A Musical Pilgrimage and Studio Return

Stanley Downwood, Thom Yorke and Godspeed You! Black Emperor Reawaken the Dream and Inspire the Mosses Project Onwards.

I often need to photograph the pedal board for each tune as the settings change. This is for the Bass part in the tune at the bottom of this post—18th August 2025.

Following a much-needed escape to the coast and idle days of rest and recovery, I set out on a solo musical pilgrimage to feed the muse. Since hearing about Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke’s This is What You Get Exhibition, I‘ve been trying to figure out the best opportunity to justify driving across the country. I had tickets to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor at this year’s Arctangent, which I wasn’t going to miss, so I combined the two for an epic 24-hour adventure. I set the map for the Mendips via Oxford, leaving early in the morning, to first find my way to the Ashmolean Museum for the Radiohead exhibition. 

Thom Yorke’s working lyrics for My Iron Lung displayed in the This is What You Get Exhibition at The Ashmolean, Oxford—14th August 2025.

It was stunning. I couldn’t believe how extensive and open the show was. It revealed everything from Thom’s first scribbled lyrics and doodles for songs across every album to early artworks from all their releases, alongside the original final cover and insert designs, all there in plain sight. Visitors were allowed to take photographs of the exhibition, which added to the experience of feeling fully invited into this unseen world of their albums and artwork taking shape. I found myself laughing out loud a few times at the slightly bizarre and hilarious fax exchanges between Thom and Stanley, and moved by other notes and formative artworks for albums like Ok Computer, which I feel I’ve lived inside of for 28 years. After spending the luxury of a couple of hours alone, immersed in every single detail of the exhibition, it was time to leave Oxford and journey further afield to hear another long-time favourite band.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Live at Arctangent August 14th 2025.

Years ago at university, a friend played me his vinyl copy of Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It made quite an impression on me. Storm, its opener, remains one of my all-time favourite pieces of music. Their performance that night at Arctangent, nuanced by the backdrop of their usual thoughtful and at times dystopian imagery, was so special and will stay with me for a long time. After a couple of hours of sleep. I got up early again, packed up my tent, and made the journey back to the studio, tired, inspired, and raring to go. I had to make it back anyway, for a second photo shoot with Alexandra that afternoon, continuing her project documenting my Mosses journey (as documented in the post back in May). During our time at the studio, I began work on a new piece. I developed it over two days, and it came together quickly, of which there is a demo to listen to below.

Quick sketchbook entry to remember the notes composed during the Alexandra Claire Davies shoot for working on the next day, 18th August 2025.

The piece began as most do, with an acoustic guitar tuned to a certain key and bowed to create a soft, brooding soundscape. I then played around with and arrived at a run of notes on the Metallophone, which felt right for the mood and feeling of this piece. As Alexandra was in the studio, I brought up the Lapwing recordings from her last visit with me at the Mosses, which, with the wind on the mosses, began to shape the theme of the tune.

I revisited the studio the next day to record this new sketch, beginning with the bowed guitar (in F#), then adding the Metallophone and so on. 19th August 2025.

The above audio is the first rough draft of a new tune following the sounds of Lapwings and wind on the Mosses. 19th August 2025.

Following the addition of tuned percussion, I wanted to revisit distorted bass sounds to bring depth of emotion to the piece. After a few tweaks on the pedal board (pictured top), I found the right sound and noodled about for a while alongside the tune before landing on the chord progressions in the audio draft above. I’ve got further string and higher glockenspiel arrangements I’d like to add, as well as arranging the timing and cue of the instruments. Upon listening, I think the wind is the key sound that I’d like to focus on, which means I will head back to the Mosses to record the wind and how it acts on the grasses and trees there. It’s exciting to be back into the music-making phase for Mosses.

Breakthrough Bass moment after setting the right distortion and noodling with riffs, I landed on this finger-picked chord progression, which is here to stay - 19th August 2025.