Today was the premiere of Space Summit’s I’m Electric, available to listen on jammerzine.com. The first review also appeared on theafterword.co.uk and the album will be available for pre-order tomorrow, June 9th, limited gatefold blue vinyl and CD. If you pre-order you will be sent the digital files, otherwise, it will appear on all the streaming sites on September 3rd which is the release date of the CD. The vinyl will appear early next year but as it is so limited it might be prudent to order it now. This week will also see the first gatefold vinyl release of Noctorum’s Sparks Lane, it’s all happening even though the dust has only just cleared from the release of MOAT’s Poison Stream in February. Progress on the albums with Ahad Afridi, Jerome Froese, Brix Smith, The Wild Swans and Salim Nourallah as it happens. The release date for the limited aquamarine 200 vinyl copies of Arktik Lake’s debut EP is subject to test pressing approval, so watch this space. It’s going to be a busy next 12 months.

Olivia and I went to the gym today and it’s become obvious that I need an MRI on my knee which has been giving me some trouble for years. Ricardo, the trainer, suggested it. I can’t kneel on it or lift any weight on my left leg. I’ve also had numbness on the side of my left knee. I went to the doc’s about it a couple of years ago, she sent me to the hospital for an X-ray. There was nothing wrong with the bones and she couldn’t explain the numbness and that was that. Now I’d like to get it diagnosed and fixed although at this point in Portugal we don’t have a doctor – there’s a waiting list. I might have to go private but the costs are not that bad. The point is that if I’m going to be moving the archive I have to be in top condition, as top as you can be for 63.

The oven died today so no more of those tasty roasted vegetables until it gets fixed. It’s like you need a spare of everything. Have you ever bought something that you loved and thought back to when you bought it and remembered there were ten of them and now the thing you loved has died and you can’t get it anymore? But I suppose you have to move on otherwise I’d still be wearing my tenth pair of low-waisted brown brush denim flares (with a size increase for every five years that went by). Plus, it’s pretty hard to have a spare oven in the house. But a spare computer is a no brainer, if it goes down in this technological world all your work, your pleasure and your communication stops. Of course, you don’t need your computer to swim or eat or talk to your wife but there was a time when watching, listening, working and communicating weren’t all on the same device. One day this one device will also be your means of transport and maybe even your oven but hopefully not your swimming pool – or your wife.

With Portugal being taken off the green list and put on the amber list, all those tourists we were expecting are no longer coming. On Thursday everything is closed here as it’s Portugal Day so we’ll be heading to a beach full of locals. We’ve lived here for six months and been to the beach once and that was on Christmas Day. It’s 15 minutes away by car so we really should go and see the sea more often but we always seem to be busy with projects and everything else. Apparently, it’s not warm enough to swim in the sea, it’s the Atlantic Ocean. I remember once going to Long Island for a few days, staying by the beach and running into the Atlantic water, ever the optimist, the shock nearly killed me. I also remember once sitting in the water on Bondi Beach around Christmas and it was bathwater.

Music today was Track 8 from Noctorum’s Sparks Lane, All In Good Faith. It reminds me of a later Bunnymen track. With only four days left till RSD Drops (Record Store Day) on Saturday, I’m hoping you can find it out there. Please let us know if you can and send us photos, well, send Olivia photos (olivia@martywillson-piper.com)

Song Of The Daze

ALL IN GOOD FAITH

I wanna show you all of my prizes
I’ll show all my tricks to you
All my disguises
Just let me in there, just let me in there

Take off your clothes for me
You know that you want to
If you get over me
You’re going to have to
I know you won’t want to
(I can’t believe this feeling)
I know you won’t want to
(What is this drug you’re dealing)
I know you won’t want to
(You touch my hand I’m reeling)

You are completely
Under my spell
I’ll be your secret with no-one to tell
Even though it’s not so hard to believe
All in good faith

Put on some music
Made to seduce you
I might even sing something
Just to remind you
You might know the melody
(I hear the song you’re singing)
You might know the melody
(Why do the bells start ringing)
You might know the melody
(You seem to know what I’m thinking)

Blinded by spotlights that shine in the dark
This is so easy, a walk in the park
Even though this might feel special for you
All in good faith

It’s a very exciting week of releases with a brand new album coming – Space Summit’s Life This Way, my collaboration with sessioneer Jed Bonniwell from magical Minneapolis. This will be the first full sessioneer album release where we have worked together from the early days of the Songwriting & Guitar Guidance project, Jed was the first person to get in touch and now we are releasing an album. We wrote the songs together, Jed wrote the lyrics and sings and I play all the guitars and bass. Dare co-produced, engineered, and played some keys and some slide. Eddie John, who played on Noctorum’s The Afterlife and MOAT’s Poison Stream, plays the drums, Olivia’s on violin and backing vocals on two tracks with Phoebe Tsen from Borneo on main backing vocals (yes, from Borneo). I’ve been so impressed with Jed’s lyrics, melodies and vocals and the album will be available as a download from Wednesday as part of the CD and vinyl pre-order. The album is ten tracks and the vinyl will be available as a gatefold in a very limited blue pressing. There have been some serious problems with pressing plants this year due to the pandemic but the CD will be released on September 3rd with the vinyl coming early next year. There will be a premiere of the first single I’m Electric on Jammerzine on Tuesday, June 8th from midnight East Coast time. We hope you enjoy the album as much as we did making it from dust to gold.

Also this week, we have Noctorum’s Sparks Lane released on RSD Drops, June 12th. First time on vinyl, also a gatefold. It only took 18 years to get a vinyl version but hopefully, it’s worth the wait and you will be able to find a copy of it in a store near you.

I went for a mega-swim today and managed 92 laps. I’d already gone a little over time but Phillip, one of the staff there pointed out my bent arm and told me to do two more laps without the bend and showed me the technique! I’ve discovered in recent weeks the true pleasure of swimming, trying to silently cruise through the water is the goal, hardly seeing a ripple in the water despite having a body that is attempting to propel itself forward. I remember being on holiday as a kid sitting on the side of the harbour in New Quay in Wales and seeing an adult glide through the water like a silent fish. Somehow it took me till my mid-forties to learn how to swim freestyle and now in my early sixties to try and get it smooth.

As I left for the pool today and walked through the Marquês park, there was a man on one of the benches with a huge belly uncovered, sunning it I suppose. The park is always full of a mixture of characters at this time. Teenagers coming out of school, some homeless people who go to the church opposite for food. The teenage girls are also showing their bellies as is the fashion and the contrast made me think about how different people’s bodies actually are despite the arms and legs and everything else being the same. This is why we need the aliens to come, green ones with lots of eyes and arms and legs so we can also realise that we humans are all the same. Then, if the aliens are friendly we can live next door to them and have them as friends and goalkeepers.

One of the forgotten Greenwich Village Folkies died last week, May 26th. Patrick Sky was something of a lefty with satirical lyrics, a contemporary of Dave Van Ronk, Buffy Sainte-Marie and of course Bob Dylan. Somehow Van Ronk and Sky didn’t seem to break out of the sixties despite some well-reviewed albums into the seventies and beyond.

Music today is the 7th track from Noctorum’s Sparks Lane, Things To Do And Be, something of a conceptual list song, the title speaks for itself, the juggernaut that is the music careers along (get it?).

Song Of The Daze

THINGS TO DO AND BE

A moment a second a minute an hour a day a week a month a year a decade a century a halfpenny a penny a shilling a florin a halfcrown a pound a guinea a monkey a ton a grand a pfennig an öre a centime pesetas and lire and Deutschmarks sterling dollars cents nickels and dimes francs and kronor guilder and roubles yen and Mazda Toyota Datsun Mitsubishi Mercedes Audi Simca Peugeot Renault Citroën and Buick and Dodge and Cadillac and Oldsmobile Pinto and Pontiac Dusenberg Studebaker Mercury Saab and Volvo and Fiat and Ferrari and Maserati Lambourghini De Tomaso De Lorean Jensen and Jaguar Daimler and Wolsely and Riley and Hillman and Singer and Humber Bentley Rolls Royce Marcus and Lotus and Holden and Maton and Fender and Gibson and Rickenbacker Hagström and Burns and Shergold and Hayman and Cayman and Scilly and Haiti and Jamaica and Fiji and Bali The Maldives Madagascar The Isle Of Man The Falklands The Isle of Aron England and Ireland and Bronson Pacino Keitel De Niro Lake Bergman Hayworth Davies Crawford Camus and Sartre and Cocteau Venus and Mars and Pluto and Saturn and Jupiter Mercury Uranus and Neptune Earth Sea Sun the Moon and wolves and foxes squirrels and badgers and otters and rabbits and hares crows magpies finches sparrows and eagles and vultures lions and tigers and elephants giraffes gazelles rhinos hippos cougars panthers and cheetahs hyenas and pigs foxes cows sheep cats dogs ostriches emus camels and llamas love and pity and war and tears and fear and happiness sadness mystery intrigue Typhoon Lancaster Wellington Spitfire Mosquito Kitty Hawk Heinkel Messerschmidt Dornier Zero 12345678 hunger obesity bulimia anorexia starving gluttony and Kings and Queens and Queens and Princes Earls Counts Countesses banks butchers bakeries bedrooms cloakrooms black and white photos posters pamphlets prisons judges and policemen murderers and vicars and nuns and guns and knives and forks and spoons trains and planes and caravans and spaceships buses and taxis yellow and green blue and red vermilion orange apples and peaches pears and cumquats and lime and lemons Muslims and Arabs and Jews and Christians Buddhists Agnostics Presbyterians Anglicans Children Of God

Last night, as the darkness came down, the sky exploded with fireworks just out of sight of our window. You could see the remnants of a green glow and a lot of smoke but not the actual display. It woke all the seagulls, scared them out of their wits, and as quickly as the explosions started they stopped. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason, only guesswork, a birthday perhaps, who knows? I once saw a world fireworks competition in Stockholm that was quite fascinating as the identity, the mood of a country, was expressed in the sky. I seem to remember that Spain won but I also remember the American display being over the top! Haha. The shock of fireworks suddenly in the night was disturbing, it felt like war. Then sitting here in the early hours the doorbell suddenly rang, we ignored it and heard the bell ring again somewhere else in the building. The uncertainty that these events give you is unnerving but is it really a madman trying to get into the building or a lady who lives here who lost her keys? We will never know but fearing the worst seems to be the choice most people would make based on the world’s madness, how sad that we suspect danger for ourselves rather than wondering if someone else needs our help.

It was Swedish national day today and I coincidently did some Swedish lessons, a refresher course in some basics, you are always learning when it’s not your native language (as you are in your own language). Olivia was studying Portuguese irregular verbs and earlier helping a Spanish girl who lives in Portugal with preparation for an interview tomorrow in Basel, Switzerland. Yikes, Swiss German! It’s a tricky German dialect that Olivia doesn’t actually know so they were speaking in High German – big difference. We were once in a shop in Penzance next to some tourists and we heard them speaking but couldn’t recognise the language, so I asked them, it was Swiss German.

After the Arktik Lake Tony sesh, the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and before England beat Romania 1-0 in a pre-European Championship friendly we went for a quick trip to the Psychedelic Psupermarket. When we walked out of our place into the street it was an absolutely gorgeous summer’s day with not a cloud in the sky. Close to our destination there’s a construction site with a massive crane. When you look up at the crane it seems that the protruding arm that sits on the structure rooted in the ground is somehow balanced by a series of concrete blocks strapped to the end where the operator sits. It seems so basic but is just a simple equation of weight distribution. Can you imagine climbing up there every day? I have a theory that the people that build things, from the architects to the engineers to the plasterers and the bricklayers, the glaziers and the electricians, the plumbers to the roofers – they are the real artists. In history, these people built grand buildings with exquisite carvings in stone, ballrooms with magnificent ceilings, chandeliers and beautiful floors. Of course, the labourers on these buildings must have lived in dubious conditions but walk into any important building that is over 100 years old and it’s a work of art. Sessions followed with Rajan in Brooklyn and Paul in New Orleans.

In history, Carl Jung died today in 1961, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. Billy Preston, who the world saw in the studios in the dying days of The Beatles, died in 2006, jazz saxophonist Stan Getz died today in 1991, we all know the Astrud Gilberto/Stan Getz collaboration on The Girl From Ipanema that popularised Bossa Nova in the world. Actress Anne Bancroft, who I remember best from The Graduate, died today in 2005. Influential French artist Yves Klein died today in 1962, Jean Paul Getty in 1976.

World-renowned bassist Tony Levin (King Crimson and Peter Gabriel and many more) was born today in 1946 as was Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs, born in 1936. Gary US Bonds was born in 1939, swing saxophonist Jimmie Lunceford was born in 1902 and Aram Khachaturian in 1903, we all remember Sabre Dance by Love Sculpture, don’t we? Classic British comedy actor Kenneth Connor was born today in 1918, if you’re my age you grew up with him. Russian poet and author Alexander Pushkin was born today in 1799. I read The Bronze Horseman (1833), he was killed in a duel in 1837. Thomas Mann (Death in Venice, 1912) was born today in 1875, Björn Borg in 1956. It’s the anniversary of D-Day, 1944.

Music today is track 6 from Noctorum’s Sparks Lane, arriving next weekend, June 12th, RSD Drops, on vinyl in a gatefold cover. This strange track, Ask Again, was supposed to be as unnerving as it sounds. It’s a monologue involving someone who is lost and is trying to get directions until they finally get a warning.

Song Of The Daze

ASK AGAIN

Turn left at the traffic lights
Opposite the swimming baths
Drive about 200 yards
You’ll see a garage on your right
When you get there ask again
Glad to be of use to you

Right out of the courtyard
To the second zebra crossing
You’ll see an Indian restaurant
“The ‘Something’ Of Bengali”
When you get there ask again
Glad to be of use to you

I’m sorry I’m not local
I’m here to see some family
But ask inside the police station
It’s only ’round the corner
You’re going to have to ask again
But glad to be of use to you

Sorry sir the Sergeant’s sick
I’m up from London, training
Try the chemist down the road
Being here is draining
You’re going to have to ask again
But glad to be of use to you

Just beyond the alleyway
You’ll see another cobbled lane
Turn down there you should fit through
But then you’ll have to ask again
Then you’ll have to ask again
Glad to be of use to you
Glad to be of use to you

Reverse your car back down the hill
But watch out for the roadworks there
Someone died under a truck
A nasty little accident
When you get there ask again
But glad to be of use to you

Excuse me sir you can’t park here
It’s dangerous for strangers
Somebody will drag you out
Violence is everywhere
Whatever happens don’t ask again

Don’t ask again
Glad to be of use to you
Don’t ask again

Today is the first Saturday of June which means the market is on in the Marquês park square, just 30 seconds from where we live. We go to bed so late that we probably miss out on some of the bargains but it carries on late into the afternoon so we get to look at the bric-a-brac, the one record stall, the ornaments and curios and Olivia gets to look at the clothes. I whisked through there pretty quickly and only managed to find a small dinosaur for Olivia (she likes dinosaurs) and I left her to browse the jewellery and clothing at her own speed. I found a nice piece of grass under the trees and lay down partly in the shade and partly in the sun. I looked up at the sky through the leaves of the trees, bright green against bright blue. There were two butterflies expertly chasing each other in all kinds of jerky movements – it was more likely a male chasing a female. On that subject, there were two pigeons on one of the branches of the trees actively canoodling, kissing, burying their heads into each other’s necks, a real romantic display of affection and mating ritual. Seagulls crossed my vision high above and a very small ant crawled onto my arm. There was something beautiful about watching nature amidst the people in the market and I was thinking how incomplete the world would be if the planet was just populated by us, the Earth’s biggest threat – the humans.

Saturday is kind of my day off. No swimming or gym, no sessions, I usually try and stay in bed as long as possible, no alarm, and try to make it as relaxing a day as possible. There’s still the French and the other Duolingo languages and the blog but otherwise, it’s nice going out without a timetable or staying in and watching some football or tennis (French Open is on right now) or listening to music and later watching a TV series which I hope is going to turn into watching more films. I’m considering joining the British Film Institute website – two weeks free trial and then £4.99 a month. It’s not just British films, lots of foreign films too. Probably good for language learning too. I used to watch so many foreign films and read so many books, how do you do that these days?

Lying there on the grass contemplating the universe, suddenly there were loud sirens and fire engines, trying to get through the traffic on the road that surrounds this little green area that is the Marquês square. The calm momentarily shattered, but as the sirens faded into the distance, the sound of the fountain returned, the quiet buzz of the monthly market continued. I was away in the land of sleepy reverie, letting the warm southern European sun coil itself around my limbs. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the feeling that summer is here washed over me like a wave, took me to another place of softness and dreams. Then Olivia accidentally jumped me and scared me to death more than the sirens did. She left some bags with me and went off for another quick wander and she was soon back and we left for the psychedelic psupermarket although I went into the café and waited for her with a decaf. In there a woman was arguing with the owner, I couldn’t understand what it was about but she stormed out angry. It’s hard to keep the serenity going for long.

Back home Nadal (thirteen-time French champion) was beating a brave Cam Norrie in three sets. Last year’s women’s champ, the twenty-year-old Iga Świątek from Poland, also won, as did last year’s runner up, the American Sofia Kenin in a feisty match. The second week of Roland Garros is where the form players get to play their hearts out for the prize. Tomorrow England plays Romania in a friendly match before the start of the European Championships on Friday. Any England fan knows that watching England is never relaxing.

Although I’ve been concentrating on tracks from Noctorum’s Sparks Lane in conjunction with next weekend’s RSD Drops (June 12th), I have of course been playing lots of other records, today Cha Wa‘s My People (2021), yesterday 10cc‘s The Original Soundtrack (1975), the day before The Stones’ Exile On Main St. (1972). But today it’s track 5 on side one, a song that might have been a hit if it had been released in 1978 instead of 2003 – High As A Kite. It’s just a pop song, it has a summery feel and great hook, seems appropriate today.

Song Of The Daze

HIGH AS A KITE

Doesn’t mean that I have lost the feeling
I just wound up sitting in the car
Then I went home and stared up at the ceiling
Thinking everything had gone too far

But oh oh I am so lonely
And oh oh I wish you’d phone me

There’s rain outside as I look out the window
There’s people with umbrellas in the street
But through the dark the sun is almost shining
The thunderclouds have started their retreat

But oh oh I’m feeling better
Oh oh I, I’m going to come and get ya

High as a kite for you
Everything is gonna be alright
Try as I might for you
Something’s wrong and I can’t make it right

I touch your hand and lay there in the silence
I think I only want you when you’re gone
Sometimes I just feel like we are islands
We’ve both been marooned for too long

But oh oh why this confusion
Oh oh I’m disillusioned

High as a kite for you
Everything is gonna be alright
Try as I might for you
Something’s wrong and I can’t make it right

(High as a kite)
High as a kite but something isn’t right
(High as a kite)
Try as I might I can’t get it right

High as a kite for you
Everything is gonna be alright
Try as I might for you
Something’s wrong and I can’t make it right

(Everything will be alright)

Today I realised how hard it is to speak another language after completing 365 days, one full year, of doing French every day and I can tell you one thing – I don’t speak French. I know a lot of nouns, verbs, grammar and I can communicate, I can have a conversation at a simple level but when I hear French spoken I barely understand. The speed, the accent, it leaves me lost almost immediately. I can pick out words, I can sometimes catch half a sentence but overall I’m lost. It’s pretty frustrating and although I can speak more Swedish than French, take me to a region like Skåne in the southern part of the country and I’m also lost, I simply don’t understand the accent. Mind you I have trouble in parts of Scotland and the North East too.

Today I was walking to the pool and as I crossed the road into the Marquês park, I heard my name being called. It was Filipe one of the guys who regularly swims offering me a lift. I jumped in the car and we went off into the narrow winding streets of Porto. On the way, he said let’s stop for a quick coffee so we sat outside at a little neighbourhood café and had one of those short espressos. He told me that this was where he grew up, pointed out his house and also the apartment where his wife grew up, around the corner from him. Having always travelled and moved away from where I grew up in the north of England I can’t imagine what it is like to be in your sixties and still be frequenting the neighbourhoods of your youth. Filipe speaks very good English because he spent some time living in England but has returned to his roots. I live in Portugal, I have a German wife and part of my family is Swedish and I have lived in Stockholm, New York, Sydney and Porto, I won’t ever return beyond a visit to the place where it all began.

The chlorine really got me again today. I usually flush it out of my head in the shower but today I forgot and I’m sneezing all night, my nose is exploding. I have sympathy for those that suffer from pollen allergies, it must be something like this. Allergies are an odd thing because different people have different allergies. For example, I’m allergic to penicillin, not ideal but can you imagine being allergic to nuts? Some people are in danger of losing their life even if someone opened a bag of nuts in the same room. What is nature up to with that?

We’ve been working on the Space Summit artwork this week, changing things around, trying to get exactly what we want. Experimenting with fonts, the thickness of fonts, title placement, the CD booklet pictures, the credits, proofreading the lyrics and of course the front cover art which is small for CD but large for vinyl. It’s quite a job and it’s so important. Some album covers are just perfect and others not so, design dates, and although some designs are timeless, some designs, equally in fashion and in haircuts, are better forgotten. Priest=Aura is a classic but I remember getting the album cover back from the US for the first album and on the back was a woman’s hand with red nail polish holding a photograph of us, we hated that.

I watched a little tennis from Roland-Garros today and yesterday, that’s when I realised I don’t speak French. The exquisite style of tennis legend Roger Federer, effortless and at 39 he sailed through his game against Marin Čilić. At the end of the game he was interviewed in French, I listened, I tried, I didn’t understand much. In sport, like in music, there are some people who are just naturals, Federer, Ronnie O’Sullivan in snooker, Lionel Messi in football. It’s just a pleasure to see such skill and expertise at work. In music Jeff Beck does that with the guitar, Colin Blunstone with his voice, Bob Dylan with his lyrics, Jaki Liebezeit with his drums, Paul McCartney on the bass. It’s not just super skills, it’s the ideas, the aesthetics of it. When I swim, I obviously do it to get fit but I also want to be able to swim in a beautiful way, not splashing around like an elephant. I want to swim smoothly, I realise at 63 I’m probably not going to turn into a human-dolphin but part of the pleasure of swimming is the gentle glide through the water.

Music today is Hymn, the fourth track from this year’s RSD Drops release (June 12th), Noctorum’s Sparks Lane. It’s the first time on vinyl and very limited. Hymn is an anti-war song. I’ve only ever played it live once or twice I think, it needs a band but it has a rousing quality in the recorded version that I really like.

Song Of The Daze

HYMN

A thousand soldiers died upon the battlefield
Every single one I knew by name
And if all of them were buried they would touch the clouds
And as years go by we never heal the pain

I found a broken medal with a Latin bar
Something about glory and of God
And you could hear the wounded crying as the bombs came down
Only blood and ruin where we trod

So if you can’t back down
But you love your friends
You might want to find
A way to bring the killing to an end

There’s sisters losing brothers on every street
And somebody just has to break the chain
And if you can feel the agony of your enemy
Then you’ll know your fruitless journey is the same

And behind all of your teachings is an innocent
A face that is untarnished and awake
And if every generation passes hatred on
Then there won’t be anybody left to hate

So if you can’t back down
But you love your friends
You might want to find
A way to bring the killing to an end