Wiki describes wayfinding as ‘all of the ways in which people (and animals) orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.’ The music and lyrics for this album came out of improvised wanderings, revisits, subconscious shortcuts recorded & mixed between 2013 & 2016. ‘Walk’ and ‘First Winter’ are even more literal. The name also describes the time when these recordings were made, getting bearings, asking for directions.

Bardo is like the Tibetan Buddhist version of limbo, though the waiting times are shorter.

Ready is influenced by (/crassly culturally appropriated from) the music of Congolese band Konono no. 1. Listen to them instead.

Automatic Writing is writing without thinking about what comes next, used as a kind of ouija board by spiritualists, a way of communicating with the unconscious in Jungian analysis, and as artistic inspiration by the surrealists. Here’s my results.

Rag is a guitarist’s naïve tribute to Hindustani classical music.

Walk Along the Canal from 155 Brassey Street. This address was my home from the end of 2013 to mid 2016, where the album was recorded and mixed.

Sun and Shield is cultural appropriation no. 3, a version of Psalm 84 in Gaelic, loosely based on the rendition by Murdina Macdonald on the album Gaelic Psalms From Lewis (Scottish Tradition Series vol 6.) Thanks to Kate Beaton for help with the pronunciation.

You’re It is dedicated to Nadia, Opi, Doune 2013 and ‘it’.

First Winter at Reraig —In 2004 I moved from Meltham, West Yorkshire, to Reraig, a village in the North West Highlands. I spent my first winter walking about the shore of Loch Alsh outside my house, making friends, reading HP Lovecraft and starting to learn the guitar. As of last year I have lived in Scotland for half my life.

Written, performed and recorded by Calum Calderwood. Additional synths on ‘Ready’ and ‘Walk’ and drum machine on ‘You’re It’ by Yuan Mekong. ‘Sun and Shield’ is traditional.

This album of was influenced (sometimes obviously, sometimes just in spirit) by Brian Eno, Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, the Beta Band, Konono no. 1, Martyn Bennett, Sun City Girls, Skullflower, 67-72 Pink Floyd, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Henry Flynt, Six Organs of Admittance, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Emeralds, Four Tet, Sun Araw, Hebridean psalm singing, Pandit V.G. Jog, Ravi Shankar, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and many others.

“In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there” – Guy Debord, Theory of the Dérive