STILL YEARNING

In 1995 I qualified as a mental health nurse, and with my first months wages I bought a Fostex XR-5 cassette multitrack recorder, and what a fantastic piece of kit that was! It's still in the loft as I just can't throw it away. I have difficulty throwing anything away to be honest.

The keyboards I owned at the time were a Roland Juno 6 and a Casio CT-470. I also had a Boss RPS-10 digital delay / pitch shifter, a Boss RRV-10 digital reverb and a Yamaha DD-9 drum machine (the kind that you actually hit with sticks, from Argos, you know the type of thing).

The cd was completed in 1997, and the latter part of that period will always burn so brightly in my memory. I had completed the track 'Still yearning' but could always imagine a Dave Gilmore style guitar solo to accompany it.

I was lucky (and still am) to have amongst my friends, a most gifted guitarist in Simon Wilkins. At the time he had his own recording studio, and during a magical week toward the end of 1997, we spent 5 days improvising together, and on the friday of that week, he recorded the guitar solo to the version of 'Still yearning' that is included on this cd.

'Synchronicity' was an improvised track recorded during the same week.

The artwork was done by me using an 'Encaustic Arts' kit which utilises various coloured beeswaxes and a hot iron. Google it, it's fun.

The album is dedicated to the memory of Graeme Gilbert, a friend and fellow musicnaut who died too soon.

(Still Yearning - long version)