The Stuff of Memories comprises two electronic works made during the summer of 2009. Both address a related aspect to that explored on my previous CD, Triptych, May/July 2009; while that piece focussed on the (perforce flawed) act of remembrance, the present works are directly concerned with the fabric of the memories themselves. Ostensibly simple pieces, they each take their starting point from existing musical material (other works of mine), which has then been worked on extensively, worn and worried into its final forms. The emphasis, though, is very much on what remains, a celebration of the joy and fragility of the surviving original material, its voice continuing to sing through layers of damage and erosion.

Memories are made of this is dedicated to the Somerset artist Pat Clayton. The piece was in part inspired by her beautifully elaborate artworks, purposely aged and dirtied objects (often books and boxes); simultaneously naturalistic and artificial, they resemble items of flotsam washed up on a beach, waterlogged and etched with sand.

becauseshewas (veteris vestigia flammæ) is dedicated to Will Long, of the duo Celer, whose experimental ambient creations i greatly admire. The title is a reference both to the circumstances pertaining to the original underlying material, as well as to Will’s wife Dani, who passed away in July 2009. The Latin quotation is from the account of Dido and Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid; it translates as “the traces of an old fire”, but i prefer John Dryden’s more poetic rendering: “the sparkles of my former flame”.