birdsong & guitar

Been working away trying to get more birdsong out of the guitar in recent months.

Inspired through mainly listening to what goes on in the gardens behind and around our flat, listening and playing along, listening and drawing. Also Gary Smiths work is really interesting here and definitely worth checking out here.

There was an interesting programme on radio 3 about composers and birdsong recently, its on the iplayer for a few more days, listen here while you can.

Makes for intriguing listening but has always been abit of a mystery to me how unlike birdsong most classical works inspired by birdsong is! Messiaen of course has the best go at it in my opinion but constricts himself with 12 tones.

Final note on birds, great performance at the Bristol live art show me and Bekke played at on saturday from Emma Bennett who used cadences and rhythms form birdsong as the basis for her verbal descriptions of the birds.

Birchall/Cheetham/Lash

footage from flim flam gig here splendidly captured by shuffleboil

Instrument Building Workshop

Instrument Building

In June & July of 2011 I worked with a group of adult learners who attend a weekly group called Art to Life. We built a series of string, percussion and wind instruments from found and reclaimed materials according to several basic designs I had made prototypes for. We then had several music making and recording sessions to capture the instruments in action and the sounds were used in the soundtrack to an animation the group were working on.

Soundclip and Photos below:

Art to Life PM group by davidmbirchall

Spitting Feathers

We got a CDr release together for the tour with thee Birchall/Brice/Marks Trio.

Its called “Spitting Feathers” and has 7 tracks on just under an hour long. We recorded it to tape last year with Karl in The Milkroom at Hotspur Press.

You can hear the first two tracks here:

reel1 track 1 by davidmbirchall

Reel1 track 2 by davidmbirchall

Thanks to the good people of Bolton, Lancashire and as ever Bertrand Russell for track title guidance.

There’s still some copies available for £6 including p&p or fiver at gigs. Email me here if you are interested in a copy.

Bishop’s Castle feedback

Played a really fun gig on the recent tour with Phil and Olie in Bishop’s Castle a charming little town in deepest Shropshire. So deep its nearly in Wales. Afterwards we were given probably the most detailed audience feedback Ive ever received. Read below:

Photos, footage and some live recordings to come soon from the tour.