as ever, if you want anything included in the ‘updates from friends of the society’ section, just let us know.
updates from friends of the society
New Zealand based music maker Jet Jaguar recently released the electronic, ambient pop album ‘Small Things’ on Los Angeles based Cudighi Records as a cassette or digital download. It’s been 25 years since their first album came out, so there’s plenty of back catalogue to dig back through.
mirlo is an independent alternative to bandcamp. t.o.s. hasn’t released anything via them yet, but a number of our extended circle, including roberta fedora, stephanie merchak and dream of omnimaga have. some of them are also on the mirlo kickstarter fundraiser compilation. worth checking out.
Veryan - who’s been a t.o.s. favourite for a number of years, released the Paper Hearts ep on Bandcamp on 23 December. The piano is more to the front this time - wonderful stuff, as ever.
If you are an artist that is planning on doing Jamuary 2025, Audio Interface is doing a daily / possibly bi-weekly podcast of submissions. More details on where to submit you music here.
sad to hear of the passing of Tomoroh Hidari (aka Death Librarian) last month. they leave behind a great legacy of material. not for the first time, we find ourselves saying ‘fk cancer’.
a.o.b. - things that have replenished our creative wellspring recently
Hosted by Hannah Peel and Richard Norris, it’s no real surprise that ‘Instrumental’ on BBC Radio 6 has been great. A look at the history of music through eight objects, from the Theremin to the MPC, it uses each object as a spring board to discuss creativity in all its facets.
Different, but equally enjoyable (if you like bite sized chunks of data based popular science), I’ve been backtracking through all the episodes of ‘Uncharted’ hosted by Dr Hannah Fry. Kind of like ‘Freakonomics’ but a podcast. Chimpanzee and Orangutan happiness, using incorrectly formatted excel sheets to justify austerity. Blue whales teaching each other songs. all this and more.