I went to Asilah to learn about African musics from African musicians. The Miracle Group from Tanger, with whom I associated frequently during the first week of the tour, played in the hotel, in the street, in the park, on stage and anywhere else where people gathered. I only know about African drumming from listening to recorded music and from books on rhythmic patterns when I've tried to piece some djembe rhythms together. This is different, being able to listen and later talk to the musicians about their amazing individual and ensemble drumming. 

I could go on at length but the most important thing I learned was that this is highly sophisticated and technical music, obviously organised but also partly improvised, played at all times with high levels of physical and musical energy and executed with ease and grace. Nothing is straightforward. There's a lot of 3 against 2 going on with 'bars' of 8 and 12 split into 2/3 and 5/7. The young player at bottom left told me about his Raquette or (I think)  keta drums, two small hourglass drums played with sticks. Everything he does is in groups of six. The complexity within that on two drums is baffling so I simply listened and learned, vowing that one day I'd acquire a couple of these drums and learn something from an accomplished snare drummer, maybe from the local pipe band. I reckon if you can hold down a few basic patterns along with some of the lop-sided djembe rhythms that you could join in, as did many of the Moroccans, and at least contribute without doing the usual white boy thumping in 4/4. At least that's the plan.

​The dancing of those beautiful girls, as you can imagine, was a joy to behold.

What I have succeeded in doing is to incorporate some of these complex patterns into my double thumbing Appalachian guitar technique but it's tricky to do spontaneously without having to count as I play. Time will tell.

These two videos are of a Moroccan Gnaoua ensemble. I spent loads of time with them socially and musically. They played constantly, morning noon and night so I can talk a little about Gnaoua as an insider of sorts. The first video shows part of the core group, plus Shingo the Japanese Qhanun player joining in. Said Kouyou is playing the guimbre, a Moroccan three-stringed plucked instrument in the bass register. He also sings solo and with the others in various call and response arrangements.

The metal percussion instruments are called 'clackers' (they are actually called that in Moroccan though I don't know how it's spelled). Apparently the music honours or expresses the pain of slaves who were forcibly moved around the Saharan region in times past. Their only instrument was the shackles that bound them. The music is elaborate, complex, sophisticated and spectacular. There's a well established Gnaoua festival every year in Essaouira down the coast add I think that some of the structural problems with this festival arose because of their straying into another town's established territory.

​The second video shows the full ensemble in traditional costume playing at an evening event. The older man on the red drum is the boss. There was an all night event (in a tiled room!!) at which he seemed to be in charge. Apparently there's an element of trance inducing in this music which makes sense if you play and sing all night at loud volumes. 

I gave up writing an ongoing commentary on the festival and tour because events became overwhelming. But I have a some observations, things that stuck with me. First I'll say that I have never come across such kindness and selfless service that I encountered from many of the people who volunteered to help us Europeans have a comfortable and enjoyable stay. I simple can't get past this. Whether it's partly the Islamic ethos of hospitality of something to do with desert people (they were the best of the best) I can't say. It was humbling and almost embarrassing when you compare what travelling Europeans have to offer. 
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I'll blog some pictures and videos soon. 

This is my Dowina Grand Auditorium steel strung acoustic guitar. I have it in open C or one of the many variants, tunings I found by looking into the music of Robbie Basho and others. I bought it from Richards Guitars in Stratford and it's one of the best purchases I've made.

I can't say if it's better than any of the other big name guitars but I've never played a better acoustic guitar. It has that balance which makes an acoustic so enjoyable to play and it suits my style of playing as I normally like to drive the guitar with complex right hand picking. The LR Baggs pickup is loud and clear. I can mix the internal mic and pickup from controls at the soundhole. The guitar police love to come up at gigs and tell me all about it, how best to use it and how they were thinking of buying one the same but went for a better model. Bless.

I'm told it was hand made in Slovakia by a Czech maker. The top is spruce, the back and sides Padauk. I like a wide enough neck to be able to 'work' the fingerboard and this one is perfect. I can't be sure but I like to think that the spruce tops aren't that different from the wood used to make all those high-end Italian violins. I do know that there was at one time a cottage industry of very good fiddle makers in Bohemia and Moravia. I feel confident that this guitar was made by someone who knows their trade.

There's only one tiny little thing that I'd have requested and that's to have bigger and brighter fret markers on the side of the neck (there are none on the fretboard). I just use little dots of white tippex to see where I'm going.

Here we go. After years of procrastination I've finally decided to talk about equipment. The reason it took me so long is because the stuff you read about on forums tends to turn my stomach - which guitar? (aka my guitar is better than yours), what strings?, why American gear is better than anything else. Not to mention guys called Brad with dodgy tats who shout at you from Youtube. So now it's my turn. Let's start with the best electric guitar in the world.

And it's a Yamaha. Yes, I don't have any problems with buying Japanese guitars. In fact if I had the money I'd get myself one of their amazing SA2000 hollow bodies and an LL16 twelve string acoustic just for good measure. I'd save myself a fortune by not buying Gibsons and I'd have better instruments.

This is a Revstar RS820CR, modelled on London 60's motorbike styles. I bought it second-hand in mint condition for less than £500. I used to teach guitar from a big guitar shop and I've tried just about every model of Les Paul and all the Les Paul derivatives. This is better than any of them, maybe with the possible exception of an Ibanez 'lawsuit' Les Paul that I'd dearly love to extract from a friend of mine but he's having none of it.

It's a heavy instrument which is good news for a solid body electric. The pickups sound very different from each other and the middle position is perfect. It handles low open tunings without any flopping around.

I'll be using it on my next electric album where I want to investigate tripped out country and the ecstasy of desert music.

The Particulate Articulator

I have a small digital and cassette label called Ubanu Tarasa over on Bandcamp: https://ubanutarasa.bandcamp.com
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All the music on Ubanu Tarasa has been created using a digital instrument I made a few years ago, either by me or by myself and collaborating artist whom I invited to share sounds for me to work with. Because the music is driven partly by the performer at the desk and partly by algorithmic procedures, every composition, performance or installation is different, inasmuch as a computer is capable of randomness

​The impetus for the project came from a desire to find new ways of articulating and presenting field recordings. There’s another story to be told about that. I wanted more than a basic laptop playback performance so I taught myself how to use max/msp and designed the instrument to do what I wanted. It and to be able to work well not only as an installation, compositional or performance tool but also as a more extended collaborative project.

It probably makes more sense to listen to than explain but basically the software takes folders of audio files and, using ‘objects’ such as random generators and looping tools, generates four stereo channels of an ever-changing sound field. The files are in folders of up to eight files of the the same duration, of wither 1,2, 3 or 5 minutes. This gives me a spectrum of sounds from the more textural to the more textural. It affords enough complexity to avoid sounding like a simple looping device. The audio stream exits the computer digitally into a A/D interface, then out of there as eight channels of sound and finally into the desk and speakers. At that point I can either let it do its own thing or I can mix live what comes at me. I call it the particulate articulator (or vice-versa). In my work over the years I’ve recorded anything and everything so I generate the audio from a wide range of material - studio recordings of objects, devices, processes, conventional and hand-built instruments, voice(s), field recordings and found recordings. However the primary purpose of the instrument was to repurpose field recordings, mainly of natural environments.

I’m working just now with ways of extending the original sounds by re-articulating them through resonant objects such as bowls and boxes which will make for a more interesting extended performance as I wander about fiddling with ‘things’ instead of sitting behind a car boot sale table.