Ocean in a Bottle new releases

 Out now:

1) Ambient online compilation Volume 11:

1) Two new Ocean in a Bottle songs “Ananke II" and "From Mexico to the Moon” have appeared on their latest release.

Free download / stream at: https://ambientonline.bandcamp.com/album/ambient-online-compilation-volume-11

2) Burial Remix

Burial – Dolphinz (Ocean in a Bottle Piano Mix)

Done for fun 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6JlahZ76pA

3) Ay Caramba

Has appeared on a new compliation CD on Camembert Électrique called AY CARAMBA ! Which is an album of ambient / experimental tracks set in Mexico. 

Free download / Stream

https://camembertelectrique.bandcamp.com/track/storm-on-bay-of-campeche-september-2020?fbclid=IwAR2uVrivojW65RwTH2cshMIzj3DkLJIUt8nb0q0RuAeaWOSQy9zFrF0lx5o

4) Forbidden Love Volume 5 demos, alternative takes and out​​-​​takes)

Back with my 5^th volume of demos, alternative takes and out-takes, Volume 5 of Forbidden Love focuses on a track from Silber’s Dronery with several different versions, alternative versions of my release on Volume 11 of Ambient Online, and Vocalising the Solar System and a 18 minute exclusive track.

Free to download / stream

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/forbidden-love-volume-5-demos-alternative-takes-and-out-takes

5) Waiting for the ice to melt

An recently discovered EP of soft ambience / piano music set at the North and South Pole recorded in 2019, all under 90 seconds for a compliation CD, one of which was submitted and accepted, the rest accidentially forgot about.

Free to download / stream

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/waiting-for-the-ice-to-melt-ep

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2021 )

 

2021

Facing the sunrise

I enter another year

smiling at the past.

(Concluding this sequence, I turn 50 next year and will face it like I have done with the rest of my life with a smile and a drink to friends still in my life and those who have moved on).

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2019 and 2020)

 

2019

Sparks flying upwards

Was afraid to step on stage

for fear of my life.

(Me and Amanda read our poetry at a out-door festival which got hit by a brief storm and caused havoc with the P.A. system)

2020

Sent home from my job

Thought I would be back shortly.

This did not happen.

(Owning to my Diabetes I was sent home from work when lockdown started and thought on the way home I would be back in a few weeks and things would be back to normal. I was wrong)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2017 and 2018)

 

2017

Rewriting my life

Fell in love with a fellow

artist and writer.

(I started dating my partner at the start of 2017, herself a fellow writer and a artist who has rewrote my life ever since, Amanda)

2018

Amanda asked me

to help with a new Podcast

and one became two.

(At the beginning of 2018, Amanda asked me would I help her with a book review Podcast called Reading in Bed and one became two)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2015 and 2016)

2015

Returned to reading

after becoming single.

A terrifying moment.

(After my band finished in 2015, I also left a long term relationship I was in not long after and to fill the gap I returned to performing poetry at poetry nights again after a gap of some years. I was terrified).

2016

Doing a Podcast

drunk with my friend in Bolton

somehow kept going.

(At the beginning of 2016 I started my Author / Poet chat Podcast series Spoken Label never expecting it would carry on but it did and did and did) 

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2013 and 2014)

 

2013

Gigged all over with

my band even though I was

ill on a few times.

(2013 proved to be the busiest year for the band as we played at numerous festivals – some better attended than others it had to be said and it became a battle to learn how to look after myself at these gigs)

2014

In a studio

we recorded our album

before then splitting.

(A Means to an End split halfway through 2014 and over the Autumn of 2014 we recorded an album before playing a few gigs at the end of 2014 and 2015 to support it. I miss those days even now)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2011 and 2012)

 

2011

My creative life

changed when the doctors told me

I was Diabetic

(My full approach to my life and creative life in total changed overnight in August 2011 when I was told I was Diabetic)

2012

Very ill my band

almost nursed me through our first

gig back again.

(When I contracted Diabetes, we were not sure whether we were going to be able to carry on with my band so the first few gigs back, my band had to almost nurse me through the gigs as I was very unsteady for some time).

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2009 and 2010)

 

2009

Started my first band.

Saw my microphone collapse

on our first gig.

(After years of doing studio based noise / music bands in 2009. I formed my first live band Words and Music (later Wordmusic) only for the above to happen on our first gig. Somehow it didn’t stop us)

2010

Formed my second band.

Within months we were playing

lots of festivals.

(Straight after Wordmusic finished in 2010, I formed another band called A Means to an End and possibly because I knew a lot of people from bookings with my previous band, gigs proved a lot easier)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2007 and 2008)

 

2007

Slipping on stage

my 1st poetry performance

was almost my last.

(Although I had done a few minor readings beforehand, my first major poetry readings was at Turton Towers near Blackburn where I missed my step getting onto stage and was so embarrassed I nearly didn’t do it again)

2008

Twisted my ankle

helping to co-run my first

first open mic night.

(I broke into my the poetry scene at the start of 2008 with Gary and Amanda and at the end of that year we set up our first poetry open mic night, twisting my ankle in the process)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2005 and 2006)

 

2005

Hosted a writing

workshop for fifteen children.

Very terrified.

(In this workshop after 18 months or so, offers began to come in for us to do projects including on this running a children’s poetry workshop for SureStart. I hadn’t done anything like this before so was rightly terrified).

2006

Co wrote my first play.

Kept getting my lines mixed up

in first performance.

(At the height of this group, we got commissioned to cowrite and perform a play for Bolton Library where the above happened unfortunately with the character I was playing)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2004)

 

2004

Joined a writing group

on a Saturday morning

very hungover.

(I got persuaded nursing a major hangover to join a writing workshop on a Saturday Morning and then this started again my hungry for writing).

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2002 and 2003)

 

2002

After graduating

Could barely write anything.

Completely burnt out.

(After leaving university in 2001, the next few years I was barely able to write anything. Looking back at it, I was completely burnt out from writing which I have seen happen with other people)

2003

Only wrote 3 poems

drifting constantly over

over coastlines.

(As with 2002, my writing drifted away and was replaced with travelling long distance to a job at the moment and then over weekends travelling to coastlines as much as possible)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (2000 and 2001)

 

2000

My dad wouldn't believe

it for years when I told him

I was dyspraxic.

(My first year and a bit at university I really struggled and several of my tutors spotted it and referred me for extra assistance. I ended up getting all kinds of equipment from the local council but unfortunately my dad didn’t believe a word of it for years when I was told I was dyspraxic)

2001

Writing endlessly

my dissertation took months

and months to create.

(Although I have wrote 5 full length poetry collections, my dissertation at university was the hardest poetry collection I’ve wrote and proved an unholy struggle in contrast to somebody who I know wrote it in two weeks)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (1999)

 

1999

Teacher didn’t believe

me when I was late when bus

got pulled for speeding.

(A true story which had my fellow student laughing when I was forty five minutes late for a lecture when the bus I was on to Bolton got pulled over for speeding)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (1997 and 1998)

 

1997

Failed my A Levels

and then university

was left despondent.

(By 1997, I had changed jobs at where I was working and I was very unhappy. I applied for university and then got rejected after failing them leaving me broken for months)

1998

Got in second time.

Was sad to leave my workplace

but knew had to go.

(Got into university on my 2^nd attempt but I knew I had to leave as I wasn’t going to get a promotion at the job I was at despite various applications and applications) 

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (1995 and 1996)

1995

Went to Bournemouth

Forgot to set alarm clock.

Went on the next train.

(I was booked on the 6.05am to Bournemouth in 1995 for the first time. Unfortunately I didn’t set my alarm clock and had to plead with the guards to rearrange my ticket when I arrived somewhat late)

1996

Started my first band.

We mixed white noise and break-beats

over my poems.

(Second time in Bournemouth, I formed my first band with Keith, D.I.H (also Distorted in Hindsight). Starting the year after,  and properly in 1998 we produced a host of singles / albums over the next twelve years or so

For those curious, its here to download for free / stream - https://andynproductions.bandcamp.com/album/demo-two-dih-the-silence-of-her-wings-1999)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (1993 and 1994 )

 

1993

Ice Cream Pancakes

twice at the Dutch pancake house.

Didn't want it to end.

(When I got to 21, I went out for 4 nights on the trot. This was my favourite exhibition – eating Ice Cream Pancakes)

1994

Got drunk in Paris.

Slept throughout my connection

heading to Brazil.

(My second trip abroad was a trip to Brazil which involved an 8 hour stop over in Paris, getting very drunk in a bar near the station)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (1991 and 1992)

 

1991

Saw the Blue Nile live

The first concert I went too

I still love them now

(In 1991, I saw my live concert a scottish band called The Blue Nile. I still love them many years later)

1992

Got drunk at Christmas

at the works do at Laceys.

Ill on Christmas Day.

(The first works do I went to when I was 20 I got very drunk at.

Regretted it on Christmas Day somewhat)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (1990)

 

1990

Ardwick was too far

you told them not realising

you would stay for 8 years.

(After not a good experience at two placements at YTS, I thought my third payment was too far and told them so but let myself get persuaded to go there. I ended up staying for 8 years)

#NaPoWriMo 2021 - Haiku of Life (1988 and 1989)

 

1988

After leaving school

you got beat up at college

and on the next day.

(After leaving school, I had no experience of working anywhere and ended going to a YTS Scheme, the wrong one where the above happened)

1989

Changing colleges

you fused a BBC basic on

your first morning there.

(Changing colleges, my second YTS was better where I learnt I.T. Studies and proving popluar with the teachers on my first morning there)