Mark Rushton’s Abundant Spare Time is a weekly email on Substack where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist.
This 155th weekly email is brought to you by the Mark Rushton Gallery, for printed and original artworks. License my music, sound fx, and illustrations at Pond 5 for your creative project. I’m on Bandcamp and all the usual streaming services.
This week’s topics:
Selling the Fjærlett
Omniessence
Simple Minds - “I Travel”
Selling the Fjærlett
I was on the wait list for 5 years and only received it in early July, but I’m selling my Fjærlett. It just doesn’t fit in with what I’m doing today. And I don’t have the time to devote to it - not after buying the new model of the Suzuki Omnichord a couple months prior, an instrument I really enjoy playing and have made a ton of music out of it.
The Fjærlett is on eBay for basically what I paid for it. I marked it up a little to cover the eBay fees, but that’s it. These have been selling for double and then some on Reverb, but I don’t agree with doing that sort of thing. I don’t need the extra money. I’m sure there is someone on the wait list who would love to jump ahead of the line.
Omniessence
And here’s the cover of my first album of Omnichord-based music - Omniessence. It’ll probably have a release date of October 1st. 10 songs. All instrumental. All Omnichord + effects. Super chill. Beautiful, dreamy electronic pulses.
In the “stockpile”, I have another 20 or 25 completed, edited, and titled tracks.
“Elegant Getaway”, the third track, can be heard as a preview on Bandcamp. Here’s a link.
Simple Minds - “I Travel”
I was always a fan of the 82-83-84 version of Simple Minds (“New Gold Dream” and “Sparkle in the Rain”), but after that I lost interest, other than the occasional single.
One thing I wasn’t familiar with was their earlier recordings, most of which were only available on “import” in the US, or impossible to find at the time. Streaming fixed that.
Their first two albums, from 1979, were a bit rough for my tastes, but 1980’s “Empires and Dance”, which this song is on, is pretty good. Even better are 1981’s “Sons and Fascination” and “Sister Feelings Call”. Very European and post-punk dance.
Because I’m such a fan of “old world architecture”, and my oldest daughter is now working in Slovakia as part of her Fulbright award, I thought of this song recently.
“Tragedies, luxuries, statues, parks, and galleries…”
“Europe has a language problem…”
“Love songs playing in the restaurants, Airport playing Brian Eno…”
Who has lyrics like that today?
There are some OK live versions on YouTube, but I prefer the original - produced by the great John Leckie!
A little sad to read this. I was looking forward to hearing what you were going to do with the Fjærlett. Wish I’d had the funds to buy it myself.