Up in time for the Liverpool game after a 5 AM bedtime. Olivia and I stayed up listening to Soft Machine and Faust (as you do). I’m trying to get away from the studio computer screen to the laptop screen, so I can be in the front listening to music on the stereo as I write. Having said that, I have new Valley of Salt mixes with tweaks, getting ever closer to mastering this album and trying to figure out how to release it to the world. That means listening in studio land, although it’s great to get a different perspective on the stereo speakers, after all, that’s where it has to sound its best. The record-making process is so detailed and there are so many aspects to consider from the day you wrote your first riff to seeing the record in the shops or hearing it on the radio, if you are in Sydney you may hear the new Arktik Lake single on 2 SER but generally getting on the radio isn’t the game we play in most of the world. It seems that the most popular radio is the radio you don’t want to listen to – Forget The Radio.

Sarah who has been putting lots of input into the future projects rang from Florence today where she’s on holiday, telling us of magnificent buildings and psychedelic Renaissance paintings. It reminded me of the trip we made to Coimbra last week, or even walking through the streets of Porto and suddenly being faced with a blue-tiled magnificent church – that’s Europe. We are constantly surrounded by the past as we stumble into the future, standing outside an 800-year-old cathedral talking on your mobile phone is a rather absurd image. If only the past could see the future. I wonder how the future humans will look back on us from the 22nd century, “Can you imagine what they believed in the 21st century?” I can hear them talking.

One wonders if The Archive will make it to the 22nd century. Will it even make it to Porto? As we contemplate the expensive electrician coming tomorrow to start fixing the electricity issues in the premises, we realise that the expense of the renovation is not over yet. We will have to employ him in different stages so as not to be hit with a big bill for everything that needs to be done all at once. I think we should think about starting Phase 3 around Christmas, hopefully, more projects, another GoFundMe campaign, and the attempt to bring the records and everything else over in the spring – transport, customs, storage, the three big ones. I sit in the front room here, close my eyes, and dream about opening them and seeing the shelves and the collection through The Archive door.

Liverpool won convincingly, the Arsenal/Man U second half was exciting, and the Arsenal crowd went nuts with their late winners. Coco won, Jimmy Buffett died, he was a billionaire, I always think it might be best to use up all your money whilst you are still alive, but if you have that much I guess it’s not so easy. What do footballers do with all their money after the first year of buying everything they would ever want?

Music today has been the reissue of The Faust Tapes (1973). Originally released for the price of a single (49p), apparently 60,000 people in England bought it (including me, the original is in The Archive). It’s so weird and so great and so nuts and so unique and German, a sonic collage. If you liked Revolution 9, then this is for you.

Music Of The Daze