The Crying Of Tanbur

20.11.2018

The Crying Of Tanbur is a short film made by the director of the Tajikistan documentary that I took part in earlier this year. Anisa Sabiri, native to rural Tajikistan, hopes the film will shine a light on the history and horrors of the civil war and conflicts that have affected so many in her homeland, but are often forgotten by the rest of the world.

It is a brilliant piece of work and has been doing really well on the festival circuit. The producers are trying to raise money for the continuing promotion of the film. It’s a worthy cause, and the GoFundMe link is here.

November Update

17.11.2018

I’m in New York at Figure 8, working with my friend Shahzad Ismaily to finish off a couple of projects. One is a record of improvised guitar duets that Shahzad and I have been putting together whenever we find ourselves in the same city, and the other is more of a group effort based around Martin France and I, featuring Arve Henriksen, Matana Roberts, Tim Harries and Shahzad.

Last week Tom Rogerson of Three Trapped Tigers came to the studio. Improvisation is a large part of his approach, but we are also re-framing and redeveloping material that came about in earlier sessions.

I wrote a piece for this month’s Songlines magazine about the Roof Of The World Festival in Tajikistan.

Imogen Heap has released her soundtrack to Harry Potter And The Cursed Child – I’m on it, though I have no idea where.

Lastly I’ll be taking part in a live stream for Spitfire Audio on November 22nd, about my approach to playing guitar on film soundtracks. Check out their Facebook for updates.

Tajikistan photos

07.09.2018

I’ve added lots of new images to the photography section from my recent trip to Tajikistan, here.

Khujand

Yori

Vrang

Khujand

Vrang

Summer

30.06.2018

It’s been a while since the last update – I’ve spent most of the time working on something that hasn’t been announced. But I can say that it will feature Stella Mozgawa from Warpaint, Josephine Stephenson, Benge, the Plus Pedal, and the Arp 2500. I’ve also been working on an improvised record with Martin France, which we hope to complete soon.

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In the meantime there have been some new releases of stuff I worked on last year, including Jon Hopkins’ new record for which I arranged the choir; the soundtrack to Oceans 8 which also features Shahzad Ismaily, Kenny Wollesen and Tim Lefev; another single from Editors; and a couple of tracks from the forthcoming Tunng album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovVOUeKjaNU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IesGOpOZeEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-uiHqo2tx8

I spent December and January producing Guster in Montreal and Calgary, and hopefully the first single will be out soon. In Calgary we recorded at Studio Bell, which has an incredible synth collection as well as the Trident consoles that were originally at Olympic Studios in Barnes. That place was a real find.

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Soon I’ll be going to Tajikistan for a month to attend the Roof Of The World Festival in the Pamir mountains, and help a documentary team with their project about traditional musicians in that area. I’ve been passionate about this music ever since I first heard field recordings that my friend Lu Edmonds made, 15 years ago. I’m thrilled to finally be going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrwuxQpvhgQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT0ciDm0RnE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-W9nt-E70s&index=2&list=PLnOSH5j1sQh_ISgLyFkCumHNayYa9V2Wz

When I get back I’ll be producing a record for the Ligeti Quartet, and getting to grips with these recent arrivals from the 1980s.

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