@brian@beige.party

Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Jul 26, 2026

Happy birthday to the incomparable British writer #MJohnHarrison, born #OTD in 1945. His books are in almost constant rotation here, and it’s no exaggeration to say I’d probably see the world in a very different way were it not for his work. Yes, I have multiple editions of The Course of the Heart. Can you ever have *too many* editions of one of the greatest novels ever written? Many happy returns, Mike! #SpeculativeFiction #WeirdFiction #ScienceFiction #LiteraryFiction #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon@fedigroups.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Jul 25, 2026

I’m dipping back into #LibraryThing for cataloguing my books and keeping tabs on what I'm reading / have read / want to read etc. I've used various sites in the past - Goodreads, StoryGraph and NeoDB but have never been completely satisfied with any of them. I have an older account from about 15 years ago on LibraryThing which I've resurrected and into which I’m importing books from StoryGraph. The tagging and collection features of LT seem to be quite useful. It'll take a while to tweak things, no doubt, but that's part of the fun, surely…? Anyway, here’s my profile if anyone else is on there: https://www.librarything.com/profile/brianlavelle #Books #Bookstodon #BookCollecting @bookstodon@fedigroups.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Jul 16, 2026

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@dragginganox/116637255126318770 I'm going to post again about this album by @dragginganox@infosec.exchange which I've played over and over since first hearing it only 48 hours ago. My regret is that I didn't encounter it when it was released in March. The links to listen and buy this record are in the post of Brian's I've quoted below. At first blush, and I blush to say it, this isn't typically what I'd normally listen to. But it has grabbed me repeatedly by the grubby lapels with its musical and lyrical insistences, its melancholy folk-and-electronics collisions and coincidences. And those lyrics. These lines are from the heart-crushing ‘Focal Fires’, the final song on the album: "Fresh growth on the dark boundary of the earth Glacial time in the melted core by the dogwood I clipped the blossoms in the small hours and cut my hand I pressed them and lived on the dim border I left something in the house but I don't know what it is A cherished gap in the archive Witness the deaccession form A loose tile marks the window The wind is singing through the traces And the palinoptic sunlight Dims the border” That song has a hazy, smoke-wreathed synthesizer melody following the verses that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up every time, without fail. And this album does not fail. Thank you Brian, from this Brian, for making this glistering record that I now hear reflected in the dew of the early morning and the too-hot shadows of evening. #DraggingAnOxThroughWater #BrianMumford #AlbumsOfTheYear #FolkMusic #ElectronicMusic #ExperimentalFolk #IDontReallyKnowHowToDescribeThisButItsWonderful

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · May 13, 2026

Replying to @grahamdunning@post.lurk.org

@grahamdunning@post.lurk.org Great blog post, Graham. One other tip you might add, if you like, to the introduction post part of it: if people pin their introduction posts, they’re more visible to others even when folk are searching people’s profiles.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · May 04, 2026

Do you ever find the imagery of an album cover draws you in, insisting (perhaps quietly) that you really should hear the music within?

Neigen, from 2021, by the French improvising quartet of Nicolas Souchal, Michael Nick, Daunik Lazro & Jean-Luc Cappozzo did that to me.

Some of the music is as texturally mysterious and haunting as the photograph that adorns the cover. Some of it is terse and difficult. But it's all very rewarding - four improvisers listening intently to one another’s slightest movements in sound, striving for something magical in the distance beyond the mists.

The release is on the wonderful label Ayler Records. If you like improvised musics, it's well worth a look.

#NicolasSouchal #MichaelNick #DaunikLazro #JeanLucCappozzo #AylerRecords #ImprovisedMusic @improvisedmusic@fedigroups.social

https://ayler-records.bandcamp.com/album/neigen

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 26, 2026

@Masterofsorrow@beige.party

I'm using Ivory on iOS, too. It uses a subscription model, but I think it's worth it. It's the best of any iOS app I've used and, although I've tried multiple other apps, I'd find it hard to stop using Ivory. It's particularly good on muting hashtags and other filter. All very seamless and customisable.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 22, 2026

Replying to @brian@beige.party

The website crashed a few times but eventually I got through… #BoardsOfCanada

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 22, 2026

Replying to @brian@beige.party

No, I did not need to buy a T-shirt Yes, I did buy a T-shirt.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 22, 2026

What better thing than an inferno to brighten this day?

#BoardsOfCanada
@boardsofcanada@mastodon.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 20, 2026

Replying to @HeyeBodo@rollenspiel.social

@HeyeBodo@rollenspiel.social Ha! I thought you might have. Those rabbit holes are deep, and go right through the depths of the hill…

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 20, 2026

Replying to @HeyeBodo@rollenspiel.social

@HeyeBodo@rollenspiel.social It is! And it’s only a short walk from home! Very lucky to have it so close to us. More info here if you’re interested: https://www.corstorphinehill.org.uk/corstorphine-hill

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 20, 2026

Replying to @brian@beige.party

I always make a point of saying hello to, and spending some time with, the cup markings carved into the glaciated dolerite pavement on the western slope of the hill. They are hard to see in my picture but there are eleven cup marks, nine of them arranged in a sort of pentagon with the two remaining marks in the centre. Their purpose is unknown. 2/2 #Corstorphine #CorstorphineHill #Edinburgh #Walking #Archaeology #CupMarks #Neolithic

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 20, 2026

Corstorphine Hill this morning: one of my happy places.

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#Corstorphine #CorstorphineHill #Edinburgh #Walking

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 18, 2026

A nice charity bookshop find today. I stumbled on this first edition hardback of Norrie Bissell’s great wee collection of poems, Slate, Sea and Sky: A Journey from Glasgow to the Isle of Luing (Luath Press, 2007). As well as Norrie’s wonderful poetry, the book also has a vivid array of photographs by the late Oscar Marzaroli.

#NormanBissell #NorrieBissell #ScottishPoetry #ScottishPoets #OscarMarzaroli #Glasgow #IsleOfLuing #Geopoetics #OpenWorld #Bookstodon @bookstodon@fedigroups.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 15, 2026

Herne Wood, Kenneth White
—from The Cold Wind of Dawn (Jonathan Cape, 1966)

#KennethWhite #ScottishPoets #ScottishPoetry #Geopoetics

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 12, 2026

Replying to @dogbrained@jorts.horse

@dogbrained@jorts.horse Thank you!

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 12, 2026

#SilentSunday

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 08, 2026

Replying to @AbramKedge@beige.party

@AbramKedge@beige.party So many great options there. I love that within a mile or so you can see both the pastoral and the industrial!

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Apr 08, 2026

Replying to @AbramKedge@beige.party

@AbramKedge@beige.party I walked part of the Fife Coastal path a couple of weeks ago, and it was glorious. Lots to see, and the public transport links were great. We went from Inverkeithing to Aberdour.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 30, 2026

Replying to @brian@beige.party

If you're interested in knowing more about Kenneth White and Geopoetics, the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics is a good place to start. #KennethWhite #Poetry #ScottishPoets #ScottishThinkers #Geopoetics #ScottishCentreForGeopoetics https://www.geopoetics.org.uk/

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 30, 2026

Thanks to @BellaCaledonia@mastodon.scot for the news about this petition to try and save the Kenneth White House of Artists and Writers in Trébeurden in the Côtes-d’Armor department in Brittany.

#KennethWhite #Poetry #ScottishPoets #ScottishThinkers #Geopoetics

https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/03/29/in-defence-of-the-kenneth-white-house-of-artists-and-writers/

mastodon.scot

Bella Caledonia (@BellaCaledonia@mastodon.scot) - mastodon.scot

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 29, 2026

#scatterArchive

>> releases for APRIL 2026 <<

#ImprovisedMusic #ExperimentalMusic

> Friday 03 April <
Lawrence Casserley, Viv Corringham, Yoko Miura
'At Nether Edge'
>voice/piano&melodica/live signal processing trio recorded October 2025 at Mick Beck's Nether Edge Club in Sheffield

> Monday 06 April <
Inge Weatherhead Breistein + Nils Are Drønen
'No Need for a Driver's License'
>Norwegian tenor sax/drums duo recorded December 2025 at Studio 109, Bergen, Norway

> Friday 10 April <
Olaf Rupp
'Berlin Eiskeller'
>solo electric guitar improvisations recorded between December 2025 and March 2026 in Berlin

> Monday 13 April <
Pablo Elinbaum + Fernando Feria
'Antes del mapa, el ruido'
>prepared guitar/live electronics duo improv from Argentina/Mexico recorded during July 2024 in Parque Chas, Buenos Aires, Argentina

> Friday 17 April <
Dave Tucker
'More Crimes'
›a continuation of Dave Tucker's multi-intrumental improv constructions - the follow-up to last year's 'Crimes Against the Avant-Garde' - https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/crimes-against-the-avant-garde

> Monday 20 April <
Lol Coxhill, Susanna Ferrar, Sylvia Hallett
'Brixton 1982'
>1982 set rescued from Sue's cassette archive - violins/voice and soprano sax

> Friday 24 April <
Semay Wu + Seth Bennett
'Form Forms Forms'
>digital version of a soon-to-be-released CD - launch for all formats at The Glad Cafe in Glasgow - https://www.thegladcafe.co.uk/events/e82d6fof-08e2-40f8-96d9-f72649c50c80

> Monday 27 April <
BAGMAN [Sture Ericson, Raymond Strid, Pat Thomas
'Playgrounds'
>excellent 2018 set from this well-seasoned improv trio of alto sax&clarinet parts/piano/drums recorded at Brötz in Göteborg, Sweden

+++
...
BE GENEROUS / PAY WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD
*ALL MONEY GOES TO THE ARTISTS*

@improvisedmusic@fedigroups.social @ExperimentalMusic@fedigroups.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 27, 2026

#FensterFreitag

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 26, 2026

Delighted to see that Rebecca Gransden’s remarkable novel Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group was joint winner of this year’s Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize (with Ghost Driver by Nell Osborne).

Gransden’s fiction is well worth seeking out, and her publisher for this book, Tangerine Press, does fantastic work. The book itself is hard to describe: a fractured, dystopian story of a young woman’s journey through a landscape in a state of post-apocalyptic collapse. Gransden’s prose is elevated by a dense and intense poetry unlike anything you’ve probably read before.

https://thetangerinepress.com/FICTION/RG-FCTFTTG/

#RebeccaGransden #TangerinePress #FiguresCrossingTheFieldTowardsTheGroup #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon@fedigroups.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 24, 2026

Replying to @jgrzinich@mastodon.social

@jgrzinich@mastodon.social It is. I edited the original post for starting year but didn’t update my hyperbolic estimate of what’s to come…

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 23, 2026

I’m a big fan of Helen’s work. Her stories are clever, atmospheric and often scare-filled, which is already a powerful combination. And then when you add in her exquisitely realistic and researched sense of place, the terror only increases exponentially.

There aren’t too many great writers furthering the pleasing terror agenda of M. R. James, and making it their own, but Helen’s surely one of them—and one of the best.

#SupernaturalHorror #GhostStories #Horror #SupernaturalLiterature #Books #Bookstodon #WomenInHorror @bookstodon@fedigroups.social @helengrantsays@mas.to

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @soundclamp@mastodon.xyz

@soundclamp@mastodon.xyz Yeah, I can definitely understand that perspective!

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 23, 2026

Walked along the coastal path today for 8 miles or so and found myself in this quaint Templar preceptory.

Bonus: I found an old whistle. I wonder what it sounds like…

#QuisEstIsteQuiVenit #OhWhistleAndIllComeToYouMyLad #MRJames #Fife #FifeCoastalPath

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 23, 2026

I was just looking in my #Jellyfin server and see that I have 296 hours and 42 minutes of the music of #Celer on there. And that’s only music apparently released between 2014* and 2021. I haven't bought anything by Will Long's project in the last 5 years (sorry Will).

Does this mean I have about another 750 hours of Celer to catch up on since 2021…?

*EDIT: I got the dates wrong of what I have. It's about 296 albums too. Jeez. I love their music, though. During lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, it was an oasis of calm/sunlit balm in a cold and anxious desert.

EDIT 2: this doesn't includes collaborations. :welp:

#TooMuchMusic #NotEnoughMusic #AmbientMusic #ElectronicMusic

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 22, 2026

#SilentSunday

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 21, 2026

I'm giving #XMPP another go for messaging. Do you use it?

Feel free to say hello if you do ->> xmpp:bl72@movim.eu

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 20, 2026

#NowPlaying Keith Rowe, Kjell Bjørgeengen - A Thought For Two CD (true blanking, 2024)

A lovely, intimate recording of Rowe (guitar, electronics, drawing) and Bjørgeengen (video, Dave Jones synthesizer), captured at Experimental Intermedia, New York City on 5 December 2010. The air comes alive with gently fizzing buzzes, the waves flit short or long, the walls awash with energy. And it’s all on a great label, too.

#ImprovisedMusic #Improvisation #ExperimentalMusic #KeithRowe #KjellBjørgeengen #TrueBlanking @improvisedmusic@fedigroups.social

https://trueblanking.bandcamp.com/album/a-thought-for-two

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Mar 14, 2026

Replying to @benthos@mastodon.sdf.org

@benthos Ooh, I did not know about this! Hoping Jon might have some copies to sell too because sadly the shipping from the US to the UK is typically eye-watering…

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Feb 28, 2026

Fantastic gig by the duo of Eddie Prévost and Silvan Schmid at The Glad Café in Glasgow this afternoon.

Sadly double bassist Tom Wheatley was absent from their usual trio, but the two solo sets followed by a brilliant duo performance were the stuff of the elemental. Schmid’s sharpened breath and saliva cut through the earth-wired heat of Prévost’s mesmerising playing.

So wonderful to hear them both perform in the intimacy of this great venue, where I was lucky enough to snag a seat right at the front.

#EddiePrévost #SilvanSchmid #ImprovisedMusic #FreeImprovisation #TrumpetAndDrums #TheGladCafé @improvisedmusic@fedigroups.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Feb 27, 2026

Replying to @drweissbrot@gts.drweissbrot.net

@drweissbrot @BigJackBrass This is brilliant - thank you! I really enjoyed that, although both doors are locked, “A small black cat enters the room.” Could not be more cat.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Feb 20, 2026

Replying to @BigJackBrass@social.vivaldi.net

@BigJackBrass Wonderful! Curious to think how many of these decades-old programs are lurking on networks all over the country.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Feb 20, 2026

Replying to @BigJackBrass@social.vivaldi.net

@BigJackBrass When is this text adventure going to be available? I’ll take two copies please.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Feb 17, 2026

Happy 77th birthday to the one-and-only Fred Frith, born #OTD in 1949. Unique in the field, he has experimental music he has produced a staggering body of work, both solo and in collaboration with so many others, across almost 60 years.

It was a real highlight to see him live in Glasgow last May: the sense of space, the sense of play, the sense of reaching beyond.

#FredFrith #HenryCow #ElectricGuitar #ExperimentalMusic #ImprovisedMusic #NewMusic #ExtendedTechniques @ExperimentalMusic@fedigroups.social @improvisedmusic@fedigroups.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Feb 16, 2026

#NowPlaying Arcana 'The Last Wave' CD (DIW, 1996)

Can it really be 30 years since this brilliant album was released by a superlative “power trio” (for want of a better expression) of improvisors comprising Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell and Tony Williams?

Williams’ room-filling drumming is such a brilliant foil for the shards of Bailey’s explosive electric guitar attack. So sad that the former died the following year, aged just 51.

More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Wave_(album)

#DerekBailey #BillLaswell #TonyWilliams #ArcanaTheLastWave #ImprovisedMusic @improvisedmusic@fedigroups.social

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Jan 31, 2026

#Caturday

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Jan 07, 2026

Replying to @Henwhen@mastodon.online

@Henwhen@mastodon.online I hope you find lots to enjoy there; their books are wonderful!

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Jan 02, 2026

Replying to @christof@fedihum.org

@christof@fedihum.org @standardebooks@mastodon.social There’s definitely a space to be claimed for non-English texts, but I agree that starting out afresh is much harder than fitting into an existing framework.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Jan 02, 2026

Replying to @Zekovski@pouet.chapril.org

@Zekovski@pouet.chapril.org @standardebooks@mastodon.social Yes, I think so.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Dec 18, 2025

Replying to @allysseriordan@mastodon.art

@allysseriordan@mastodon.art @standardebooks@mastodon.social I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. What they produce sets a very high standard for ebooks.

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Brian Lavelle @brian@beige.party · Dec 18, 2025

A semi-regular shout-out from me about the brilliant Standard Ebooks (@standardebooks@mastodon.social) the "volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of U.S. copyright restrictions, and free of cost."

Their books really are a joy to read.

https://standardebooks.org/

#Ebooks #StandardEbooks #FreeEbooks #CopyrightFreeEbooks #DRMFree

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