A song for the weary traveler 
from Psalm 121 by Bran Doerkson

I Lift My Eyes Up To The Mountains

Acoustic Psalm. Jonathan used a lovely Irish song "The Homes of Donegal" for this Psalm. I am playing my God-daughter's Gibson L-0 in DADGAD and my Martin 0-17 in standard.

Psalm 84 (Jonathan Asprey) arr. Peter Annear

My mother's 100th birthday, sudden deaths, too young, our boy being a man...puts me in pensive mode

Ages and stages.  A poem for our son

I know the rationale for grieving…and its sine wave 
That tells me the stages I will go through
 from denial and anger to depression, bargaining
And acceptance
And yes, I accept that I accept
My Dad died when I was in my 40s…and he was in his late 70s
It was no big deal…it was ordinary and dignified life and death
I tell myself 
And I accept
Except
I still miss him 

Now I’m approaching my mid 60s and my Mum
Will soon be 100
What a life she has led
What a dance she still leads us.
She is lovely and amazing and, emotionally, she ties me up in knots.
I am too old to be a little boy and too young to be my dad.
I don’t know so much.
As a little boy I’ll stamp my foot
As my dad I’ll be an anchor
And as me….?
I don’t know

So Tom, my dear son
What have I learned that might be of use to you?
I think the most helpful answer will be “nothing”
And often you won’t know. Yet….
You have given me so much joy
You need not stamp your foot.
You have given me so much joy
Just lately I see the man in you that is already an anchor.
I am hopeful 
And my hope is that
 as you hope for  love
You find Love
And as you look for light 
You don’t miss the Son

May 5, 2014


Ages And Stages

This is my soundscape of a poem by Susan Hill called “Can it be true?” which I came across through the BBC Radio 3 Carol Competition. I got a sense of atmosphere in the words which I have tried to create through my own ambient field/home recordings (apart from Tawney owls, male and female, from BBC Tweet of the Day sound archive). 
You might be interested in listening to the finalists on http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/radio3-carol-competition-winner

 CAN IT BE TRUE? 
Susan Hill 
Christmas Eve 
Christmas Eve 
Twelve of the clock 
Twelve of the clock. 
The message was heard 
On the wind, underground. 
Through wires, in dreams 
Heard by the fox slinking up to the hens 
In the dark 
And the wolf prowling near to the sheep, 
By the dog as it snarled at 
The cat as it sniffed for the mouse 
In a hole in the wall of the house. 
Heard by the owl with blood on its beak 
And the shrew in the ditch. 
Heard by the weasel, the ferret, the stoat, 
The terrified rabbit 
And the whale and the whaler above in his boat. 
Christmas Eve 
And twelve chimed the clock when the message was heard. 
‘And can it be true?’ 
Said the fox to the hen to the wolf to the sheep to the dog to the cat to the mouse to the owl to the shrew. 
‘And can it be true?’ 
They said to the weasel and ferret and stoat 
And the whale to the man in his boat. 
‘And can it be true?’ 
‘Come and see for yourself.’ 
So they went. 
The fox with the hen with the wolf with the sheep with the dog with the cat with the mouse with the owl with the weasel and ferret and stoat. 
And the whale towed the boat. 
Christmas Eve 
Twelve of the clock 
When they came to the stable and saw. 
‘It is true! It is true!’ 
And knelt down. 


"Can It Be True?" Susan Hill

Sung for my wife, Frances, an amazing and lovely woman who still rings true. We have known each other as good friends for 60 years and have been married for 40. This was recorded at our celebrations at The Festival Sand July 19, 2015 and is dedicated to her. The song was written by Terry Hiscock of Hunter Muskett....a grand band and I first heard it in 1971)

Silver Coin

This is my attempt to respond sonically to a picture that grabbed my imagination. The picture is called White Line Song by Jeremy Annear and was part of his solo show at the Campden Gallery (campdengallery.co.uk ).
This is work in progress

First Dance Theme For White Line Song (A sonic response to a picture by Jeremy Annear)

I love the atmosphere of hope in this song....wholesome, simple, warming. Wish I could play the squeezebox and the double bass, wish I could sing....wish I could....

Follow the Heron (Karine Polwart)

Bahamian folk song covered by the McGarrigles. We sang this at the friendly and highly regarded Saltcellar Folk club at Totterdown Baptist Church. What a great evening with wonderful floor singers (17) and the compelling, creative and altogether suited and booted Barron Brady whose music and composition is truly stunning. 

Peter and the Rabbitts are 3 very talented women who comprise 3/4 of a great family and Peter, who is lucky enough to get the opportunity to join them for song and lettuce

Go And Dig My Grave

a serendipitous recording as our neighbour-farmer herds his flock past my studio window one morning in May. One escapes, he chases, sheep is canny and frustrates first attempt, The farmer, ever the gentle man, keeps his curses sotto voce, and finally the sheep is encouraged back to the flock.
Selected for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Breakfast Show in their featured "garden sounds" August 19 2016

Chasing sheep is best

Despite the rain this blackbird puts on a stellar performance. Check out those high frequency trills

Blackbird singing in the rain

Anonymous Latin text from the 7th century used at Vespers during Advent. Played on our Goddaughter's Gibson (DADGAD). Thank you Susie W. 
I found the words odd but striking and discovered that "Greensleeves" would work with some slight alterations.
One take, no effects apart from fade out. Thanks to Tom Richardson for comments on arrangement.

One take for Advent #2 Conditor alme siderum (Creator of the stars of night)

This week I've been thinking about those in darkness, oppressed, experiencing injustice. I'm wondering how I might bring some light into the dark. This negro spiritual finds the pain and looks for the answer

One take for Advent #3 Let my people go (Go down Moses)

"Magnificat Now" is written by Shirley Erena Murray with music by Jim Strathdee. http://www.hopepublishing.com/media/pdf/hset/hs_5503.pdf
It is worth checking the powerful lyrics from this link.

We learned and sang the song this morning at Cheddar Baptist Church. This is the desk recording so not a studio production....I think it has a worshipful atmosphere....warts and all. 
Susie plays flute and fiddle, Robbie plays viola and I play guitar and sing

One take for Advent #4 Magnificat Now

I love this elemental, celebratory, primitive song of praise to the new born king

Sound Sound Your Instruments Of Joy

One of my highlights of last year. This is a short excerpt of a recording I made of rutting deer back in October. It was an extraordinary evening: with the sun setting, no wind, a rising moon the sights and sounds were awesome. Recorded using a pair of Ian Brady mics to Marantz PMD 660 at Holkham Hall October 2016. A great evening with some sound field craft advice from Ian and Paul Pratley both officers of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society. There was a lot of human activity so this is a couple of short cuts from the recording cross faded with a tiny bit of eq. Cracking photograph by Neil Bygrave of Naturelens. Thank you.

Fallow buck grunting and antler clash Holkham Hall

January  5, 2017, Ham Wall. Very still clear evening, lots of humans, plus one enthusiastic child,  thousands of starlings roosting and one Hercules C130J (can anyone confirm?)flying directly overhead. I'm using two Brady omni mics (on a coat hanger)to an Olympus LS-11. A mid/side rig would have given a more faithful recording. I can hear the starling vocalisations disappear as the Hercules flies immediately overhead and assume that the Olympus clip comes into play rather than the starlings stop vocalising in awe as this massive beast trundles above?

the sound of a thousand voices, of one voice and the roar of a hercules

Eleni is one of the village characters. She has a herd of just 4 goats that graze around the village...often finding the best vegetable plots to plunder. This recording fragment was collected in 2008 when she was in her youthful 80s. 

9 years on still she climbs (or cuts through) fences, walls; loves her goats, screams at her goats, threatens her goats. Kalliope Stara says " She calls the goats "λυκοφαγωμένα" which means "eaten by the wolf"."  She has an awsome array of whistles and vocalisations as well as curses and kind words to keep them in some semblance of order.

This sound fragment will form part of The Papingo Suite which is work in progress and will be part of the "Disappearing Sounds" movement.

This beautiful portrait taken by Andre Bakker (http://www.andrebakker.com/stone-faces/) sums up her strength, tenacity and beauty

Eleni, Kadsikia: an interchange

This year I will try to find elements to help quiet reflection, thinking, reviewing, wondering, hopng. This first poem "Advent Calendar" by Rowan Williams slowed me down a little and helped me look at and listen to things from a slightly different position. The background is the recorded sound of wind in the trees....perhaps the breath of God

Advent #1 Advent Calendar

This is a great Shetland fiddle tune by Tom Anderson mourning the moving away of families from his region (Eshaness) where he was born.Each time a family moved from their croft, or died, another light was 'slockit', (Shetland for extinguished). 

Da Slockit Licht (with Tom Richardson)

This field recording uses contact mics which are shaped and sized like a £2 coin. I put some over ripe pear onto the surface of the microphone and left it on the ground in the garden for 2 hours. This is a fragment from that recording where you can hear about 50 ants swarming over, under and around the piece of pear. You can hear footsteps, munching and I'm sure they are having a good old natter and a few arguments over the taste of it.

JrF contact mics to Olympus LS 11 digital sound recorder

Antiphonics

A lovely tune written by fiddle player and composer, Jay Ungar in the 80s. It sounds much older than it is and the tension between the lament style and waltz timing gives added poignancy. It was great working on this with Tom Richardson who has a wealth of knowledge and experience of folk music and plays beautifully.

Ashokan Farewell (arr. Peter Annear and Tom Richardson)

On a road trip to Greece in autumn 2013 we stopped off in Jasseron for the night. I was sitting on a little verandah recording ambience with my Zoom H2 when a local cat jumped up on the table and was affectionately curious particularly to the ZOOM. You can hear the footpads as well as the purring and mewing.

purring mewing cat

Draw me through(Jeremy Annear arr. Peter Annear and Tom Richardson)

Goats feeding, goat bells, bee, bird song

Eleni's goats Mikro Papigo June 2012 edit

Another from the archive. This is an attempt at the wonderful laid back JJ Cale classic. You can just hear Tom (my now 34 year old son) asking in a squeaky voice "Am I playing?" He is an amazing drummer but hasn't played for 20 years. I think he was about 10 in this recording. Wish I had done more with him. As always my Martin and electric bass (played by me not Clive) recorded on the trusty Portastudio

Call me the Breeze (JJ Cale) instrumental take 1 (Tom and Peter Annear)

I love sound. I want to learn to listen more actively, more creatively

Peter Annear

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