Leighton Craig - Diamond Eye LP

Friends

Back cover - image courtesy Guy Mercier

I have a new record "Diamond Eye" out on the exemplary French label Bruit Direct Disques. My sincere gratitude to BDD CEO Guy Mercier for making this happen. What a champ!

As with its predecessor "11 Easy Pieces", this album was assembled by gathering a selection of recordings made at home and on holidays over a few years, in this instance mostly between 2006-2008 (with a couple of outliers in 2009/10).  

Perhaps because this collection has gathered a sprinkling of dust, listening to it now has the same effect for me as flipping through an old photo album - I can generally remember the circumstances of each recording, including the music I was listening to and even the books I was reading. In their own small way, these pieces mark my passage on the planet during that time. Vertical lines descending.

So if you will indulge me briefly....the title track "Diamond Eye" was recorded in a holiday unit at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast, right next to the Currumbin lagoon.  Vocals were recorded on a broken 70s home stereo mic that has sadly since deceased (I've never managed to obtain that vocal sound again!) The accompanying drawings were made on the same holiday - another old habit.

"Sans Souci" is named after a 1950s fibro beach house on North Stradbroke Island, where I holidayed with my family over the Christmas break in 2008 - a week of surfing, eating and sleeping in the sea breeze. On returning to Brisbane on New Years eve I recorded this piece while still lost in a holiday reverie. It appeared on a Room40 compilation not long after; returned now to the pages from which it was lifted. 

And so I could continue for each track on the album - elsewhere a nod to Colin MacCahon, several other location specific odes and generally just enjoying listening to those Portasound tones. But enough you say!

Live at Fabrique, May 2008. Photo: Tom Hall

Copies of the LP are now available to purchase from Bruit Direct Disques and are currently on route to other outlets including Forced Exposure in the US and Boomkat in the UK.

I'll also have copies shortly in Brisbane and aim to ship on 1 February.

You are welcome to  listen and pre-order via my Bandcamp page or use the link below. You'll receive a download whichever method you use. Hey - thanks for reading!

Front cover - unboxed in Paris

Price includes postage

Australia and NZ $28.00 AUD Rest of World $34.00 AUD