Sorry I’ve not been around for a while! It’s been a busy time as we’ve been preparing for a number of live concerts – all designed to tighten the band and prepare for a live DVD we’re shooting pre festival season 2010.

The next pre-tour concert is detailed below;

We’ve had some great fun sourcing lazer lights, bubble machines etc! We’ve also been working on creating new visual landscapes to play from our giant screens. All designed to take us all on a trip to Utopia for a couple of hours!

Also been working on some new pieces. They’ve come together very quickly. We’ll be playing a couple of these at the Rainbow on 7th November. It’ll be a laid back affair with much in the way of experimentation. All fun.

Hope to see you there,

David.

Just about recovered from the Festival of Light held at the weekend. All in all a success. People learnt to dowse, visited the Yew (two Shamanic drummers sat underneath her to provide some great atmosphere). Lynne and Miriam from the hamlet of Hope Bagot recited poetry, Elaine and Jan provided local cheese and cider to the troops. We raised a modest but useful amount for charity.

Suzanne Thomas produced an amazing nature mosiac under the Yew which you can see below.

UtopiaXO provided the music (with crazy lazer lights, strobes and video backdrop).

This was really a ‘friendly’ warm up gig to practice our new material. Lots of mistakes made (Dave almost falling over – nothing to do with the cider)  – but all in all a great experience.

We hoped to video the event but there just wasn’t time to set it up – the technical side of things being more challenging than first thought. So we’re presently arranging a venue in which to hold a live event at which we can focus upon video production. Should be ready before the end of the year so watch this space!

Thanks to everyone who came.

David.

UtopiaXO will be playing live this weekend at the Festival of Light. All the details are below. Hope to see you there. David. X

Just returned from a trip to Glastonbury and the surrounding area. Enjoyable time as always. Spent much of the time outside with nature, drinking alcoholic apple juice, discovering new poetry, messing about with the kids and generally chilling out. We travelled along some of the St Michaels Ley – with trips to the Tor and Avebury being inevitable!

Also purchased a Hammered Dulcimer made by Roger Frood of Dove Dulcimars. Apparently, they are made on the Ley itself which should mean it will be at home when it returns to the studios of utopiaXO (as our studio sits on one of the largest leys in the UK). I’ll post some sounds of her ASAP.

Also took dulcimer lessons with the amazing Dizzie. Check her out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxjpYHhfRyI This is a special instrument played by someone who has dedicated her life to it.

Love and Light, David.

JB Priestly’s Dream-Vision

I dreamt I was standing at the top of a very high tower, alone, looking down upon myriads of birds all flying in one direction: every kind of bird was there, all the birds in the world. It was a noble sight, this vast aerial river of birds. But now in some mysterious fashion the gear was changed, and time speeded up, so that I saw generations of birds, watched them break their shells, flutter into life, weaken, falter and die. Wings grew only to crumble; bodies were sleek and then, in a flash, bled and shrivelled; and death struck everywhere and at every second. What was the use of all this blind struggle towards life, this eager trying of wings, all this gigantic meaningless biological effort?

As I stared down, seeming to see every creature’s ignoble little history almost at a glance, I felt sick at heart. It would be better if none of them, not one of us at all, had been born, if the struggle ceased forever. I stood on my tower, still alone, desperately unhappy, but now the gear was changed again and time went faster still, and it was rushing by at such a rate, that the birds could not show any movement but were lick an enormous plain sown with feathers. But along this plain, flickering through the bodies themselves, there now passed a sort of white flame, trembling, dancing, then hurrying on; and as soon as I saw it I knew this flame was life itself, the very quintessence of being; and then it came to me, in a rocket burst of ecstasy, that nothing mattered, nothing could ever matter, because nothing else was real, but this quivering, hurrying lambency of being.

Birds, men or creatures not yet shaped and coloured, all were of no account except so far as this flame of life travelled through them. It left nothing to mourn over behind it; what I had thought of as a tragedy was mere emptiness of a shadow show, for now all real feeling was caught and purified and danced on ecstatically with the white flame of life. I had never felt before such deep happiness as I knew at the end of my dream of the tower of birds…

This is one of the pieces that inspired me to write the album ‘The Light’.

An amazing vision,

Light,

David.

Natural Magick

Sacred and magickal trees are found in the mythologies and religions of almost every culture. Trees form the link between the earth and sky – because they have their roots in the soil and their branches in the air.

Here is a picture of the magickal Yew to be found within the valley of UtopiaXO.

Many rituals and spells are cast  under sacred trees. I find the tree in our valley to have a calmness and inner strength that simply doesn’t compare with the modern, crass commercial world we live in. As the tree is said to be 2000 years old, I imagine many rituals have taken place here through the centuries.

If you need to step outside the busy, commercial world and bring back your focus, find an ancient tree and spend some time. You will hear her if you listen.

Here’s a tree meditation taken from Natural Magick, by Cassandra Eason:

Leaves three
Grant to me
Protection this night
That from thy sight
Harm and malice
Darkness and danger
Fears and intruding stranger
May flee

Light,
Dave Hesketh.

The Power of Symbols

We are developing a number of symbols to depict utopian ideals such as patience, honesty and truth. The video above depicts what we call the ’seedling device’. This symbolises harvest, growth, the summer, union, protection.

These will be placed on giant screens we’ve purchase for our live shows – they are fun to erect and I did flash a few symbols at them in frustration the first time around!

They will be used in our travelling circus events called ‘The Utopian Extra-Ordinary Experience’. Watch this space for confirmation of dates for 09.

Light, Dave.

I came across the poetry of Steve Thorp about 15 months ago. This was at the time I was writing ‘The Light’. I found his work was as refreshing as a summer breeze beside the sea. I found out that Steve is one half of the ‘creative thorp’. A husband and wife team. Mary is a graphic designer. Her work for the creative Thorp instantly says ‘nature’ to me. As Mary states:

“I love the raw integrity of simple landscapes: lots of sky, bare stones, ragged seas and dry grasses blown by the wind. Colour and light affect our experience of environments. I try to capture the drama of wind, sky, weather and sunlight changing over the landscape in the sparse graphical images that I print.

This works perfectly with how Steve approaches his poetry:

My poetry is intended to be accessible, observational, reflective and emotional. I’m fascinated by words, imagination and creativity: my biggest inspirations come from the simplest things: a soft, summer wind; a birdsong, the changing moods of the ocean; a sense of belonging;  a gentle, loving look or touch.”

Check them out at www.creativethorp.co.uk

Light, David.

We are currently developing a Utopian art installation. We’re looking to explore the notion of Utopia. What it is. What it means to different people.

I feel, that by posing such a question, we also consider, with a more objective eye, the life we lead now.

Hope you like the installation above. It’s called ‘Garden’ by Malakoff.

I sat looking at this as I played ‘Garden’ on the new album. Take a look in the music section if you would like to hear this piece.

Light, David.

I find walking in nature everyday inspires my writing. This poem by Thomas A Clark perfectly captures the essence of how nature inspires music.

A school of minnows, darting in a shallow stream, is jazz

A clear brook, tumbling over pebbles, is counterpoint

A pair of orange-tips, fluttering in a meadow, is Mozart

A cloud of dust moats, drifting in a sunbeam, is chamber music

A patch of thistles, lurking in the fog, is dissonance

A herd of deer, stepping in oak woods, is plainsong

Taken from Jazz by Thomas A Clark.