Get all 48 David Braid releases available on Bandcamp and save 10%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Transfigured Life - Still Life, Autoworks, Compilation II, Five duos for viola & guitar, Journey Time, Two songs of North Wales seaside towns, Three guitar solos, A Direction Sought - electric guitars + samples, and 40 more.
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Invitation
02:40
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Join me, you know you want to, despite your unawareness of where I’m off.
Let’s find some space where we can quaff and plot: our tour, our trek, our jaunt.
Yet still you stand, not won, nor swayed. What is it that daunts you? A fear of flowering? Of change or growth?
An invitation is just that, you’re free to stay & moulder, to save your breath, but you know this as well as I, that change is air, and stasis, death.
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Mulling - instrumental
02:34
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Off we pop!
02:08
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To go or not to go, that’s not a question but an act, to act is to commit and that’s the tricky bit. Anyone can claim they’d take a leap, though naturally foreboding of the deep.
The high, the exposed, the undiagnosed. Who is this temptress that suggests I sally forth?
Who seems to twig that I’ve been mulling, thinking big; that doesn’t mean I’m visa’d, cossie packed.
I like it here, it’s cool, why should I go to sea, by air, on wheels, or waste some fuel?
I’ve cottoned on, that’s not in fact the programme. There’s something afoot that draws this fool. Och! Sod it! Off I pop! I’ll be back before it’s Yule.
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Breakable, delicate, colourful, akin to your dreams & dearest aspirations, a multifarious multitude, an assorted, assembled abundance.
Those you opt for will determine both your route & harbour.
Here is one, lanky & spare. Here is one golden as coins in a lair. Another rings green as freshly cut mint.
Beside it, one rose as a plate or a print, dazzled by choice like an upmarket grocer’s, don your shades and trendy keks and brown suede loafers.
To look the part means you’re almost there, Take your pick, either one or a pair.
Then en route, you can start, looking closely at your chart you’re now armed with your fancy, your direction and your plan “What could possibly go wrong?” Said a promising young man.
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The land of time travel
04:38
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The past and the future are essentially the same, until we evolve. As we carry ourselves with ourselves; more chips, less mud, more teeth, less blood, is how, I thought it might be, not true.
As you carry yourself with yourself, A change of taboo is not a change in quality just a shifting of corruption.
“We’ve come a long way,” so they say on Channel 4. while ignoring the pollution of our minds growing poor, not just minds but our soul, quartered, eighthed, or tenthed in metric, more.
Take your Delorean to 2122, some infants alive will see that year. Do you really think there’ll be no trouble?
Put the silver car in reverse, visit Dowland and his mates; are they worse?
Do not fool yourself, we’re not better humans, only you can upgrade yourself, take your pilgrimage internally, and avoid all tweeting and bleating, so you want to change the world?
Then look in the glass and do not lie and these times will be truly fleeting.
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Questions - instrumental
02:14
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The land of distractions
04:45
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“Look in the glass & do not lie?” “Look in the glass?” That’s a big ask, let’s distract instead.
I have cleaning to do, shopping to buy, streaming to stream, drinks to drink, gossip to hear, gossip to tell.
YouTube to watch, Netflix to gorge, joints to smoke, jogs to jog, gyms to boast of, bikes to ride, machines to row on at home!
Washing to wash, cars to look posh, e-bikes to stand on, charity runs, lunches in pubs, website to browse, stuff to buy & take to Oxfam, diets to follow, diets to fail, gardens to mow, neighbours to flaunt at, colleagues & bosses to impress.
Stats to quote, tattoos to show, discussions of voting, my skills in gloating, pictures to post, ‘like’ & comment, find a moment, compose a sonnet, but most of all I cannot stop!
Busy being busy is all I can take, stopping to think would be a mistake, I may miss something, a text, a mail, a video fail, what if I miss it?
BUT: “Look in the glass & do not lie"? Okay I will try.
My brim-filled existence has emptied me out, I’d like to press pause & peer at the cause of this madness. One thing is clear, it’s actually fear that’s the root.
Fear of a void I want to avoid, but cannot, this hollow, this gulf, what’s it all for? To be filled I would say, but I tried - as we saw.
The result was its growth, swelling up, eating more. A paradox! yes, to be sure, but far worse than a word, nihilism is real, not actively chosen, but actively present, benighted, infectious & deadly.
In darkness, don’t let me dwell.
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Acceptance
07:23
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To see clearly you need contrast, to see light, you must grasp the darkness, though the same in reverse, face your many hells, if you want to vanquish them, the worst ones are the ones we make for ourselves.
To say it’s “only in your mind” is no succour, where else is pain processed?
Firstly, the realisation of the meaningless life, now that’s landed it’s rapidly followed by more revelations!
Graveyards are full of those that were certain things could not continue in their absence. Perhaps some of them were right?
Hell is knowing no one.
Hell is imprisonment, mental or corporeal.
Hell is compromising and being fully aware your actions are wrong and doing them anyway,
Hell is living according to others’ opinions, particularly those you don’t respect.
Hell is an office at three in the afternoon, knowing you’ve agreed to a work social, and realising you will next see your wife for twenty seconds, tomorrow morning and it being your own, weak, fault.
Hell is people who ‘know’ they’re right, and preach at you, while you agree with the lies they state even to themselves.
Hell is mediocrity with authority - remember school? And you allowing it, even voting it in!
Hell is not other people.
Hell is when you compromise yourself.
Hell squared is the realisation you’ve made that your way of life.
Now we have two options: put your headphones on - better still, buy a nice new pair! Fill your calendar, pour another drink, or don’t, stop!
Do sod all! Literally Stop!
Stop the sewage in your ears, look in the mirror, face your hells and do not lie.
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Learning
03:55
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It happens by itself, but you need to see, or listen, and hear and notice things that count, not celebrities a kissin’.
You’ve chosen wisely, so it seems.
Are you really going to live? finally stop being a div? If that’s the case, then grab a pencil, write down lists of stuff to know, now you have the right utensil, get your scribbling in a flow. Don’t go mad, and write too long, just three or four suggestions long.
If, at fifty you want the things you desired when you were thirty, clearly you haven’t learnt that much or grown a lot since then.
The whole crux is to start anew, to be an upgrade, a ‘rebooted’ you, you won’t learn that in groups or clubs, or anywhere that you pay subs.
A book is good, a window best, to look through and to linger, on your own ingenious quest.
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Change is the new norm
07:56
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Growing pains are real and can happen throughout your life.
Perhaps not physically; still a real ache when you’re out of practice, should it feel so strange? Only if you do it rarely, assume it becomes the norm, like exercise or eating quorn.
Then change becomes the status quo, change the very thing that doesn’t change, that seems to me a pretty sound idea, to keep away the recent hells!
Move on and take advantage of the swells that surge beneath, and press you on.
Funny how it all moves with you, when you’re facing where you should.
So, this is growth? Simply going where you’re supposed to? Seems a cinch to me - well partly yes, but slightly not, stay awake and keep ‘em peeled!
Be aware of where you’re at each moment, like a Jedi, make this your norm, your way of life and then the growing pains will cease to be.
Quite a trip we’ve made so far tonight: the sculptured dreams of glass, the glimpse into the past, the recent times of brim-filled life and hellish shopping, steaming, tweeting, bleating strife.
That’s all gone and now you’re here, and realise the truth, there is no destination, no Grand Terminal Station, the end is the beginning, from here you grow forever.
The ‘status’ has no ‘quo’ there is no ‘Journey Time’ as such!
Accepting this makes you free, fighting it makes constriction, hence your hells and predilection to distraction.
Now that’s over, now is now and here is here, you are you and we are we, all is well as well can be, on land and sea, for you and me.
Life’s river’s got you here and the rest is up to you, don’t drift downstream, nor go with the flow, pick up your oar - decide where you will go.
It’s up to you from here on in, time to choose and TIME TO WIN; farewell!
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David Braid London, UK
David Braid, composer of some 180+ works, including 3 symphonies, a viola concerto & 90+ pieces including guitar, has had
his work performed in Europe and the Americas & broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Steve Reich said of his work ‘Morning’ (soprano/string qt) “Real honest stuff”.
Major UK performances include Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, King’s Place, Wilton’s Music Hall, 1901 Arts Club, etc.
... more
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Branimir is a true original and a wonderfully inventive guitarist & composer - BUY THIS ALBUM - it's like nothing else you've heard and is absolutely beautiful.
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