Seems the mystery that kicked off Erebus & Terror, by David Bickley & Tom Green, is now solved. Well, half solved.

http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2014-09-09/missing-explorer-ship-lost-in-arctic-over-160-years-ago-is-found/

Reminded, of course, that many moons ago I licensed “Irish in China” (from the album ‘Salvage’ by Another Fine Day) to the Gorilla Foundation for use in this sweet, sweet, video. Still Have the T shirt they sent to say thanks. I’m sure they’d appreciate a little help to keep up the good work.

Further info concerning acoustic side-project Newanderthal…

If you’re heading for WOMAD this w/e, swing by the Taste The World venue, noon Friday. Newanderthal will be providing a little musical accompaniment to an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. If it’s anything like other Ethiopian coffee I’ve had, it’ll be Damn Fine Coffee. Damn fine music, too.

http://womad.co.uk/lineup/timetable/artist/4676/partners-for-change-ethiopia-with-temesgen/

Glad to say I’ll be performing an unplugged mbira set at this year’s Chilled Cider event, lunchtime Saturday 21st June at the Square & Compass, Worth Matravers, Dorset. Quite possibly the best pub in the world. Thanks to Pete Lawrence for the invite.

Just scored the next film – “Happy Thoughts” –  from Layke Anderson (director) and Jean-Paul Berthoin (DP) of Little Cricket Films, who made the awarding-winning Dylan’s Room (which featured Erebus & Terror)

Fingers crossed this one hits the spot as well – further info at the FB page below

https://www.facebook.com/happythoughtsfilm

Happy Thoughts (2014) Trailer from Little Cricket on Vimeo.

MSF are running a competition to find music for this video – and they’re good people, so I thought I’d have a go. The number of youtube ‘likes’ it gets will count towards the result, so if you do like what I’ve done please ‘like it’ on youtube. Many thanks.

No, not Another Fine Day, but also yes… since three of those who make up Newanderthal performed in the AFD ‘massive’ that used to be the line-up for the Sunday shows at the Big Chill Festival, 1994-2010 (and now RIP as the festival we knew and loved)

Newanderthal is an occasional mostly improvised  acoustic ‘world’ music hybrid-side-project-sort-of-thing, and we just played a short set last Saturday at the 108, Rich Mix, Bethnal Grn, London. To a fine reaction, it has to be said, thanks to those who came. No recordings available for now but it’ll happen one day.

Photos copyright Sonja Fowler – no further use without her permission.

Ansuman Biswas (esraj), Haymanot Tesfa (vox), Tom Green (array mbira)

Malcolm Darwen (guitar) Ansuman Biswas (hang)

Tom Green (array mbira)

So happens that this photo (taken on my allotment) has just won first prize in a tiny competition run by the Soil Association to promote the growing of bee-friendly flowers.

http://www.soilassociation.org/supportus/beefriendlyflowergrowingcompetition

Which is nice …

But what’s that to do with music ? Well, there’s a strong line of the pastoral (dare I say romantic) running through a lot of my music. And I think a lot of people like that- we all come from a long line of hunter-gatherers, then growers, and we’re still tuned to the sounds out there. Birdsong may have become a new age cliche but they’re still better composers than we will ever be. And the sound of bees on my plot in May is one of the best sounds there is. It would be a total disaster for us, and the bees, if their music disappears. Quite probably the end of our civilisation, literally. Our lives depend on it.

Definitely looking forward to playing a short acoustic set with Ansuman Biswas, Malcolm Darwen, and Haymanot Tesfa (we’re collectively known as Newanderthal) at the 108 event at Rich Mix, Bethnal Green, this Saturday 19th October. 8.00 pm – though the event lasts all day.

Further info here

http://issuu.com/gaynoroflynn/docs/108iweinfinity?e=0/5232049

https://www.facebook.com/events/204574916372790/?fref=ts