9th January

January 9, 2004

Nine days into the year and, bizarrely, No-Man have already had four tentative approaches regarding making a career-overview compilation album.

As, like Highlander, in the end there can only be one, we await the results of the subsequent bloodbath with interest.

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The saga of the forthcoming No-Man reissue of Flowermouth gets ever more complex and nasty, with three labels interested in releasing the album and two claiming ownership. It’s leaving a bad taste of the mid-90s industry duplicity and disorganisation that I thought I’d left behind for good and paves the way for countless joyless phone calls and emails in the coming weeks.

More positively, amidst Mixmeister Modo’s constant cries of, “Kunstwerk! Ist ein kunstwerk, ja,” and Markus’ satisfied moans, the new Centrozoon album (version 15.0!) was completed last night in Hanover. A 48 minute collection of the more melodic and atmospheric aspects of the trio work, the album shows a marked development from last year’s EP.

Meanwhile back in Blighty, along with Stephen Bennett, I spent time editing the scandalous video for No-Man’s ‘Things I Want To Tell You’ and reassessing various songs that may or may not make a prospective solo album I’ve been considering recording.

Strong collaborations with Rhinoceros, Mr Bennett, the Lord, Roger Eno, Hugh Hopper and Italy’s Fjieri Group are still without a good home, and along with the forthcoming plans for the ‘voiceloops’ album and an acoustic piano and voice project, I’m hoping to find a coherent way of releasing some of the disparate musical strands together.

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The search for thermals over and done with, the Dustbuster becomes the new object of desire, with Joni’s ‘Mingus’ and Fripp and Eno’s ‘No Pussyfooting’ providing the perfect soundtrack for a dust proof world.