Some Valentine’s Valentine

It’s Valentine’s Day 2013 and as such it seems like I’d be missing a trick not to write about the records I’ve released on Manchester’s Valentine Records in the last couple of years.

White Spring, Black Cloud
After releasing Elements in late 2010, I spent the first couple of months of 2011 messing around less with classical music and more electronic experiments.  I took some time to teach myself the basics of MaxMSP and listened to Stockhausen, Cage and Derbyshire among others.  When David from Valentine approached me to release an e.p. I decided to combine the bits and pieces of electronic composition I’d learned with some minimal classical piano and cello.  White Spring, Black Cloud was released on my birthday, 14th March and at that time, I had no idea how prophetic the title of the e.p. was about to become.

Doolittle
Occasionally, Valentine pull together covers collections of seminal albums and I had been asked to cover Wave of Mutilation for their interpretations of Doolittle by Pixies.

Valentine 50
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the label, Valentine released a retrospective collection that featured Biała Wiosna, Czarna Chmura from White Spring… and a track written especially for the album.  This one came as a physical release in a beautiful metal tin.

Skies / Seas
I had taken almost 18 months away from writing any music for release, using the time to both concentrate on my other writing and piano studies.  Mid 2012, David from Valentine had a chat wherein, without meaning to put words in his mouth, he asked me if I wanted to actually be a composer or if I wanted instead to pretend to be one.  It was a motivational kick in the ass that I needed and I set to work on what has become my most successful work so far.  The package was split into two distinct e.p.s.  Skies was a selection of 4 modern-classical pieces including a lullaby for my baby niece, two larger scale compositions and a re-recording of an old favourite.  Seas was something different entirely.  Using much delay and reverb, I created a collection of 4 minimalist post-rock soundscapes that are generally reviewed to be somewhat darker than the first e.p.

Who knows where my collaboration with the excellent English label will go next, but whatever happens, I hope you’ll show them (and me) some love this Valentine’s day and head over to the label and download the records.  Enjoy… and Happy Valentine’s Day!

Books, books, books. January 2013

More booksIt’s a new year and a new New Year’s Resolution.  Last year, tired of having no time to read the enormous pile of books that was accumulating, I set myself the task to read at least 1 a month – at least 12 in 2012.  I finished with 15 and this year, I’ve decided to try to beat that with 16 now being my target for the year.

As I did last year, I occasionally updated the blog on what I had been reading and how I was progressing and I’ll do the same in 2013.  As we move through February, I thought I’d write briefly about the 2 books I finished in January.

Piano Notes by Charles Rosen
I bought this book at the tail end of last year as I was searching for relevant and interesting books on the subject of piano.  Sadly, not long after I bought this book Charles Rosen died.  The book is a fascinating insight into the life and considerations of a professional pianist, though occasionally I do find he can be prone to the worst kinds of elitism.  Despite this, I really enjoyed the book and have a much deeper understanding of some aspects of piano-playing than I would have enjoyed otherwise.

I Am the Secret Footballer by the Secret Footballer
Is it Danny Murphy?  Is it Dave Kitson?  Currently, no one knows for sure, however, the Guardian blogger ‘the Secret Footballer‘ is thought to be a current professional footballer playing in the English Premiership.  Though not having written a blog since August 2012, he has recently released this book which “lifts the lid on the beautiful game”.  For a huge football fan, the book is exceptionally interesting and TSF tells some eye-opening stories from within the game.  To use a well-worn phrase, it’s a page-turner and I read the whole thing over about a day and a half.  Now, I just hope he returns to blogging sometime soon.

TEDxWarsawSalon

tedxwarsawsalonteamIt’s hard to believe TEDxWarsaw is coming around again next month.  It’s been almost a year since my first experience of a live TED / TEDx event and much has happened in the time since.

After the 2012 event, a few of the attendees discussed the prospect of creating smaller, intimate and more regular events to keep the community ticking over as we wait for the annual event to come around.  As with many such things, time passed, life got busy and the idea slipped away for most.  Not for a couple of the guys, however, and they worked with the primary TEDxWarsaw team to create TEDxWarsawSalon.

The first …Salon event, focusing on creativity, took place in October and I attended very much as an audience member and participant, however, I was so taken with the format and the general atmosphere that I immediately offered to join the …Salon team.  I wasn’t the only one.

By November, the TEDxWarsawSalon team had grown in size from 2 to 8 people and we had begun to organise our second event, scheduled for January 24th – this time focused on happiness.  Many meetings took place, obstacles overcome and, most importantly, much fun was had.  Over time I was asked if I would like to host the event and of course I couldn’t resist the opportunity of an audience so I smiled, nodded and agreed.

Judging by the feedback and requests to volunteer and join the team …Salon#2 was a great success and certainly the team enjoyed it.  I’ve worked with many different people in many different teams in my life and I can’t think of many – if any – that I have enjoyed working with more than these guys.  I hope it will be a long collaboration to come.

Next up is TEDxWarsawLive on the 27th February where we’ll be streaming the 2nd day of the annual TED conference in California to 100 lucky attendees in PaństwoMiasto in Warsaw.  I’m very much looking forward to that mammoth undertaking as it will stretch from around 5:30pm to 4am the next morning and as far as I’m aware, I’m hosting again.  Ooft!

Midway through the first season

1357397745 13-11-10It was always going to be a tough opening season but we weren’t quite prepared for quite how tough it was going to be.  After 4 matches, Victoria Antyki are languishing at the bottom of our 8 team league having last night lost 6 – 2 to a team we could easily have beaten on any other day.  Such is the first season in a 6-a-side league system.

Since I last wrote of the trials and tribulations of FCVA, we’ve begun our league campaign and lost 9 – 1, 5 – 2, 10 – 1 and last night, 6 – 2.  The trouble is, we’re not as bad as our scores seem to make out – over and over again.  Granted, we’re a new team and it is taking us time to learn how to play alongside one-another but as we start to work around our defensive 1-3-1 formation we seem to be building tactical awareness if not confidence.

It’s hard to not feel demoralised that after even a good performance we lose by a deficit of 4, however, I feel that things are improving week on week.  My own performances haven’t been setting the world on fire, however, I feel a little stuck in our formation.  As an attacking midfielder / winger, I don’t get time with the ball at feet nor to play in those positions as we have to pack our midfield and wings with defensive minded players at the moment.  Who knows though, a wee bit of confidence could go a long way.

In the next two weeks we play the league’s next two weakest teams and if we play like we did last night, I feel we could get something from at least one of them.

More on that in the future, I’m sure.

The (not-so-)secret (and entirely amateur) footballer

Part 1: The match report.
1357397745 13-11-10Last night saw Warsaw’s newest football team, F.C. Victoria Antyki take to the field for the first time in 3 short pre-season friendly matches at Warsaw’s Warszawianka football complex.  From a squad of 16 signed players, it was disappointing to be able only to field the regulation 6 as a mixture of injuries and call-offs led to our depleted squad.  As I write this, the names of our opponents are unknown to us as I wasn’t savvy enough to pick up a fixture sheet, however, I won’t dwell on the opposition, instead focusing on our own performances.

Our first match saw us go down 5 – 1 to a very strong, experienced, league side despite scoring in the first 20 seconds.  In a moment of fortune our captain, David Jelly, found himself with only the keeper to beat and did so easily.  From there on in, it fell apart.  Our team, playing together for the first time, had yet to acclimatise and we became as leaky as my old flat’s bathroom ceiling.  It has to be said, the opposition were pretty strong and their attacking midfielder, my opposite number, was a class above anyone else on the pitch creating most of their goals.  It could have been several more had our defender, Jacek Brzezinski, been less of a nuisance and had our goalkeeper, Seweryn Szeliga, not been in such good form.

Heads were down as we moved into our second match and after we lost our first goal it started to look ominous for Victoria Antyki as confidence dropped, defence was pulled out of position, midfield was devoid of creativity and attack had no service whatsoever.  Frustratingly, we persisted with a long ball for much longer than we should, given our two creative attacking players are 5′ 7″ tall.  The final score 5 – 0 flattered our opposition, shamed us for a disappointing lack of heart and gave us a much needed wake-up call.

Staring 3 straight defeats in the face, something odd happened.  Something clicked and Victoria Antyki started to play.  The long ball was largely disposed of and ball was played on the ground.  There was more creativity from midfield both from myself in the centre – finding it much easier to play with the ball at my feet – and from our two wing-backs, Marcin Ochonski and Tomek Szczepański.  In fact, it was our midfield 3 who were involved in the 3 goals.  The first was created by a cross from Szczepański and at full-stretch, I poked it past the keeper.  Our second, scored from a ridiculously wide angle by Ochonski, was laid on from my neat through-ball pass from a kick-in.  For our 3rd goal, Szczepański found himself in space as the result of a defensive error and toed the ball past the helpless goalkeeper.

So, not a particularly strong start from the Antyki boys, however, the fight shown in the final game of the evening, when tiredness was creeping in, was particularly heartening.  It remains to be seen if we can build on that lift in form for our first game of the season.

We love Antyki. We do!

Part 2: Performance
For our first pseudo-competitive matches, I decided it was time to put a new battery in my Adidas SPEED_CELL, slot it into my Predator boots and get some info on my own performance from the matches.  What I found was quite interesting.
Throughout the 3 matches I played in an attacking midfield role in the centre of the pitch, pushing higher up the pitch when attacking but, certainly in the first 2 matches, frequently dropping back into a defensive midfield position.  In the first match, struggling against quick passing and a skillful forward, I had to chase and harry often, shown by my maximum speed of 20.25km and 10 sprints (most back to a defensive area) throughout the 15 minute match.

1st Match 7th Jan 2013

The second match saw our defensive players struggle to gel and to work together.  I have a slightly slower maximum speed in this match as I tired, and let my head drop.  Despite my protestations we persisted with the long-ball tactic throughout this match, increasing its use through frustration as we went further and further behind.  I saw little of the ball in this match and my increased number of sprints are an indication of racing back to cover, or running forward into space from midfield.  Despite my stats, this match was my lowest point of the three.

2nd Match 7th Jan 2013

Finally, our 3rd match saw some consistency to our play and a change in tactic.  We played the ball on the ground where possible and I found myself with much more possession.  It’s easy to say our opposition were tired after two previous matches but then again, so were we.  With the ball at my feet, I found it much easier and confidence grew. Within the first 2 minutes I’d nutmegged a defender with the outside of my foot, running past him to collect the ball and hearing the referee shout “Ole!” as I did so.  With my head now up I found myself in the right position to score our first then placed a lovely through ball onto the foot of our wing-back to score the second.  By the end of the match I felt good and could have played another 2 or 3 but alas, time was up.  What was interesting about this is that my stats are quite different.  It seems almost obvious now that I’ve considered it but it was surprising at first.  In the first 2 games, I was doing a lot of chasing and jockeying, whereas in the second match I was able to put my foot on the ball and take some time – thus the significantly slower maximum speed and only 2 sprints.

3rd Match 7th Jan 2013

Though I’m sure these posts are only going to be of interest to my football supporting (and even then, only the hardcore) friends, I will continue to analyse my performance in the Antyki games and see how it changes over time.

Disclaimer
If you’re here for the music – and I expect most of you are… feel free to ignore these posts and go check this out instead.  They’re just for my own amusement; and to the actual footballers I know, this isn’t supposed to be prozone, it’s just a bit of fun.  Now… as you were.