Today the alarm woke me from a deep sleep. I’m not sure where I was, it wasn’t Turkey but the wonderful thing about dreams is that there are no restrictions to where you can be or what you can be doing. The frustrating thing about dreams is that you can’t control them. They may be formed by your subconscious, but you can’t direct where they go. Imagine if you could. Could that be the next great leap forward, controlling the subconscious? Writing your own dreams? A personal holodeck in your head. Imagine if you could get things done whilst you are asleep, educate yourself, learn a language, read a manual, rehearse, all this whilst your body is resting, because it seems that the brain doesn’t rest when you are asleep anyway. There’s activity and imagine being able to put that to good use. Imagine being able to entertain yourself whilst asleep, go to health farms and relax, dream within the dream.

One truth today that did involve Turkey was Ahad arriving from Istanbul via London, he made it. What a relief, we thought that lockdowns might stop us in our tracks and have us not be able to continue the project. But he’s here and we start tomorrow with the vocals. I went to meet Ahad at the station and we walked along the seafront to his hotel where he has a nice room with a sea view to inspire in a hotel built in 1862 when Penzance was booming. One fascinating fact about time in Cornwall:

The completion of the railway through Cornwall made it easier for tourists and invalids to enjoy the mild climate of Penzance and bathing machines had been advertised for hire on the beach as early as 1823. It was only when the train line was built to Penzance in 1852, that Cornish time was unified with Greenwich Mean Time. Before then Penzance, and Cornwall, was 16 minutes ahead of the rest of the country.

Records arrived from Amazon today. The Amazon man commented on the missing handle on the studio door, he suggested we could order one on Amazon! Funny man. So, I got two Al Di Meola records reinterpreting The Beatles, Cat Stevens reinterpreting Tea For The Tillerman and Giles Martin reinterpreting The Stones’ remixed Goats Head Soup, hm tasty. There’s extra tracks here too, demos and Scarlet featuring Jimmy Page – gotta have it. Here is a review of the album from Pitchfork.

I spoke to the surreal Andy Cousin on the phone today and you too can experience his unique take on the universe by listening to his show on Wednesdays between 8PM-10PM UK time. Andy told me today that he would be playing MOAT’s Gone By Noon this week but the FB page says he played it last week? Whether you missed it or will hear it, listen to Andy and Lisa Jane Mires tomorrow night playing ace music and saying crazy things.

Ahad and I walked through Morrab Gardens from the hotel to the studio today. A squirrel sat still in the tree fork, still, dead still. What’s amazing is how fidgety and quick they are and yet how still they can be. On the path a black cat wearing white boots walked lazily in front of us, all the time in the world, ignoring the squirrels, ignoring the birds, eventually veering off into the bushes for a snooze.

I swam my mile today, I ventured out before midday to a bright blue sky, swam and came out into threatening clouds. They didn’t manage to take hold and although their ugly black fists hung in the clouds like demons trapped in jars they failed to kill the beauty of the day. Still, there was that breeze with the taste of ice, the fingers of winter probing into the end of summer.

Music today on this busy day came from one of those CDs that comes free with a magazine. I played it whilst Ahad was here in the archive and picked as a background to our afternoon chat about the process tomorrow, but it was hard not to have one ear open for Phoebe Bridgers (who appears on the cover), Soccer Mommy and a large selection of super hipsters and new to newish singer-songwriters that the over sixties haven’t heard. I really like these Mojo CDs, it’s how I discovered Sigur Ros. The magazine is pretty good too but it’s for a certain demographic. I like to read about Traffic and Be Bop Deluxe but I suppose the under thirties don’t. Today was so busy, swim, conversation with Dare about our next project with Tony in Sydney when Ahad leaves, talking to Andy, swim, meeting Ahad, session with Chris in New Jersey, Chelsea – Spurs League Cup, Star Trek, dinner, French, hoovering, emails, Messenger, now where do I fit the reading in?

Song Of The Daze