My feeling as I was making the record throughout 1999 was that it represented a change in emphasis for me. Since I stopped playing live and having a real group at the beginning of the 1990s, all of my subsequent studio work had tended to revolve round the collaging of my own and other players improvisations, made at different times and different locations, into composed structures. I think this method was pretty well worked through by the time Simon and I finished "Pure Water Construction", and it was also a method which was becoming pretty commonly used and therefore didn't feel as new and exciting to me as it previously had. So on this CD the musicians were for the most part aware of the context into which their playing was going, and were able to hear the parts which were already laid down. This involved me in telling people what to do more than usual, which in turn lead me to notate some elements of almost every track, somewhat to my surprise, this being a chore which I'd previously consigned to history. Also the music has taken a more rhythmic and tonal (at least in some places) direction than most of my previous stuff, probably as a consequence of it being more guitar driven. My first idea for this record was that a pair of acoustic guitars should keep appearing throughout. Listening back, my own electronic sounds are pared right back - piano and organ sounds are dominant. Oh, and I learned to play clarinet and got interested in the saxophone again.

Emotionally and sonically this record is deliberately located in the early 70s, the time when I was learning about music by listening not only to Miles, Softs, Henry Cow, Faust, but also to Fairports, John Martyn, and Nick Drake (as well as a load of American stuff from the Velvets to AACM whose presence doesn't make itself quite so apparent here!). I'm not a nostalgist, but as I keep returning to that era in my listening, so too I wanted to put my own spin on that peculiar time in English music. Looking back it seems incredible that music could have advanced so quickly in so short a space of time. I mean, just how many years did it take to get from Rubber Soul to Softs 4? Not many! By using the acoustics and other folk sounds alongside the jazz and electroacoustic elements here I've tried to recreate that mix of ideas and the wildly optimistic feeling of that time, that music could make absolutely anything possible; and if I've managed to capture even a small trace of that delicious "Witchseason" feeling, then I'll be happy. That's for you to judge. I don't care that the intention is naïve, either, what matters is the emotional centre of the sound.

"Angel words" is based on a riff which Ben recorded for me, and which we've played live a few times since. Why does Ben play so loud? Because he wants to! Because he wants to! The saxophone part is through-composed. Ben and I have worked together since I guested with his hardcore group Bleeding Principle ("get that fucking beatnik off stage"), and Carl Davies at Syborg did a great job in capturing this maximum volume playing onto tape. "The Eclipse farm heresies" has more complex electronics than some of the other pieces, and features Derek Saw reinvented as cornettist since his Hornweb days. Simon plays a written line in canon with a midi-gated filter at the beginning, and improvises later. I digress, but this track for me typifies a work method which I find very close to pure improvisation: that is, new music technology is full of inherent uncertainties which force you to be spontaneous, because it is often impossible to exactly recreate something you've just done. On this composition, I love the "zither" effect of the piano under Derek's cornet, but it's gone now and I've no idea how it happened (possibly something to do with slowing the midi data down so much that its one event at a time characteristic started to show. Now that's improvisation! "Beautiful city on the hill" exploits chance procedures, with a previously recorded organ solo laid onto the composition for 2 acoustic guitars. Special mention to Tim Cole here, getting the feeling just right. And finally I play my first instrument, the recorder, on disk. " A Dream of broken and floating doors" lets Charlie and I dig into our AACM bag, something we don't get much chance to do these days. The percussion combines several highly processed improvisations from Gino's fine listening and sampling CD "Singular Pleasures". I've always wanted to cover "Horn", in fact an arrangement was first planned but never executed in the late 80s for Hornweb. So at last I get to play this little tune. Note that Ben doesn't actually play any notes on this, he's just a ghostly presence. Also, of course, good to see Drake getting some wider acclaim at last, albeit 25 years too late to be any good to him. Ben also features, processed to death, on "Death-runes, death-rumours, ruins, rains of death". This piece combines Ben's improvisation from the same session as track 1 with a composed organ part which was originally intended to be part of a longer work for solo organ, but which found a home here instead. The title is taken from John Cowper Powys' novel "A Glastonbury Romance", a line from a fictional poem by one of the characters, Edward Atheling, a young man who could be said to take himself a tad too seriously. Hmmm. The novel ends of course with a catastrophic flood, which appeals to the Discus aesthetic. I'm not one for programmatic music, but here I tried to imagine how someone who'd never seen a structure larger than a single storey hovel might feel upon encountering a gothic cathedral for the first time. Charlie said that it sounded as if the place was being demolished while he stood inside it, but I was more after the majesty of the experience. After "Chemistry lock" (I wanted to contact Ratledge for a solo on this, but found the idea too awesome to contemplate) (NB Mick's fine bassoon solo, and just what is that tune he quotes at the beginning? And how many other players have got down on this instrument?, (not that getting down is a particular qualification for being on one of my records)) the last three tracks pick up the story from the sleevenotes (the full text covering all ten tracks will appear on the website in due course). The title (almost) track features Sedayne's crwth (a bowed harp) and soloists (pilgrims arriving in turn) set against three simple synth ideas. This time the acoustics appear in several guises, first triple tracked abstraction, then in real time, then sampled and played in on the keyboard. Again, masterful work from Derek here, playing in a way which is in danger of becoming a lost art. "River followers" is dedicated to ND, and flows from formal emptiness to anger, to calm, to some kind of resolution. And finally an escape to the sea at night, and the sound of boats, "Harbour town online".

This is the full text for the story, part of which is included in the CD booklet.

Angel words
Perhaps it's possible to take the whole of your life and play it all back at the same time, images and volume surrounding you, and with those words you want to remember most barely whispered, but still coming through. Alarm clock starts a grey storm day. Just past dawn and time for us to begin. No cars anywhere, everyone walking, including us, struggling with bags and instruments.
The eclipse farm heresies
From the high road you looked down the field, at the bottom of which there were a few miserable buildings grouped around the yard. No sign of any productive work being done. They're all inside with the curtains drawn, thinking it through again and again. I grew up there, she said. As we moved on, a gap opened in the thick clouds, and Derek came from behind the sun to play a solo on this song.
Beautiful city on the hill
Like a picture in a children's story book, there seemed too few buildings to make a complete city. The light was incredibly concentrated into one focus, and was obviously not moving at all. It's a vision of where we could be.
A dream of broken and floating doors
Stopped for the first night - we never thought it would be so far. Sleep came like anaesthetic, but not enough to block out the repetition. You wake up in the middle of the night with your thoughts full of that stupid pattern. People seemed to be moving around all the time in the adjoining rooms, slamming doors, laughing. I guess they're just having fun, nothing wrong with that. Sound objects in our dreams, also shoes, clowns, while the real band in the dancehall below circled round the centre of the sound. We should refuse to pay the bill.
Horn
Nick, how did you manage to make so much out of that handful of notes? I asked as we checked out. He was sitting in the lobby; guitar and one small travelling bag. Just looked at me as if I wasn't there. It was such a strange coincidence seeing him that morning, because we were working on one of his tunes for this record. Saw how much stuff we were carrying, then he smiled.
Death-runes, death-rumours, ruins, rains of death
We should never have begun this journey, it's brought us only bad luck. We were in the studio, about half way along the road, and we knew that soon we'd see the cathedral. In those days, it would have been the largest man-made object that anyone saw, if you ever got to go there. The whole room was shaking. Why does Ben have to play so loud? Because he wants to. It doesn't matter, it won't sound like that after I've put it through the filters. It's like walking directly into the rain, music just made from all the things you don't like. Waveforms like an ancient language onscreen.
Chemistry lock
One last chance to live in the present, and even then you can't escape the nostalgia. Stopped again for the night, different place this time. Mike, Elton, Hugh and Robert in the bar, nursing pints, looking pretty fed up with the gig.
Winter pilgrims arriving
At last it looks like we're going to get some peace. An amazing scene as we walked in, pilgrims arriving from all over in various stages of exhaustion. It's late, nine or so, and the monks are happily tending to the newcomers. And then, the most amazing singing I've ever heard, a confident and joyful tenor voice moving toward us, the choir more distant, possibly not even singing the same music. Fires everywhere in the courtyard, groups of people resting, eating, laughing, moving off in groups to prayer. Apart from the crwth, our instruments on this haven't even been invented yet.
River followers (for Nick Drake)
One way points inland, back the way we came. It's early morning, we've stayed as long as we can, days, and others are arriving now. Time to move on, but we need a new idea. Then an inspiration. Simply took the diaries, tore out all the pages one by one, threw them in the water.
Harbour town online
We should have gone home, but we just carried on down to the sea. These cottages looked as old as where we'd been, but there's electricity, phones, even a little shop with new PCs in the window. I know we'll be fine here, but I don't think that I have any tunes left now. Good luck with your music journey.