Adam A Williams

idea material

My friend (and onetime collaborator) Leonardo Rosado recently returned from a work related trip to find that his home had been broken into and burgled. In addition to the obvious invasion of privacy and the loss of several expensive items, Leonardo lost his main music computer from which he both creates his own music and runs his labels. 

In the hope of raising some extra funds to buy a replacement laptop, Leonardo has released his album The Blue Nature of Everyday on Bandcamp for just 6 Euros. It’s a great album and its sale will hopefully enable Leonardo to purchase a new Mac soon and get back to music-making. 

It was my birthday a couple of days ago, so to celebrate we went camping in the new vw van for a few days, driving all around North Wales, sleeping on the beach and in a nature reserve. 

After leaving the safe confines of the A55, we started off the road trip proper by successfully annoying every driver within 5 miles of the Crimea Pass by driving very slowly up the mountain in second gear. 

We then headed to Bala Lake as, due to my terrible grasp of geography, I believed it was ‘right next to’ Beddgelert. It wasn’t and so we lost a few hours and a lot of petrol. Upon arriving in Beddgelert, we found a suitable nature reserve and camped for the night, making a barbecue and generally relaxing. 

The next day was spent visiting Gelert’s grave, which included the above photo of Gelert himself (of dubious historical accuracy), and following that, we did some driving around Snowdonia and visited an airplane museum, which was great.

Finally, we spent the evening in Anglesey parked up next to the beach and after walking around the local area and doing some reading, headed back home today, once again annoying drivers along the way due to the van’s (lack of) speed. 

Last week I bought a thirty one year old Volkswagen T25 Danbury camper van as an early birthday present to myself and the last few days have consisted of myself and Hannah cleaning it up, with some minor mechanical maintenance courtesy of my dad.

In all, it’s in great shape and though the 2 litre aircooled petrol engine isn’t exactly economical, it is a lot of fun and seems very reliable. We had a test run and spent the day driving around Anglesey during the petrol strike and intend to spend at least a night or two in it for my impending birthday over Easter. Photos to follow soon…

Hannah purchased a new lens for her Canon and it arrived yesterday, so on the way back from doing some errands we decided to pay a visit to the Duke Of Lancaster  in order to test it.  The ship is still as beautiful as ever, though it’s a shame to see it sat rusting. 

Hannah purchased a new lens for her Canon and it arrived yesterday, so on the way back from doing some errands we decided to pay a visit to the Duke Of Lancaster  in order to test it. 

The ship is still as beautiful as ever, though it’s a shame to see it sat rusting. 

We’re at that magical time of year in North Wales at the moment when the worst of the winter weather is ebbing away and the annual deluge of tourists hasn’t quite hit yet. This photo was taken a little walk away from the lighthouse at our local beach, which is the northernmost point of mainland Wales.

We’re at that magical time of year in North Wales at the moment when the worst of the winter weather is ebbing away and the annual deluge of tourists hasn’t quite hit yet. This photo was taken a little walk away from the lighthouse at our local beach, which is the northernmost point of mainland Wales.

I was fortunate to receive a copy of Marcus Fischer’s latest solo release Collected Dust a couple of months ago and thought it was high time I shared some thoughts about it.

For those not familiar with Marcus, he’s a Portland based experimental artist who produces all kinds of fantastic work, such as these prints and guitar picks in addition to a prolific musical output which includes 2010’s Monocoastal - one of the most accomplished albums that I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. I think that Nathan Thomas summed up my own feelings on Marcus’s work just perfectly when reviewing Collected Dust for Fluid Radio - says Thomas:

I enjoy listening to a wide range of music, but it’s rare that I come across something that completely changes my understanding of how music can be made and listened to.

 
Indeed, Fischer seems to break all the ‘rules’ by turning what is often considered as undesirable qualities in music into something positive, turning hiss, static and clicks into things of beauty. With this in mind, I like Thomas, was also very excited to hear Collected Dust, a series of songs which were originally created for Fischer’s blog Dust Breeding, revisited at this later date and mastered by 12k’s Taylor Deupree. Happily I wasn’t to be disappointed with the results.

Being familiar with Marcus’s blog long before I’d heard a full length release, the tracks within Collected Dust evoked a strange feeling of reminiscence and evoked memories of my own life at the time they were originally conceived. While the tracks were updated, the original spirit was definitely kept and the result is an album which fits perfectly into Fischer’s other works, somewhere between Arctic/Antarctic and Monocoastal, while remaining just as essential as both.

Whether to serve as an introduction to Marcus Fischer’s work or as another piece of the puzzle, I’d definitely recommend picking up a copy of Collected Dust.

Purchase here:

http://www.tenchrec.com/TCH05.html

On a recent trip to the local junk shop I came across this great little suitcase reed organ and couldn’t resist picking it up despite my poor long-suffering girlfriend already having to make do with a huge pile of music gear in our bedroom. It’s pretty lo-fi and is apparently a J Busilacchio, manufactured in the 1960’s. I’ve only had a quick play with it so far but even in my unskilled hands it sounds perfect for the kind of sounds I want to make.

On a recent trip to the local junk shop I came across this great little suitcase reed organ and couldn’t resist picking it up despite my poor long-suffering girlfriend already having to make do with a huge pile of music gear in our bedroom.

It’s pretty lo-fi and is apparently a J Busilacchio, manufactured in the 1960’s. I’ve only had a quick play with it so far but even in my unskilled hands it sounds perfect for the kind of sounds I want to make.

I’ve had a very busy few months and haven’t really felt the inclination to write any new music for a while but that’s finally beginning to change and I’m starting the creative process again, carrying my field recording equipment when I go anywhere interesting and slowly setting up my home studio upstairs, while adding a little extra gear too for good measure.

I hope to have some new music up on here and Soundcloud soon…