I started the “Address Book” project in October 2013, with the idea of progressively compiling 26 recordings, each with a collaborator representing each letter of the alphabet. Some of these were existing recordings, made either recently or many years ago (the earliest was from 1990, my first ‘band’), or new collaborations I sought out especially to fulfil the alpha requirements of the project. These new recordings were either done remotely or live/in-person.

The project was a great way to explore collaborating with different people; something I have actually been doing a lot of the past few years beyond this project as well (mainly in performance). Some letters took time to arrange/do; no doubt ‘X’ was the hardest, thank God Shani Xceptional (nee Mohnini-Holmes) was willing to change her name to help me out with that one!

It’s an album I like to flick through myself quite regularly, as many of the collaborators featured are also some of my favourite musicians. I’m really thankful to everyone who has participated.

Some of my favourite tracks are:

The very first track, a delicate piece recorded with Ernie Althoff at my house, using four turntables and various bits and pieces.

From a Make It Up Club performance in 2011 with two giants in Marco Fusinato and Buttress O’Kneel.

A Neil Young cover sung by my missus in our lounge room xx.

Part of a really nice improvisation recorded with Liz Landray at my house, especially for the project.

Improvisation recorded in Barnaby Oliver’s studio with odd things like a gramophone and banjo.

Scott Sinclair and I made it sound like the world was ending on this 2002 recording.

A small excerpt from a (very long) THIS Ensemble 2014 live recording.

The entire album is available here for free streaming/downloading.