Arias under Curves

'Arias Under Curves' is the result of musical ideas spanning 30 years, these now arranged for multiple over dubbed cello;

'Les Oublandes' which is an invented word, was composed in 1998 whilst riding the London Underground.

'Benares Bounce' was written in 2002, originally for the group 'Dha'. It is an attempt to incorporate harmonic movement into the framework of an Indian rag, specifically Todi. All the bass notes are in the rag.

'Five Hours North' was begun in 1980 but extensively revised in 1998.It came from the experience of a road trip from Washington to New York in a rain storm with the windshield wipers giving the rhythm.

'Shedding My Skin' originally began as a melody 'Sunrise In Your Arms' for which I tried to write words which were horrible; I then asked Deb Swallow to write some words which were wonderful, aphoristic and tentatively cogent, while retaining a cryptic gossamer shield!

We performed this song many times in duo and with Keith Bray in 'The Lost Puppies'

'On Waking To Snow' is the oldest melody on the album from the fall of 1979. It was untitled until recently but began as a piano piece influenced by Brian Eno.

'Buffalo Dancer' is from 1980, and was directly inspired by a painting by native American artist Fritz Scholder.

'Karagouna' was written for 'Dha' in 2002, and is based on a greek dance rythm which I played with 'The Button Band'.

'Love Sines' consists of three related fragments spanning 18 years; the 1st part in1988, the middle part in 1996 and the 3rd part finally bringing closure in 2006;The title like that of the album, is a mathematical play on words courtesy of recording engineer Eddie Castellan.

'Lullaby For Tim' was written inbetween 2005 and 2006 and is dedicated to our dear departed friend Tim Petter, a multi- talented and gentle soul with whom we performed in 'The Button Band and the Lord Mayor's parade, London.

'Kamancheh' (2003) was originally written for fretless jazz bass.It is the name of a 2 string Iranian spike fiddle, and is written in the maquam. The high drone is stolen from Professor John Baily's dutar licks on 'Kabul To California'.

'Tromba marina' was conjured up in 2007, being the name of a medieval bowed string instrument. This piece consists entirely of harmonics.The low F string enables me to play a pentatonic scale in A and is entirely improvised.

'Metal Postlude' began as a 'Lost Puppies' tune 'terracotta princess' by Keith Bray. The arpeggiated second part was written in 2004 as a study exploring the harmonic possibilities of the 5 string electric cello.