about that …although I am sure you have coped without my ramblings for a couple of weeks. So, where to start. Okay, Berlin. Ah Berlin, I went there as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the wall coming down. I painted at a venue called Tacheles which is a gorgeously minging place, sounds weird ? well go read about it here. I painted with a cool german band called Artwon, Artown, Artnow who were rocking, I really dig Betty and Linda…although I can’t remember if they played it on the night….it was all a bit nuts and blury.
What I loved about this gig was I asked the manager, who was very cool, during the day if he would mind if I painted directly on the wall, I just felt that on the 20th anniversary it would be great to have something on the wall that could be there in another 20 years from now…that is unless some bastard paints over it. So that’s what we did, I legged it to the shop, bought a bucket load of emulsion and a roller, painted a massive white bit and then painted within than during the gig. This is me after putting a tonne of emulsion on it and the completed picture. It was cool man…and I just want to say thanks to John and Bergit for being uber cool too and inviting me, i really had a cool time.
So what next, lets fast forward to yesterday and a Classical spectacular! Since I painted at The Woodentops gig I’ve started to get interested in classical music more so than usual, okay yeah I have always liked it and yes I have the standard classical favourite compilation CD, but its always been on the the periphery with rock n roll at the centre. But I have been really getting into it recently and starting to understand it, there is a lot to understand. Although I have to say, something I still don’t understand is why people don’t clap between movements…I very nearly made a tit of myself on a couple of occasions.
Anyway, The Woodentops obviously are not classical but there were some fab classical musicians playing before hand and recently I went to Cadogan Hall to see a Chopin piano concert by Rachmaninov symphony (where i was educated) and then last night I went to the Arts Club in Mayfair (which seems to be my second home these days) to the Harmonic Classical Club Night and it blew me away. I went there to do some guerilla sketching (which is where I sketch music from the crowd when I’m not painting on stage) and this is the first time I’ve sketched classical music live. Plus usually i'm being smashed about in a crowd a a festival or in some rock venue...this was different, i was leaning on a lovely piano and next to a lovely christmas tree - happy days.
(ps check the scarf out - fab eh :o)
So it was a treat and a great gig to pop my live classical sketching cherry. To start, Mark Simpson on Clarinet, 2006 young musician of the year and composer of the year. Ultimately, and this isn’t perhaps as technical as he would like, but that boy sure can blow and I remember twittering that last night…playing clarinet at that top teir level needs some proper strong arteries in the head with the amount of pressure in there. Anyway, he was brilliant and a fab first time for me to see a clarinet player up close and live…the sketches from his set were really interesting…check them out here. By the way I don’t want to sound like an ignorant shit who has never seen classical music before, cuz I have alright…but this was different, really intimate and very very seriously talented musicians.
Anyway, next up, Leonard Elschenbroich. Very cool cellist, again massively talented. I’ve always loved the cello in rock n roll songs there is something very special when the strings smash their way in, adds a profundity to a song that only strings can add. One thing I really liked about this dude was that he was so into the music...he pulled some great faces. Which, apparently is what you should do when you hit a hard bit in a piece….or so says Arthur Schnabel says (special thanks to AyseDeniz for that bit of learning).
Leonard was playing with a pianist called Alexei Grynyuk who sounded good as a duet but then he came out on his own and did this thing on the piano which was simply just fucking amazing. I remembered sketching the music and then having to stop just so I could see what the hell he was doing because he was playing so fast that I just couldn’t and still don’t know how he did it. Actually, I reckon he had a laptop hidden in the actual piano and had a recording of 4 pianos playing at the same time. Anyway, just fucking amazing, gonna look him up again, I really did like him. Plus had a chat to him afterwards and he was telling me about some composers that compose using colours etc, nice bloke.
The final musician of the night was Nicola Benedetti on the violin. Hot hot hot and yes I am talking about the strings, although very pretty too. In fact, thinking about it, I know three violinists and they are all extremely pretty. Anyway, she smashed the shit out of the violin beautifully. First number (not sure if you are allowed to call them numbers, oh well never mind) was From Ayrshire composed by James MacMillan I liked it a lot but then came this bruce lee i'm 'ard Cesar Franck geezer (1822-1890) Sonata for Violin and piano in A major which apparently represent the 4 stages of love. Well, hail Cesar i say and for those ignorant bitches like me, this peice is made up of 4 chunks of music, which are called movements and each one of those movements represents a stage of love…well, this shit blew me away, I remember feeling like it was taking me on some kind of journey, hmm maybe even representative of a journey of love, ups and downs, highs and lows, hard and soft, happy and sad…or is that too soppy, maybe I should write a peom about it eh, hmmm actually it would make a fab painting perhaps.
But yeah, where was I....of course this was spectacularly played by Nicola, and you wouldn’t expect anything else really now would you. I didn’t look at her much during the show as I was focused on the sketch so i missed any face pulling that may have taken place. Iactually ended up doing just one sketch for the whole sonata rather than doing one per movemen i.e. 4 seperate sketches...and i'm proper chuffed i did that because i think this sketch is one of the favorite sketches I’ve done so far, like ever. Click here to check it out and download it.
Shit I feel a bit guilty saying that actually, because is a sketch of a live violin player, its classical music damn it and not rock n roll, its not oasis, or the verve or the charlatans or velvet underground or the stones its Cesar flaming Franck’s Sonata for Violin and piano in A major…hmm, still hail Cesar anyway. So this classical night was really really enjoyable, i met some very enjoyable people too, big up to Bow and Tori for making smoking a cigarette even more pleasurable, great to see a couple of facebook fans there too (love it when that happens) and some people who saw me paint at Cerys' show which was really lovely..."ooooooh your the painter" is what people usually say, always makes me smile. Cerys was also there, looking really fab after just having a baby...and I'm so going to rob her military jacket next time i see her.
What else, yeah I had some big news recently with the launch of my limited edition sketch prints... I suppose I should talk about the online reservation thing i've had set up, but to be honest I’d rather leave this blog just about music experiences…upshot is if you want bloody fab limited edition print of a song sketch of your choice or you want to buy one for your Mrs (including the Cesar Frank sketch mentioned above) go here and reserve it…and if you want it in time for Christmas, go and reserve it like right now and I do mean now… go on, get your music sketch loving butt there right now ! :o)
One Love
Kx
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