New Year, New Albums, Frugal Forest..

Happy New Year!!!! So 2015 has dawned and I'm sitting looking at my list of things to do.. it's long but very exciting..

on the drawing board there are not one but TWO albums waiting to be released.. both solo records, recorded in Minneapolis (see pics in my last post).. a short animation film to one of the tracks is also in production.. a new website for yours truly AND a publication of sheet music, to go alongside the albums, for those who read and play the piano.. much of course to do before any of those things reach the general public, so it's head down bum up, focus time for me until i tick a few boxes..

since i last wrote here i went to the world music expo womex in Spain, just to check out what's going on and see lots of really great world music acts. what a week it was, in Santiago de Compostela, with a brief stopover in Madrid on the way home. Here's a pic of a very fun band La Chiva Gantiva..

La Chiva Gantiva

shortly after that, a last minute decision, I flew to Poland to check out the Jazztopad Festival. Amazing weekend of music and films, the highlight seeing Mulatu Astatke perform (the godfather of Ethiopian-Jazz) with his live band.. he's a composer and vibes player who penned the music on director Jim Jarmusch's movie Broken Flowers featuring Bill Murray.. No pics of the music sorry, but walking in Wrocław I saw this amazing street art coming out of the pavement.. 

Street art in Wrocław Poland

and below is a random bit of art from the back of the Southbank Centre in London..

Street art at Southbank Centre London

ok, so i'll be in Australia for a month March/April this year.. to continue work on the Frugal Forest project.. i'm getting ultra excited about immersing myself in this project again and can't wait to see it all come together.. there's such a huge community of people and organisations involved and an absolute pleasure to be working with Bryony Anderson from One Off Makery.

we have a very special fundraising campaign going on at the moment, so please take a moment to have a look, read, be inspired and donate to our wonderful cause.. all donations are tax deductible, so i encourage you to get on board to help us create a most amazing immersive installation yet..

Frugal Forest prototype.. April 2014

so, just a quick one today as I need to get onto some editing of sheet music...
back soon.. :)
ps. i'll leave you with this one quote i saw.. a mosaic plastered to the side of a car at an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London..