2007 enligt: Lawrence English

2007, another year of swift days consumed by an ever increasing blur of activities – from airports to electro magnetic VLF recordings, eclectic pop songs to dense layers of soothing distortion.

Enjoyably a year of intense listening – curious atmospheres – rices fields croaking in southern Japan, eerie pine trees blowing in Denmark, scraping grains of sand on Stradbroke Island and koels calling all the while in the trees surrounding my new home. There has been a satisfying plethora of listening via ROOM40…too many sound memories to summarise – a demanding but deeply satisfying 12 months of music, listening situations, new partnerships and growing friendships. Many a personal revelation as always – just one was provided by my friends Tenniscoats, who reminded me (and many others I expect) that melody and song can inspire so deeply when crafted with generous passion and thought.

Visitors as usual have made their way to the southern climes of Oz and passed through my home, come hotel – some incredible concerts (again too many to mention in full here) from Tim Hecker, Metamkine, Taylor Deupree, Steinbruchel, Tenniscoats, For Barry Ray and so many more.

Personally it has been a wonderful year. The simple joys (and headaches) of moving studio/office/home, enjoying tours in Japan and (all) Western Europe and the UK, scribing for some publications including The Wire, Signal To Noise and Cyclic Defrost, installing a number of new artworks including WALL OF SOUND in Hong Kong, Triumvirate with Kim Demuth and Eluned Lloyd, Re:collections, Bathe with Toshiya Tsunoda and curating a series of art projects including Airport Symphony which placed me a few hundred feet from massive aircraft armed merely with a few mircophones.

Time to take a deep breath now, 2008 is but a few moments away from us....

Lawrence English, musician