Kept Impulses - Barbican May 10th

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A note about this arrived in my inbox, and though it's a touch outside the orbit of things here, it might be useful and/or interesting for those of you around London.

Kept Impulses Hauschka, James Blackshaw & Nancy Elizabeth + Special Guests 10 May 2010 / 19:30 Barbican Hall

"Cinematic suites of prepared piano, transcendental 12-string guitar and emotionally atmospheric songs from three musicians collaborating together for the first time in a contoured programme of ensemble and solo performances.

A one-off concert which brings together experimenal/ eltronica piano player Hauschka, guitarist James Blackshaw, and singer/songwriter Nancy Elizabeth in an extraordinarily fluid live collaboration."

Marking Time by Richard Skelton

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Marking Time "‘Marking Time’ is Richard’s first widely available record and might be the most perfect distillation of his sound to date. Using a selection of bowed string instruments and lavishing these sustained howls with the most delicate of fingerpicked guitar and gentle piano, he takes us through a most harrowing journey. These short songs are deft and deeply touching musings on loss and of the importance of time. Comparisons could be made to plenty of Richard’s modern-classical or avant folk contemporaries but few imbue their music with such a deep sense of humanity and patience. This is an album which truly rewards those who give it the time it commands."

Marking Time by Richard Skelton at Type Records Marking Time by Richard Skelton limited vinyl edition for sale at Boomkat

Doctorow: "Streaming will never stop downloading"

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"...there's no reason to believe that people will lose the urge to collect music." "Streaming is an implausible and inefficient use of wireless bandwidth."

"Why would we voluntarily increase our reliance on expensive, scarce wireless bandwidth delivered by abusive thugs when we are awash in cheap, commodity storage that grows cheaper every day and which we can buy from hundreds of manufacturers and thousands of retailers?"

"The more we pretend that there is a technical possibility of designing a downloader that can't save its files, the more incentive we create for legal and technological systems that attempt to make this come true."

I get all his arguments, and I agree with them in theory. The thing is, for me, none of them have ever really mattered. The reason I don't use streaming music services is because they don't seem to make any sense to me. I'm never quite sure what to listen to, because without a library of music that I've spent time acquiring staring me in the face, I don't have any cues to prompt me as to what to listen to.

It's not so much that I like to "collect" music as much as I need to in order to remember to go back and listen to it.

Streaming will never stop downloading Cory Doctorow guardian.co.uk