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..

april news for rae and sunwrae...

phew! it's april already?! the story of my life at the moment.. it's going too fast! where did the time go? a month since my last post?! ok i'm over my outburst. i have had some adventures though..

march was crazy busy with projects.. first and foremost was the dance and music collaboration with choreographer chris scott and 8 dancers from the london contemporary dance school, along with jenni wright, a fabulous french horn player from the guildhall school of music & drama. i wrote the music and played piano & vibraphone.. my london debut performances!! it truly was a great project to be involved in. chris and i were on the same page from day 1 (that's pretty rare i think!) and so hopefully we'll create something more in the coming year or two.. maybe to tour?! that's be good too! we were the finale act ( i like to think that's a compliment! ) and i think the audience liked it too.. wish i could post it here, but i haven't got the dvd (hoping to soon tho). here's a pic tho from my practice sessions...

next up.. my orchestral work was premiered on march 18.. apparently it was great but i haven't heard the recording yet!! hopefully they'll send me a photo too.. i'll be back with more when i know..

then... i had two weeks break (from my masters classes), which consisted of writing essays, project proposals and funding applications (fun stuff eh?).. but also an easter trip to st ives, cornwall.. the beach! now it wasn't exactly beach weather, but it didn't stop the pomms from gearing up in wetsuits and surfing what looked like not even a foot of surf. i laughed out loud sipping coffee from the warm of the beach cafe out of the rain, but gave them points for the effort.

next stop.. denmark! the home of lego!! legoland was awesome.. it's an amusement park with rides for kids and adults!! and so many amazing lego sculptures..
here's a very short but hilarious video from our trip there...

and some pics... couldn't resist this one..

there's even an underwater world with real sharks, fish and all sorts!

crazy that they're all made from tiny lego block huh!

mmm. so not much else on the cards, oh but ah! that's right.. i've taken up a new hobby.. bouldering! couldn't resist taking a picture of my shoes with the view from my flat in the background too..  ha! not that i'm climbing buildings, just walls and boulders so far. it's indoor too here, but maybe the wild outdoors will call when i'm somewhere with good rocks ;-)

mmm. so next musical venture is a short gig for sunday in the apartment.. then onto a project with an illustrator, idris hussain, to make an animation film... stay tuned for updates!!!

til next time, r