Summa: diary (February 1-6, 2026)
Folly.
February 1 (Sunday). Candlemas. 12.15 pm: Proof of presence.
‘I can hear bird song again!’. Over the weekend, I made trial of my ‘new ears’. With the upper-frequencies largely restored, even the otherwise mundane sound of rainwater pouring into drains captivated me.
I hadn’t before appreciated how fundamental the upper-frequencies are to conveying breadth of space and, with it, distance. I walked in contrasting landscapes — town, seaside, and countryside — while ‘seeing’ with my ears. The aids, and the accompanying phone app, give a control over my hearing that isn’t possible with healthy and unassisted ears (which are, of course, to be preferred). Between the audiologist and myself, testing an tweaking, these devices with be optimised for a range of listening contexts.
February 2 (Monday). 6.15 am: Ablutions, writing, reflection, and a cold morningtide, as the moon surrendered yesterday’s fullness.
I’m grateful for the infirmities, deficits, and difficulties that confront me daily. I don’t know whether I could cope with anybody else’s. ‘Better the devil you know’, as they say. 8.00 am: Studyology. I returned to the general explanatory text for Darkness Covered the Whole Land, and the first track: ‘Hymn: The Sinking of Merthyr Vale Colliery (1869)’. The aim is to provide a historical contextualisation and description for each of the compositions. The temptation is to say too much about why they sound the way they do. Exegesis should not demystify. There’s an irreducable and undeducible element at the core of all artworks worth their salt that shouldn’t be violated.
February 3 (Tuesday). 8.00 am: Studyology. While eager to return to mixing, there was project-admin to organise, research to review, and plans to schedule. 9.00 am: I returned to the text, endeavouring to develop a way of writing that was appropriate to its function, and concise.
2.00 pm: Studiology. I review of the first track mix once again. It’s 80% there. Some of my most ‘inspired’ decisions at this stage arise when I’m not at the desk. I play the track (which I know intimately, now) in my head. Ideas related to changes come to me. And often they’re either appropriate (spot on) or, at the very least, worth a punt. The remembered version of the track ‘sounds’ far more essential than actuality. As such, it serves as a guide to editing and a challenge to remove superfluity.
February 4 (Wednesday). 7.00 am: Morningtide.
7.30 am: Studyology. I pushed on with the track descriptors for the Darkness Covered All the Land, album.
11.15 am: Into the day.
Upwards, for a long-overdue coffee with my friend, the artist and educator Saoirse Morgan. There were many items on the agenda. Saoirse is an art teacher who’s much in demand at the Arts Centre. There’s a waiting list for her next term’s provision. Book early!
12.15 pm: Back at my desk, and the text for the remainder of the day.
February 5 (Thursday). 6.00 am: Studyology. Review and writing. I was on a roll, so I continued writing the text. When the project involves writing, diarism waxes slow. I find it hard to maintain two parallel strands of analysis and description using words. In part, its because I’m using the same part of the brain for both activities. When I taught on the PhD research training module at the university, postgraduates undertaking doctoral studies in Creative Writing experienced the same vexation. They had to produce a 50,000 word novel, and a 40,000 word critical commentary on it’s text — ideally, in parallel. I was so grateful that my student’s primary output was non-textual.
February 6 (Friday). 8.00 am: A Constablesque morning.
8.30 am: After yesterday evening’s revisions of the text, I had a far better steer of regarding its character and reach. In essence, the text is a 16-part essay. Writing helps me clarify what I’ve achieved with respect to each composition, and overall. 1.00 pm: Shoppery … in wind and rain. The lenses of my glasses were bespattered with raindrops, rendering my phone’s facial recognition software inoperable. (Sigh!) 2.00 pm: Back to writing.
See also: Intersections (archive); Diary (September 15, 2018 – June 30, 2021); Diary (July 16, 2014 – September 4, 2018); John Harvey (main site); John Harvey: Sound; Studium; Academia; Facebook: The Noises of Art; Bluesky; Instagram; @Threads; YouTube; Archive of Visual Practice