• Home
  • About
  • Music
  • Contact
  • Falling A Records
  • Miniatures 2020
  • Falling A shop
  • Archive
Barry Lamb
BL

introducing Alan Davies

19/11/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

Miniatures 2020 will go into production within the next week or so, thanks to the incredible efforts of more than 100 contributing artists, the hard work of the project team, the support of Chris Cutler, some wise input from Morgan Fisher himself and various others who have added something to the momentum of this wonderful project. 

The instigator of it all is Alan Davies. Alan, like myself and William comes from a background of cassette culture, except he was part of  what could be described as the second or even third wave towards the end of the 80's but like us he was inspired very much by the music, the heartbeat and the diy ethic of the original album.  

Earlier in the year as the project was just beginning to gain traction I asked him to write a short article about his relationship with the original album and the instigation of this project. Here's what he wrote. 

I heard Morgan Fisher one Saturday afternoon talking about his miniatures album on Radio 1,  I then bought the album as it featured a few artists I’d heard of among many I only knew the names of and many I had no idea about.  I was excited totally by the concept of an album where the tracks lasted no longer than a minute, for my attention span it was perfect.  

I think I was surprised and possibly confused by some of the stranger tracks on first listen but listening to it again now  I love it all as a whole.  Like the Beatles White Album I enjoyed the diversity and It is all familiar to me now and makes sense as a complete album which is an enormous task (as William must know after compiling our tribute with at least double the tracks of the original).  I wrote fan letters to Morgan Fisher and Ivor Cutler in the early 80s, both of whom sent friendly replies and Ivor sent me some of his famous stickers along with the address of the noise abatement society and his discography typed on the back of his letter.

Unlike Barry and William I took a bit longer before I released a cassette  (I eventually did in 1988) after buying a four track in 1981 and making cassettes for my friends and relatives for several years.   Reading the sleeve notes on the poster alerted me to the fact that Morgan used a 4 track, I’d only seen one once before on Blue Peter where a chap made various Orchestral noises to make his tracks.  I saw that studios were appearing for £600 and bought one on the never never.  Compared to a visit to a recording studio this was cheap at the time.  Also I had friends in a punk band that found the local engineers always wanted to change the style of the band into a more disco orientated style.   This album definitely Inspired me to make music of all types and opened my head to all sorts of possibilities.  I have probably released more traditional music myself but my recordings in the nooks and crannies of my archives show the influence of Miniatures within.  

This year has been amazing, I have had days where I am emailing various folks from my record collection because of our tribute. Barry and William have then been mailing over tracks and promises of interest from many fabulous artists.  
Last year I was planning on making a recording of about 20 tracks in various styles to send to my pal Mitch Friedman in New York, I think this idea then mutated into a request on my Facebook page for people to send me tracks to make a Miniatures tribute,  The response has exceeded all expectations thanks to Barry and William and everyone that has taken part.

More information about the original Miniatures album can be found here: 
http://www.morgan-fisher.com/miniatures/about/

Subscribe to Miniatures 2020 updates

* indicates required
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Archive

    These pages represent my best attempt at a musical journal, travelogue, archive record of my musical landscape and everything I have been involved in over the years. It features celebrated projects to undeveloped ideas, sketchpad moments, memories and general stuff that has been part of my creative endeavours and the Falling A Records story. I am attempting to place things in chronological order though as time passes and I trawl the crates in my loft, I am discovering that my record keeping has been quite vague at times. Please feel free to interact and correct where necessary. The page also serves as the archive page for the website and is where we post our various announcements etc.,
    It's very much a work in progress. 

    "a work of art is never finished, it is merely abandoned" 

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    May 2017
    December 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    September 2013
    June 2013
    February 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    June 2009
    April 2009
    April 2008
    November 2007
    July 2007
    May 2007
    January 2006
    July 2004
    May 2004
    April 2004
    March 2004
    February 2004
    May 1983
    December 1982
    August 1982
    June 1980
    October 1978
    August 1978
    December 1977
    November 1974
    December 1969
    October 1961
    March 1959

    Categories

    All
    Archive
    Cassette Culture
    Catalogue
    Clacton Years
    Cloud Quartet
    Definitive Moments In The Musical Landscape Of A Noise Architect
    Dynamite Vision Years
    Falling A Archive
    Influences
    Jazz
    Musical
    Music Press
    Rock Against Racism
    Social Media
    Stone Premonitions
    Synth Pop
    The Insane Picnic

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly