As the year draws to a close, I’ve finally had time to start listening to the Purcell’s Revenge session tapes from April, which are very entertaining indeed. What’s striking is that the most crucial aspect of any take is the tempo, or more strictly speaking, the groove. If the speed is right, then everyone at the top of the texture can float around doing very subtle things and everyone at the bottom can keep everything moving along nicely. Too slow, and the temptation to fill all the holes starts to present itself, with musical flab as the result; too fast, and all the space and air disappears in a frantic attempt to keep up.

For the album that comes out before that one, Joe Davie has just finished painting his portraits of Tobias Hume. He’s coming over to deliver those on Friday, but in the meantime here’s one of his collection of preliminary sketches. One of the many sources was this picture of 17th-century Scots soldiers in the service of the king of Sweden.