WALKING THE MOORSCAPE™

RECORDING DAY 10 on Tuesday promises to be very interesting. We will be laying down two tracks in the one day, in morning and afternoon sessions with a break in between to walk Ozzy the Spaniel. Last week he complained when I got back and dragged me at breakneck speed to the local park by way of my penance.

It’s amazing how this album has developed. We have recorded the second half first, mainly because we wanted to get Jad’s tabla sound in our heads, and I think the others would agree that in doing so we have created a mood for the record. It may seem odd to some that we are using tabla in an album about the British Moorlands, but I think their grounded, earthy feel and their range of beats, sounds, and flourishes are really helping us to interpret the sights, sounds and atmospheres that we are trying to evoke.

This morning in reasonable weather, it was nice to take off to a piece of moorland to the east of Greater Manchester to try and absorb more of what makes them so special. The wind in exposed areas was bitingly cold and gave me some interesting additional ideas for some of the backing sounds for BLIZZARD. Artists have simulated storm and wind noise so many times in albums over many years, so I hoped to come up with something a bit different. But that is for others to judge.

The landscape of the Pennine Moors is always so much more varied than I ever expect it to be, and today’s two hour trek saw a mix of minor road walking, bridleways, farm tracks, muddy tracks, rocky tracks and a fair smattering of waterlogging. The grouse were calling, but they disguise themselves so well that it was impossible to see them, a curlew sounded at one point amid the twittering of smaller marsh and moorland birds.

Every time I walk the moors I’m greeted by a singleton tree of some description, and today’s was this silver birch in a silver sky, on a track around Dove Stone Reservoir before the moorland opened out. I always feel they are delivering a message of some kind because there’s always a sense of surprise when they appear around a corner or at the top of a rise. It’s uplifting, not least because it confirms that there is stuff out there that we mere mortals will never understand, nor should we ever try to.

A Walking Waldeaux