Robert, Brian and Alice
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Listening to ‘Music for Airports’ by Brian Eno. I must have listened to this album hundreds of times over the last 25 years. It still weaves a magic, creates a mysterious atmosphere that makes working easier.
I’m reading a book by Michael King at the moment – “Wrong Movements: a Robert Wyatt history” which is interesting, not least because I am really interested in the work of Robert Wyatt. It’s an interesting approach to biography, written mainly through the words of those interviewed, and fragments of data relating to concerts, recording dates etc. The author’s words are few – at first I found this a bit odd. But it does construct a story really well, without the usual purple prose of music biographies.
The reason I mention this is because Robert Wyatt co-wrote the first track on ‘Music of Airports’ and plays the piano phrases on which the track is built. Life is a series of connections and synchronicities.
The poetry for ‘the alice conversations’ is progressing steadily. Here is an extract from one of the poems written:
Alice in replay / relay
Disturbance
Resonance and replicate
Words tumbling along like a chaotic maze of messes
The light was barely visible, just out beyond the turn of the road
Where he could clearly see she was standing
Disturb
Resonate and replicas
Sounds fumbling inside like it’s all gone wrong now
She turned to look at him, the mark on her cheek
From the cut that had scarred, clearly visible in the light from the lamp-post
Distress
Resounds and reposition
Colours crumbling around the merest guesses
Car tyres screech as the mondeo flashes around the corner
Heads towards him now, glancing the kerb near where she stands
Distort
Restate and replace
Touch the crumbs that feed the mouth
Violence is a space we find between the sense of us and them
Seconds that make every difference, when all will change
Despair
Remonstrate and replay
Wherever it will lead him
Rain falls on the daylight street, nothing left now
Of the moment when fates crossed and openings slid together.