The Philosophy Sketches Project

It’s a busy but interesting time for moment, with ideas flying thick and fast around the Internet meeting place we like to call Cafe Crem. It’s a little corner of Cyberspace where like-minded artists, musicians and writers get together over a coffee and enjoy and support each others ideas and goals. As we’ve come to know one another better, various collaborations have taken place. Miki and I have done many together as you might expect, and I’m currently working on a soundtrack for an art video by Californian artist Susan Cornelis, and the “Altered Book” project with Shelley House is ongoing. But the video I present here took me in yet another direction. I had to conceive of a way to “perform” the thoughts of our friend, Canadian writer Michael Pokocky, and compose accompanying music to complement his wonderful “philosophical sketch” series.  I tried to cresate a piece of music that was very simple, very repetitive, but with the scope to become epic in proportions, and I tried to identify the more contemplative statements and the more assertive ones, arranging them in some kind of order of intensity, to build the dramatic effect. in harmony with the music, I hope I’ve achieved what i set out to do, ending on a positive high, which is what we all hope for, don’t you think? Enjoy the video!

© Music copyright Kev Moore 2009

Sketches and words by Michael Pokocky

Strange Costumes – A new Collaboration

Words can’t express how exciting it is to create with my friends in Cafe Crem!  Certainly, from my perspective, it affords me a wonderful new window on my work, and how I approach music making and songwriting. This latest project was inspired by the haunting words of Shelley M House, an American artist and writer who I’ve come to know through Cafe Crem. Her latest piece, shown here, is the beginning of her exciting “Altered Book project” – and I believe it is alive with possibilities. The song you will hear when you click on the link is my interpretation, word for word  – of Shelley’s piece. Enjoy!

Strange Costumes – The Song

© 2009 Music by Kev Moore, Lyrics by Shelley M House

It’s that time of year again

It’s amazing how time flies. This time last year I was composing and publishing my song “One Stranger” which is about the homeless at Christmas time. As Christmas approaches again, I thought I’d post the video here as a reminder that there are many less fortunate than ourselves in this world.

The song was written and recorded over about three days, if I remember correctly. I worked fairly intensively, and it came together without too many problems. I wanted the video to look a bit like a Christmas edition of the old BBC Children’s story programme – Jackanory – Hope you enjoy it!

Kev Moore

She’s not the only Painter round here, you know….

Kev suddenly remembers he forgot to allow for a door.....

So, after recovering yesterday from my jetting over to the UK for a show, and driving up to Albir to fetch a load of stuff from the other house, i finally summoned the energy to return to my studio project. Today, I decided to try my hand at painting. Nothing as adventurous as Miki of course, just a great swathe of black across my finished outer wall. And though i do say so myself, it looks quite fetching!

My trip to Albir also took in an extensive search for the exact colour blue carpet that I needed for the studio. I eventually found it in a giant shopping mall just off the motorway on the way back down here. So that’s my next task – carpet fitting. Is there no beginning end to this man’s talents?

On a more creative note: Following the show with BC Sweet this weekend, I’ve received the germ of a song idea from our guitarist Mike, and we’re going to compose it together over the internet. I swear the world’s getting smaller.

Kev Moore

Photography by Miki

Whistle while you work

So there I am, slaving away, minding my own business, and I’ve got Miki sneaking up behind me, taking photos. The irony here is, the poster on the wall, which has been there for ages, directly relates to the re-emergence of Christie as a touring band. Which is why I guess she imagined I was already running through the songs in my head while hammering away……

Its hammertime....

So, the walls are now virtually complete, and today I put part of the ceiling up. Perhaps I can see the light at the end of the tunnel….oh, no…it’s just a migraine.

Kev Moore

Ideas Frenzy

You put your left arm in......

One of the things I love about our interaction on the blogosphere, and Cafe Crem and its members in particular, is the way we seem to support and inspire each other. our good friend, the American artist Susan Cornelis, recently posted a piece evoking her youth, and illustrated it with a phrase that just got my creative synapses firing. I decided there and then that I would write a song that incorporated MY perception of HER time, using her phrase as the chorus. I wrote the lyrics straight off without thinking in a stream of consciousness kind of way. I wasn’t going to share any of this until the song was completed, but since starting this Mooremusic blog, I think it would be interesting to share the process with you (however long it takes!)

A Ceiling, incomplete...

Obviously, as my studio is not ready yet (it’s coming along, see pic) I won’t be recording it any time soon, but I thought I’d share the lyric with you. you will see, as I post subsequently about this, that the lyrics may change to fit the tune, or perhaps, the lyrics will dictate the measure of bars. I have no set way of working, So it will be interesting to see where this takes me. Susan’s original lyrics are in red.

Oh my! What would they say
To that Boomer in me, who is ever ready
To get up and go to take that magical mystery tour?
Mom and Grandma, want to come along?

It was the high sixties
Boy, was it hot that day
We slid through the decade
On a doobie and a prayer

Feelin our way
Throwin’ away the rules
Made up new ones as we went along
A whole new constitution in a poem and a song
Ohio, Vietnam, a hundred new ways for us to stick it to the man

Oh my! What would they say
To that Boomer in me, who is ever ready
To get up and go to take that magical mystery tour?
Mom and Grandma, want to come along?

I take those rose coloured glasses from the dresser by the door
Look back with fondness to the freak I was before
Am I the same?, hey you’d better believe it sister
Just older and wiser, if not a little bit bitter

But I hang on to that ethos like a drowning man a straw
Cruise in Janis’s mercedes- Dance to Sly’s four on the floor
But hey Ray, I don’t need no J to recall our optimism from 40 years away
So I’ll pray so hard to whatever God you throw at me,
That all this peace and love will keep recurring throughout history
And all and all thats meant to be will fall and be at one with me
The sense and sensitivity the flower child thats within me…remains

Oh my! What would they say
To that Boomer in me, who is ever ready
To get up and go to take that magical mystery tour?
Mom and Grandma, want to come along?

Lyrics Copyright 2008 Kev Moore & Susan Cornelis