Lawrence English

You know what’s great…?

There’s so much new amazing music out there.

You know what’s shite?

There’s so much new amazing music out there.

I have to say I am at times fatigued with all the good stuff churning around. Fatigued, because it seems impossible to give this fine work the ear time it deserves. This probably isn’t helped by the fact I am headed back in time as well as on the hunt in the present moment. Looking both ways is both rewarding and frustrating in equal doses – there’s brilliant stuff, but not enough time to appreciate its awe inspiring potential. It’s hardly a complaint I guess, but I do think it exemplifies perhaps the greatest shift of our age – the shift from commercial exchange to time based exchange. Now the greatest gift a listener can give you is their time – real time too, not just ‘on in the background time’. Music is after all a time based art form.

Music is also a physical artform, physical in that it affects the body. This year I was so very pleased to have the chance to witness two truly life changing music events – both within a couple of weeks of each other – Swans and My Bloody Valentine. I would rate these among my favourite music interactions of late – probably because they come on the back of several decades of waiting to experience them firsthand. Honestly, if you haven’t heard Swans live, do yourself a favour and do it. One of the few bands who understand duration as a device for transcendence.

The other group I think does this as a mode of operation comes from these very shores! Open by The Necks has probably been the end of year revelation. How is it these three men can create such utterly mind meltingly beautiful music – free, but centred. Diffuse but utterly exacting. These guys make me proud to call Australia home – national treasure? I dare say so!

On the personal side of things, I’ve enjoyed a year of making a lot of new work – a good deal of it more oriented towards fine art than music. But always concerned with sound. My new LP Wilderness of Mirrors is largely in the can and I’ll look forward to touring it next year a little. Room40 and our other labels Someone Good and A Guide To Saints have enjoyed some good words this year and many kind and considered ears which makes me very happy. Our family added a wonderful new young man, Theodore – a truly special little human and I even got the chance to watch Akira Kurosawa’s dreams twice on long haul flights. I wonder what Sensei would think of much of today’s contemporary cinema, let alone the state of our world? May our dreams be even a touch as rich as his. Happy holidays to all my friends and family out there in the interweb.

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