Hallock Hill

Hi everybody,

Mmm, it’s a been a while since I’ve written much here. After a little time-out this summer to settle in to my new home in Hastings, I have a few bits of news about my activities for the next few months that some of you might find of interest:

- I’ve signed to Young God Records and am about to start (and hopefully finish!) recording in November. There’ll be a few surprises for some people and I can’t tell you how excited I am to be working with Michael Gira and about the new album itself. All the material is written, I just need to practice and work on structure and arrangements for other instruments. It looks like, god willing, the new album will be released sometime towards the middle of next year, providing everything goes to plan. I’m also looking for string players in the UK to play on the album - if that’s of any interest to you or you know someone who might be interested in playing, please get in touch!

- A new Brethren of The Free Spirit album, titled “The Wolf Shall Also Dwell With The Lamb”, will be released by Important Records, alongside a reissue of the first album on vinyl, in November 2008. Me and Jozef are very proud of it and the artwork looks stunning again.

- I recently worked on the new Anok Pe Current 93 album, “Invocation of Hallucinatory Mountain”. It was a total thrill and an honour to take part in. I’m told the album will be available in December - and that’s all I’m going to say about that!

- Although it is early days yet, I’m stoked to announce that I will hopefully be working with Lubomyr Melnyk at some point in the future. For those of you who don’t know his work, please check out his website: www.lubomyr.com … He is truly a genius, criminally overlooked as one of the great contemporary composers of our time and when I saw him live in Talinn, Estonia recently I was absolutely blown away.

- There’s lots of solo shows coming up, and a few with Andria Degens as part of Pantaleimon. Please check my profile for dates for more info. And please do come to one of the UK shows this month, where I’ll be playing not only solo, but as part of Duane Pitre’s huge drone ensemble. I’m certain it will be amazing and a totally unique experience for those who come!

Okay, my best as always - I’ll write more soon!

James x