Happy New Year To You All

If I Were A Woman...

...back at my desk after Xmas vacation......

Having a week off creates some alternative everyday habbits.
As when to go to sleep, when to wake up.

It's very easy getting used to not going to The Job.


But, there's bills to pay.
Lots of them.
Actually too many.
So, in order to receive some cash I have to force myself to wake up at 5.30 AM and go to The Job.

That's the bitter truth.



Anyway, there are some ups, too:
Yesterday Yan send me an mp3 of his remake of 'Absent Gurus', the 5th part of the hourlong ambient/drone/psych Picnic track (see december 12th entry), as I see it a good try to connect this kind of music with his last developments, 'Shimmering' and 'Mah No 1'.

Joxfield music?
Will probably not make us rich either, so, 5.30 AM is what it's all about...

O'

R.I.P. Lars

Lars Hollmer died yesterday.
For me he was the most influential Swedish composer and musician with lots of solo works, but also groups as Samla Mammas Manna/Zamla Mammaz Manna, Von Zamla, Looping Home Orchestra, Lars Hollmer's Global Home Project, Accordian Tribe and others.
RIP Lars!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Hollmer

O'

Reflections from the liquor store

The day before Christmas Eve.
There were a few things left, some food to buy, some flowers and finaly some beer, wine, whisky and cognac, partly to me and partly Christmas gifts.
The final stop was the liquor store. I went in, looked around for what I wanted, found it and went to the cashpoint que. Quite a few people but it didn't take long.
I paid and started putting my bottles into some bags.
Then something happened which made me reflect a bit:

Someone in the store could have had an heartattack and I'm not sure too many would have noticed.
Someone could have had an epileptic attack or just slipped on the floor and smashed their head - I'm not too sure how many would have noticed that either. Everyone's in such a hurry...
But now, two cashpoits from me, someone dropped a bottle of wine on the floor and it crashed!!!!! and from all over the store you could hear the empathic "Ooooooooohhh".

Well, I'm maybe a bit ironic about the heart/epileptic attacks, I'm sure anyone would have helped, but the situation made a funny impact on me when the bottle reached the floor: The sound of some collective grief and compassion.

The picture? No idea who she is, it's from another store in the northern part of the city, but it looks nice and wellcoming....

O'

Done!!!! + Son # 3

One little oak and a bigger spruce....
O'

Christmas Ahead!

Today I realised Christmas is just two days ahead.
And there's some things to do.
Cleaning.... Cooking... Decorating... Buying a Xmas Tree... Put the candlelight in it... And on and on and on...
So I put on some music while I work:

Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
(because the beautiful developed post-rock drones and melodies)


Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (because the beautiful davidcrosbyan harmonies and because it makes me want to go back to DC's If I Only Could Remember My Name, a minor masterpiece)


Merzbow - Merzbear (because inbetween all the beauty I had to come down again with some irregular harsh noise - another side of beauty)


Gas - Pop (because the 4 releases Wolgang Voigt made as Gas between 1996 - 2000 are very appealing techno-drone-electronica with some discreet beats and as everything else this day it has beauty inside, maybe not the best to dance to, but good listening to and you can always try dancing...)


The Rolling Stones - The Black Box (because Stones once was a favourite and I've always been interested in the archeological part of making music as long as it doesn't go down to such small pieces that it harms the music, but visiting the proceedures is nice...)


The Byrds - Untitled (because it was the only Byrds record I ever bought - I wasn't a too big fan of them, too much country in my opinion, even though their Dylan tracks plus some more were nice - because when me and some friends listened to it in a record store when it was new we loved the sound of the live record and we loved the long, extended space rock version of Eight Miles High, and - actually - the second disc, the studio disc, is their best studio effort (yes, impo))


So,
now it's evening,
the Christmas preparations for todays has come to an end,
I think it's time to chose something else to listen to,
sit down in the sofa with a book and a glas of hot, moulded wine,
look at the candlelights in the undecorated Christmas Tree (son # 3 will do that later),
just releax.
Tomorrow will be yet another busy day with a lots of stuff to do.
In Sweden we celebrate Christmas at Christmas Eve, not at Christmas Day as in many other countries.
One day to go...


And Santa's watching us to see if we behave as we're supposed to (whatever that means?)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

O'

Just An Important Album Pt 3

Sitting here at home this early sunday evening listening to some early seventies bootlegs with Miles Davis.
Not only that it's winter solstice today, also the music makes my mind goes spinning and remembering.

In 1973 both Yan and I went to gymnasium, as well as our close friend TC3, the vivid caterer. On saturday mornings we tried to earn some extra money by working as mail-men substitutes, carrying out letters to different parts of our city.
Yan and I were working in the central parts, TC3 in the northern, where we all also lived. At the same place TC3 worked was another substitute, let's call him Hoffe. He was 4 - 5 years older than us and had some very interesting records we could borrow and some of them bacame some of the most influential in our lives as listeners.
One of these records was 'Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East', recorded june 17 - 20 1970 and released the same year as a double LP set, with sidelong edited versions of each nights concert and titled Wednesday Miles, Thursday Miles, Friday Miles and Saturday Miles, all in the already classic Miles "I don't care a shit what the fuck you call the tracks" Davis manner.
Sometimes in may or june 1973 we borrowed it from Hoffe and put it on the grammophone and thought it was terrible. Just chaotic noise and irregular sounds, none of which we liked. It was put aside.
A few weeks later we all were at a heavy party (and let's leave all told memories from THAT to another biography) up the coast. They day after both Yan and me and an undescrible hangover and was sure we both should if not die at least not survive (?!?!). We needed a rest (all the others from that party went out fishing with someone's fishingboat).

We went back to my parents place, where I lived.
The regular behaviour was always to put on some music when at home, but this time I just couldn't find anything suitable to put on as a soundtrack to our poor souls.
What's suitable to chaos? (This was before Merzbow and the other noise-artists)
Then I saw the Miles at Fillmore record and putted it on and laid down on one of the two sofas not already occupied by Yan.
And Miles and Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland and Steve Grossman and Airto Moreira just turned our minds on and both Yan and me look at each other from our opposite sides of the room with big eyes and in between the terrible headache we both shouted out: This isn't bad at all! This is exactly how we feel! This is real soul music!
Then we probably both fell asleep and I remember myself just getting up to change LP sides over and over again.
This was an important moment in our lives when we converted from Don't Like It to Like It A Lot. Our minds became opened up.
From this point there wasn't almost any music we couldn't stand any longer because it was too demanding.
A couple of weeks later I bought Miles' 'Live/Evil' which I think is a better record, but the Fillmore one was the Important one.

Hoffe? Two and a half years later I moved to my first own apartment in some rough house half the way to the central part of the city. It was my brothers OneRoomPlusKitchen. He and his then girlfriend, now wife, just moved two gateways to a bigger apartment. Their closest nighbour was Hoffe. I didn't see him much, just met him a couple of times in the foodstore and was impressed when he sometimes whistled some Charlie Parker solo note by note. He was a jazzman.

Now on the stereo is a Miles' boot from 1973 with Mike 'Finger' Henderson on bass and Al Foster on drums, two other of my Miles' idols. But that's another story.

O'

Lunch Room Discussions - Car Crashes?

At the end of the lunch-session at my job today someone started talking about driving cars and listening to music.
They said: It can't be too soft and slow - You might fall asleep.
They said: We love soft and slow music, ballads and ear-candy stuff.
They said: The music better be fast and rocky when you drive your car, not too lazy.

I thought:
Probably we don't share opinion about what's soft and slow, or ballads or ear-candy, or fast and rocky. Or anything else.


If I knew they knew who he is I would have suggested them to put on almost anything with Mats Gustafson in their car stereo, but I know they don't, so I didn't. At least they wouldn't fall asleep.

I thought: If I should burn a CDR with some Mats G music and give to them for playing in their cars and see what happen?
But, I don't.
They would kill me.

Speaking of music - I don't think we mean the same thing when we talk about it.

And I haven't told them how much better drivers they would be with some Joxfield ProjeX comming out of the speakers.

O'

Exclusive Joxfield ProjeX Christmas Gift

Exclusive Joxfield ProjeX Christmas Gift

The three lost EPs for Free Download!!!!

This is good news for the Joxfield ProjeX Myspace viewers.

Get it!
Just send an email to oax.joxfield@gmail.com and you'll receive a download link (add '3 EP' in the subject field to avoid spam filters)

Here's the neccessary info

Sometimes you need to construct histories to make things more mystic and interesting, sometimes you don't have to do it, the history manages it by itself.
As with these three lost EPs.

While working with the main project Abstract Numbers and Concrete Letters A-Z Joxfield also worked with various Side ProjeX. The first three of them were completely destroyed when the hardware of Oax's computer broke down and no files were able to save.
Some really good stuff was all lost from the computer.
Even though it was an emotional disaster one copy of each completed track was found on burned CDRs. The music was at least possible to listen to even though nothing further was possible to do with the individual files.
This music will probably never ever be released in any other way than for download.
This is what it's all about:


VIRTUAL DREAMS & REALITIES EP (2007)

1) Virtual Dreams & Realities 42'44''

A lengthly suite capturing enviromental moods as well as rough psychedelic intrumental excesses. Lots of samples, too, of which the most excusive is the use of the first ever recorded music of Swedish artists in the late 19th century.

2) New August Sense Of Ease And Peace 9'40''

Joxfield ProjeX goes ethno with this wildly sample piece of dance music


THE LAST FIRST DAY EP (2007)

1) The Origonal Last First Day 8'18''
2) The 1st Last First Day 5'00''
3) The 2nd Last First Day 6'32''
4) The 3rd Last First Day 8'08''
5) The 4th Last First Day 7'34''
6) The 5th Last First Day 2'30''

The first track recorded during the 2007 Sessions was a fully improvised piece more or less to find out if the technical part of everything worked out fine. It did, but the piece The First Day wasn't what we later made most priorities to when we re-made and re-modeled the various basic tunes. It was put aside for a while.
Late in the process when listening to it again we realised it had its moments and made some really radical variations on themes. It all ended up in a 6-part 'suite', The Last First Day Suite.
The First Day tunes that appears on Concrete Letters A-Z is another re-make of the original files.


THE LUMBAGO EP (2008)

1) Leaving Home With Lumbago 35'20''

In january this year one member of the group was suffering really bad from lumbago. With no other alternative than staying at home for a week the creativity awoken and an old idea about re-make and re-model the ThePondIntermezzo track New Frontiers Leaving Home was realised. The track was slowed down and a lot of stuff was added into it and out came this long, dark version.

2) As Close As You Are (re-make re-model) 3'45''

Another idea of re-making a track, this time the heartbreaking love-song from NothingButSofas, which was made into a lounge version. Sussie of Airwaves also heard on vocals and Kenji Siratori makes a short spoken word visit

All in all more than 2 hours of Joxfield ProjeX music for free download and Christmas is saved.

Get it!

O'

Just An Important Album Pt 2

I was a late starter. My first listening to Family was about 1975 when their history had ended. I heard Bandstand, fell in love with it, then I heard Family Entertainment and even though there was one or two weak moments the highlights was of outstanding quality. I realised this was a band for me. The following years I bought the rest of their stuff and really liked most of it with the only exception of It's Only A Movie, their last release. Every now and then I return to their music and think it's still great. Some of it has been a bit dated, but most of it is still really strong.

Chapman & Whitney started their new band Streetwalkers and they made three studio and one live albums, most of them really good. In 1976 Yan, TC3 and me were fortunate to watch them live at The Roundhouse in London. Red Card was newly released and the concert was powerful, Chapman turned his lungs inside out and the wood splinter from the tambourines poured all over us all the time.

Sometimes in the late 70s I also laid my hands on the album Chapman-Whitney made between Family and Streetwalkers, the one confusingly titled (Chapman-Whitney) Streetwalkers.... well, watch the picture and you see which one I mean.

Released in 1974 on Reprise Records (K54017) as an LP and unbelivebly never re-released on CD, a real mystery.
The music captures some of the best moments ever heard from these guys. The musicians are those normally found in the Anyway/Bandstand Family era or King Crimson of 1971-72. Mel Collins' playing is superior, no matter if it's rough sax on the masterful and funky Call Ya, when he and John Wetton build the track towards the end in a way that makes us wonder when the rocket finally will leave while Chapmans voice moves like a wild and hungry animal in a cave, or when he plays his own wonderful and beautiful clarinets arrangement in Sue And Betty Jean, the slow ballad which early Genesis would have offered one arm or two to have written.
The final three-track-suite Just Four Men/Tokyo Rose/Hangman complete this great album when it goes from soft spoken poetry in the beginning to rough and dirty proggrock in the end, with Whitney's chords fighting against Del Newmans' great strings arrangements.
An highly appreciated album. Go for it!
O'

A Big Day!

A big day today for the Joxfield ProjeX Society when MCN, the Official President of the Unofficial Joxfield ProjeX Fan Club, defended her thesis Corneal Transplant Outcome - A Swedish Register.
We don't have to say she made it brilliant, as always when she do things, it was also very educational and we're all very proud of her. Congratulations!



The opponent, Jesper H, made a great job and presented the thesis in a most accessible way, followed by questions and wonderings which MCN had all clear and distinct responses to.
An academic day for our splitted musical minds.

Tomorrow is the great party - I wonder how much of the Joxfield ProjeX' music we will hear?

O'

At Home Again

At home again after another day at work.
Turns on the lights, the electric candles by the Advent Calender.
Cute.
Well, what word is that?
Don't know if it's cute, but it's sweet or nice or... anyway, I like it. Brings me some positiv Christmas feelings inside.




Put on some music, a rather new record by PTV3, Hell Is Invisible...Heaven Is Here.
I like it. Sounds a bit old and new at the same time, rock and Spiritualized post-rock at the same time, some psychedelic parts, some intense mantra-rock parts. Yeah, better then I first thought it should be.

Fried some panncakes with pieces of bacon. Real good taste.

Now, enough of this everyday life babble
Let's get into the Joxfield ProjeX myspace site, there's some friends requests and some messages to take care of.

O'

Another Sunday Morning

Still grey outside - like most of the days seems to be nowadays - just the ordinary early winter weather of Gothenholm Stockburg: Grey, grey and even more greyness.
As if this was a surprise?

Anyway, who's interested in the weather, but me?

Yesterday an evening at the house of TC3 and his wife P.
TC3 is the famous foodartist of Joxfield ProjeX, responsible for our bellies growing bigger and bigger during our extended releaseparties.



His food has such a high class that the guys of the little Joxfield combo try to release one track at the time so we can have releaseparties every now and then.

TC3 is a bit shy but asked us to once take a picture while he was fixing something with a drainpipe somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
Why? How could I know? Ask him!

They food yesterday was of some Italian origin and it tasted just as it looks - great!


















To lighten the greyness of the morning I put on one of the most beautiful albums I know, John Tavener & Chilingirian Quartet - The Last Sleep Of The Virgin & The Hidden Treasure.



The first piece, with the quartet plus additional handbells player Iain Simcock, brings me to moods when I for a couple of days in january 1997 walked around in Venice with the music in my then high-tech / now stone-age Walkman player. The soft, grey, famous Venecian light of the completely calm San Marco bay. The small squares, the churches, the narrow alleys. Beauty out of description.
A few days ago I read about the whole city being set under water because of massive rain and winds.
I guess people visiting the city today will bring other memories with them than mine of 1997.

The hour runs, the morning is suddenly early afternoon and there's stuff to deal with.
Let's go out into the greyness!

Take Care!
O'

Just An Important Album Pt 1

Oooops!
Just trying to find out weather I can import a picture from elsewhere or not.
Seems like I succeded.
And don't try to make me explain why I took this particulary album cover.
Or, why not....
Soft Machine's 'Third' is actually one of the most important records in the ears of the Joxfield ProjeX beholders (earholders?).
We both stood there in the record store in 1970 or 1971 and started listening to the first, side-long track, Facelift, and thought it was terrible. Just irregular noise.
A year later we heard it again, but this time it was just a smash hit right into our heads, hearts and stomach. We were ready for it and loved it and constantly sang Ticky Tacky Tickyyy whenever we could, wishing we were Robert Wyatt.
And we loved Mike Ratledge's what we called 'vital monotony', these chord-changes repetitions, and we love the British fusion jazz approach much better than any of the American dito, maybe with the exception of Miles Davis late 60s/early 70s efforts, Elton Dean's playing was brilliant, as well as the guesting musicians, we loved the free spirit moments here and there, we loved the Terry Riley:an stuff, we loved Hugh Hoppers bass-lines, fuzzed or unfuzzed. Yeah, we loved it as much as we still love it.
Definitely an evergreen inspiration for our own making of music.

My copy is the latest CD re-issue (Sony/BMG 82876872932) to which it's added a bonus disc, the famous concert recorded at The Royal Albert Hall 13th August 1970, the one in which Robert W went out for a smoke just before start and then the guards didn't want to let him in because they thought he was a bum or something...

Take care
O'

What The Heck Is This?

'Ello Out There!
What the heck is this, the old bum Oax of Joxfield ProjeX goes blogging. Mah God! Does he know what he's doing?
There's a lot for you to think about. I have no answers, I leave that up to you.
And more: Why the heck do he write in English? He, a person who hardly can express himself in his own naturally born language, Swedish?
Well, I might have an answer to that...
It's all Yan's fault. He forces me to do this.
"Go blogging!" he says.
And I wonder why. "Because that's what people do nowadays." he says.
As if that was an answer good enough???
Still: "Why?" I wonder.
"Because you're in a band of which no-one knows nothing and this is yet another way for desperate old bums like us to reach the outer limits of space..."
"Well...." I say.
"And you like to write stuff... diaries and such shit"
"Eehhr"
"And when we're together you're never quiet, keeps talking all the time"
"Me? Talking?"
"Yes, that's the truth... always talking and talking and talking..."
"Yes yes... I got the message"
To make this conversation a bit edited, I finally agreed to write something, connect my own interest of art, music and litterature etc with our common interest of our little band, Joxfield ProjeX.
Maybe some delicate info about the band might appear every now and then.

Start here: www.myspace.com/joxfieldprojex

'Till next: Take care