machina of loving grace
this week’s blog/diary may well be short as it’s being written from the queue for day 2 of machina bristonica. after last week’s van related disappointment in missing Levitation (update - van is saveable but it’ll cost over a grand - eesh) it’s been a fantastic couple of days to bounce back. on thursday was Will Gregory’s Moog Ensemble (which was a bunch of vintage synths, not just Moogs btw) playing a number of great pieces that either were by Wendy Carlos or wouldn’t have been out of place in her repertoire. the sounds were absolutely beautiful and it was great to see a sizable audience at the Turner Sims.
And now, i’m at MB and it’s more than living up to my hopes. The space is massive and well laid out - smart layout means sound bleed is negligible between the spaces - the lineup is great and varied, the talks have been well run and interesting (and honestly the lineup so strong, you are forced to make difficult decisions, (it really did me in to miss the Quietus conversation) and the exhibitor area is massive and focused on giving you opportunities to get hands on with the gear with the sellers on hand to talk you through everything rather than sales. the fact you can’t buy on the day is probably a lifesaver as i’ve seen so much great gear including beautiful stand alone modules from befaco and herbs and stones (I’ll add in links later) and never having seen a little volca in person before, I was surprised by how solid this feels. on the music side, Paddy Steer was an unexpected delight, Loula Yorke did a whole new set which was mesmerising and Anthony Rother definitely caused my brain to melt a bit.
it was also lovely to meet Tim from Secret Nuclear / WHI Records in person after communicating online for a while (and being a SN fan prior to that). Lovely to find out that we had some other connections in common as well. His current base of Dorking isn’t that far from Southampton, so I’m sure our paths will cross again soon - there’s even talk of an EMOM night in Guildford, which would be really interesting.
I know I’m going to have great fun today and hopefully will have the opportunity to continue conversations started yesterday, then look forward to Sulk Room / Kayla Painter on Tuesday (Loula’s husband had an Ambient Owl Core t-shirt that I was coveting madly and i’m hoping I can get one at the gig).