I played my first solo Live Atmospheres show last Saturday and it was a blast. Improvising 150 minutes of music by myself was a fairly daunting prospect, but I think it was a success. In addition to guitar, I spent some time playing lap steel, which love but don't get to dust off that often. I've posted the whole thing on Soundcloud, minus the bits where I made long loops so that I could take a short break.
In addition to some of my more obvious influences in the ambient/looped music realm, the feel of what I did reminded me of Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic, a piece of music that I adore for it's beauty, pacing, and ache. If you haven't heard it, I would highly recommend setting aside an hour of your life to absorb it. It's gorgeous.
UPDATE in other realms of music: I'm fast approaching the completion of my next, as of yet untitled record, featuring the talents of Jim Keltner, James McAlister, Jon Evans, and Steve Moore. The next great adventure with this project will be to record strings, and hopefully tie everything up in time to mix it in early November.
Additionally, Sara Groves' new album Floodplain (which I played on, a bunch) comes out Nov 6. She's a wonderful songwriter and the record is very good. Hooray for that!
And now the rain and grey has started here in the Pacific Northwest. Time to hole up, make more coffee, and focus on finishing some good music.
