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I’m delighted to return to Montreal’s Mutek on 3^rd June and Bergen for an Ekko event at Oestre on 28^th May! I haven’t played in those two cities for a long time and I’m really looking forward to both shows!

Also wanted to let you know the Everyone Alive Wants Answers reissue on vinyl (with a free cd and download) has been available for the past couple of weeks already! Copies are limited to 400 so get them while they last, from the Leaf Label or your favorite retailer ;-)

I’m thrilled to announce some shows for this spring, and there will be more coming! For now, April 3^rd, Rewire festival in The Hague, Nertherlands; 5^th April, Dampfzentrale in Bern, Switzerland, and 7^th April, Stansermusiktage in Stans, Switzerland.

Captain of None got more “best of 2015” accolades, making appearances in All Music, KEXP, Dublab, KALX,  Tuairisc, Chronicart and Millefeuille, among others.

The perspective of new shows and the amazing support the album has received makes me more motivated than ever to have a new album out for spring 2017, and I certainly hope that 2016 will be a peaceful, joyful and productive year for everyone :-)))

It’s been a pleasure and a surprise for me to see Captain of None turning up in so many best albums of the year lists! So far: New York Times, NPR Music, NPR Music 10 best electronic albums, BBCRadio 6 Music Gideon Coe album of the year, Uncut, The Quietus, Mondosonoro, Vinyl Factory, CKUT (McGill University’s radio), Rough trade, Piccadilly records… and it was also chosen by Low’s Alan Sparhawk as his favorite album of the year in Magnet magazine!

What about a future album? Well, I’m finally back to work and it means so much to me, not just for artistic reasons…

As I mentioned briefly when I posted my last mix on November 4^th, my autumn has been a very sad one because of very difficult circumstances in my family. In November I was finally starting to feel I was ready physically and psychologically to go back to making music, but before that I went to visit my parents, who live in my hometown, south of Paris. I needed to spend a bit of time in Paris on the way back to Spain in order to leave my viola bow for repair at a luthier’s, and I decided to also spend the night there with some friends. This was only the second night of the year I spent in Paris, as I don’t like spending time there anymore (the other night was when I played my show in April), and the day was 13^th November. In the afternoon I was at one of the very spots of the shootings as the luthier happened to be in that area, but in the evening, thankfully, I was safe in the home of my friends. After a sleepless night I went back to Spain, and spent the next weeks with an even gloomier feeling of doom than the one I was in already before the attacks. Sometimes, it becomes painfully obvious that the “ideal” circumstances for going back to work are just not going to materialize, and that the best thing to do for oneself is to go back to creating, no matter how awful the world in your private and international sphere seems to become. And even though everything seems futile in the face of death, I’m more grateful than ever for the existence of beauty and being given the chance to create.

Just as I was going back to work, I had the great pleasure of doing an audio interview for the She does podcast, talking about the past present and future of my music and life in general: it’s one of the longest audio interviews I’ve done in a long time and the folks at Shedoes are really deserving of your support, so head over to their website or listen to the show on Itunes! 

I also did a short interview in Spanish for Basque clothes brand Loreak mendian after they chose my music to illustrate their Winter campaign (that’s me walking on the Zurriola beach, on a strangely warm day, of the kind we’re having right now – more than 20ºC!).

Thrill Jockey have got the last remaining copies of the original limited tape edition of Everyone Alive Wants Answers here, the others are in the hands of Midheaven, and the second and last edition with a black shell is available exclusively from Beacon Sound.

I will have a couple of concerts coming up in Spring 2016, including 7 April for the Stansermusiktage festival in Stans, Switzerland.

As always thanks for your kind attention and support for what I do, and if I don’t have any other news before then, well I’m wishing you a most beautiful end of year :-)))

You can now listen to a guest mix I made for Klankschap, a mix that means a lot to me: I made it last month in the midst of very sad personal circumstances, and felt naturally drawn towards sadder music for the first time in a long time. I picked some old and more recent favourites and added music from films I saw recently, straight from the films themselves, in particular from the 1960 Indian film “The Cloud-Capped Star”: the soundtrack is really striking and at times so experimental that it sounds way ahead of it time, and in some ways it reminded me of my first album, which kind of loops the loop since the album is being reissued. I do hope you’ll like this mix and if you’re in a rough spot, that listening to it will be like having a loved one holding your hand…

“Cloud-capped” tracklisting:

OST Mildred Pierce

Reuben Bell And The Casanovas – It’s Not That Easy

Nina Simone –  When I Was In My Prime

Bela Bartok – Rumanian Folk Dance

Jane And Barton – It’s A Fine Day

OST The Cloud-Capped Star 1

Denial – California Dreaming

Dark Day – The Metal Benders

OST The Cloud-Capped Star 2

Meredith Monk – Nota

Bob Lind – Black Night

Jackson C Frank – Just Like Anything

Townes Van Zandt – Waiting Around To Die (Live At The Old Quarter)

OST The Cloud-Capped Star 3

Stina Nordenstam  – Clothe Yourself For The Wind

Dominique A – Nous Marchons Sous La Neige

Grouper – Disengaged – Vital

Greg Gives Peter Space – Electric Eel River

OST Stroszek

Stefan Lakatos/Moondog – Over The Mountain

Khassonka Dunun – Traditional Music From Mali

Bena Kazembe Balitumpa – Kalimba & Kalumbu Songs, Northern Rhodesia

Lalle – The Fulani, Niger / Northern Bénin

Taireva – Zimbabwe, The Soul Of Mbira

OST The Cloud-Capped Star 4

OST Mildred Pierce

Talking of the Everyone Alive Wants Answers reissues, the tape sold out really fast, but a few copies are still available via Midheaven, and Beacon Sound are doing a second 100-copy limited edition, this time with a black shell – this will be the final edition and available only via Beacon Sound, so don’t miss it if you want one! The vinyl is available here.

I’ve also had the pleasure of writing about my adoptive town of San Sebastián and sharing photos of some of my favorite spots for the newly launched Long Way From Home. And yes, kittens hiding among the rocks with the sea in the background are among the best things of the place!

As always thanks for your ears and your support! :-)))

I have been keeping quiet these past couple of months, resting and exploring nature, but am soon going to start working on a new album, and in the meantime I do have some exciting reissue news courtesy of The Leaf Label and Beacon Sound. Leaf is celebrating its 20^th anniversary with a massive boxset that includes a white vinyl reissue of my first album from 2003 Everyone Alive Wants Answers. The album will also be available on black vinyl early next year, and you can preorder either of these here.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Beacon Sound in Portland have done a beautifully printed limited 100-copy numbered edition of the album on tape, grab it while you can directly from them!

Last but not least, earlier this summer, I had the amazing surprise of finding out via Tweeter and then Reddit that Alan Sparhawk from Low has been listening to my last album Captain of None! It’s a great honor as I am such a fan of early Low material (their first album meant so much to me at the time I heard it back in 1994 and “Words” remains one of my favourite songs ever)… When these things happen, I feel dizzy and grateful! ;-))))