MUSIC BETWEEN THE (Y)EARS

Festive listening while seeing out the last days of 2025 and welcoming in the first few of 2026...

'On A Meadow – Lea' from the album 'Motherlight' by Bobak, Jons, Malone (1970). Always a favourite to hear around Autumn/Winter time, I think the feel of it fits those seasons well. It also takes me back to the time in the mid 90s when obscure 60s and 70s albums were beginning to appear on 'grey area' labels. Seemingly every month, my head was being filled with many obscure and exciting sounds. There were a lot of interesting characters I met behind those labels too and I learned a lot from them. It's true that you never forget who got you into a particular artist, album, or music. A belated thanks to all. 'Motherlight' appeared on the Merlin label and this is still the version I have. Ah, 'On A Meadow – Lea', beautiful, reflective, but all over much too soon! It's pastoral music, something I'm finding more fulfilling to listen to these days. Music in no hurry, like nature itself... '...high on a hill, locked in a reverie, humming and still, on my meadow – lea...'
Bliss.

'One More Flight To Parker' by Wil Malone. Malone? Yes, the very same who wrote 'On A Meadow – Lea'. I usually reach for Wil's 1970 debut solo album after playing 'Motherlight'. Wil's name is probably lurking in most music collections somewhere, as he's credited as arranger on releases by quite a variety of artists, just check out the roll call, it's full of surprises! He's a real unsung hero. 'Wil Malone' is a beautifully crafted and orchestrated affair, and proves you can't judge a record by its cover either. There's a fragility about his voice that draws me deeper into the songs to get closer to the words. 'One More Flight To Parker' is the song I listen to most. There's a sense of longing there I seem to relate to.


'I went out to the hazel wood, because a fire was in my head..', opens 'Song Of The Wandering Aengus' a poem by W.B. Yeats and put to music quite brilliantly by Mike Scott on 2011's 'An Appointment With Mr. Yeats' by The Waterboys. I love those lines, the sense of being led or possessed by something mysterious, like the muse perhaps? It's a beautiful poem, full of more vivid imagery with themes of infatuation and obsession. By late evening the restless/hungry Aengus catches for himself a silver trout. As he's preparing a fire to cook it, he hears a 'rustling sound' behind him and someone calling his name. The fish has 'become a glimmering girl' who then runs and fades 'through the brightening air'. This is the beginning of many years of his wandering, to find the girl, so they can be together to
'...walk among long dappled grass and pluck, till time and times are done, the silver apples of the moon, the golden apples of the sun'.
The first time I heard this song I couldn't stop playing it and so it remains all these years later. I'm a hopeless romantic! The song leaves me in a state of happy/sad, much like Christmas/New Year's time. Words and music can sometimes have such power. As Katie Kim's voice joins Scott's for the closing lines, listen to it rise on the final '...of the sun' and then follow the haunting flute solo from Sarah Allen as the song fades. Listen closer still and you can hear her take breaths between notes. A beautiful, moving production. Listen and weep, or perhaps smile...


Browsing Jack Ellister's Bandcamp page I came across 'Photography', three short pieces of mood music recorded, I think, between the two 'Lichtpyramide' albums. I still can't quite understand the connection between 'Photography' and titles of the pieces, even when translated, but I find the music suits early mornings in winter for me. 'Einst Erfahrenes' creeps slowly into the room and holds itself there for just a short time before suddenly, it's gone. Ephemeral. It's like the sudden change from dark to light at daybreak. 'Des Morgans' follows (appropriately enough) and the mood lifts. Now there's more of a rhythm to latch onto and everything feels brighter, more optimistic. The closing 'Eraben' throws everything off course, quite abruptly too. Sounds swirl and there's a feeling of confusion. I took this as a sign to perhaps get out into the world and on with the day! 'Photography' is an intriguing listen, a pleasing distraction. I'll be back later... Listen in HERE

'Otherworldly' appeared on Man & Machine's Bandcamp page in November. It's an instrumental version of a new song, 'Tomorrow's World'. Whilst I appreciate the sentiment in the lyrics to 'Tomorrow's World', as 'Otherworldly' it works very much like the earlier 'Earthman (Lost In Space) instrumental. I can kick back to it, content to just drift along taking in the sounds. Tom Roche writes some quite beautiful music. A few times recently it's been the first piece of music to pop into my head on waking. Always a good sign! Listen in HERE

Here's 'Tomorrow's World'


A new album 'Lacuna' is expected from The Church soon. The video for one of the tracks, 'Sacred Echoes Part 2' appeared on YouTube a month or so back. Wow! I don't mind admitting that I've been a little sceptical of the 'new phase' Church since the departure of original guitarists Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper. The sounds those two could conjure was real magic! Irreplaceable. Sensibly, Steve Kilbey moved The Church on. With new members Ian Haug, Jeffrey Cain and Ashley Naylor plus longstanding Tim Powles, he began crafting a new sound, a big sound, another powerful sound. It's been gradual, taking a couple of albums for things to settle, but finally with 'The Hypnogogue' and 'Eros Zeta And The Perfumed Guitars' something interesting began taking place. I however preferred to remain in denial for a while longer, but last summer I took time to really listen to those last two albums and found myself appreciating them for what they were, pretty good music actually, something interesting. Blimey, why did it take me so long? Of course, it's not what the 'original' Church was, but it is The Church, still leaving me spellbound once more with some of the most inventive music of the last forty or so years and counting, but in a new way. Oh mama, this humble pie sure tastes good! 'Sacred Echoes Part 2', again, wow! It's all about dynamics. The song is slow and remains that way, but with a build up in power. Stopped me in my tracks when I first heard it, particularly during the hook 'now you say, you're going to take it all away', by the song's end I was in pieces! How am I going to feel once it's joined by parts 1 and 3 on the new album?

Can't wait.