Hello again! Welcome to the seventh edition of ‘Zenrei’s Zone’, a newsletter dedicated to creation and contemplation. This time, there’s cassettes and photography.
Enjoy and thank you for reading! Any support, from sharing to subscribing, is deeply appreciated.
Magnets and materiality
Roots: Anthems of Astland is now available on all platforms - a project covering a decade of poetry about home set to carefully crafted mix of wind and brass instruments, percussion, and semi-modular synthesisers.
Here’s a linktree with links to platforms. It’s also available to pre-order on cassette and CD - both limited runs of 10. Money will go towards funding my film (details below). I made the first cassette yesterday! Cassettes use tape, which is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetisable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. I hope the magnetism of the format can be matched by a musical magnetism.
Data of my music has now been encoded onto cassette, CDs (which I was surprised to learn have been available since the early 80s) and vinyl, hand cut on a lathe. Funnily enough, all of these physical formats involve plastic. I wonder what physical formats may emerge in the future….
DIY production has always had a place in music, but one of the negative elements of the streaming era is the terrible payoff for artists. Combined with the immateriality of the art, the pull of physical formats is strong, and it’s nice to add another string to the bow. Check out the CDs and cassettes below.
P.S. The proper cassette run will not be written in gold nail varnish. It’ll have proper stickers. Sorry to disappoint. This is something like: ‘MASTER ONE: Limited edition “GOLD” version’.
Empathy and eternity
Last month, I discussed, ‘Empathy & Eternity’, a short black & white documentary film using a mixture of interviews, poetry and prose to explore the story of George Evans - my father - an evacuee child who was whisked from the slums of Liverpool to a bucolic corner of Worcestershire during WWII. The film examines at the places he stayed, the interpersonal dramas that played out between his adoptive family and mother at home, the wider world in which this drama played out, and the passing of the torch through generations.
Since last month, we have successsfully raised money to mostly cover film costs, hitting our £500 pound target.
If anybody would like to contribute, it’s still open, and you’ll be thanked in the credits and invited to the screenings, which are planned in London, Southport and Tenbury Wells! Any donations would be a blessing:
Here’s a few photographs from my pilgrimage there last September:
Music
Impressive:
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Thank you so much for your attention and interest!
Love,
Zenrei