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Summer of '97

by Gareth West & Jim Tetlow

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1.
Untitled 1 02:20
2.
3.
Untitled 2 02:05
4.
Early Grave 01:45
5.
Untitled 3 00:40
6.
Caelum Blues 05:10
7.

about

Gareth was in two periods of my life, each lasting about a couple of years. First as playmates, he was 5 and I was 7. Quite a beautiful child, pale skin but dark features. Then some years later at 20 and 22, circumstance brought us together again. He was in an as-yet-unnamed folk-rock band in Leicester which also featured his future wife Suzanne and her father John. After a couple of rehearsals with them I joined and we settled on the name Bluish. We played a number of gigs in and around Leicester before imperceptibly dissolving for one reason or another some six months later.

One afternoon that summer (one day in mid to late August if I remember right) I took a keyboard and 4-track cassette recorder to his parents' house and we jammed a few short pieces which comprise this collection here.

For reasons I can never adequately resolve, after Bluish and its summer-of-'98 reincarnation Ochra-H both stalled I didn't see him for a number of years. We just got on with our individual lives, only bumping into one another a couple of times. Then in September 2009 I heard by chance that he'd died three months earlier, aged just 32.

It was the hardest thing I'd ever had to accept. Not only was he one of my best friends but he'll never have known how much he was a catalyst for change in my life, as entering the Leicester music scene via Bluish sparked off huge new directions in life for me. It was a decisive point in life and I truly don't know where I would be geographically or psychologically or what I would be doing now if not for that. I still wonder.

So I came to treasure this small collection of jams like I never would have envisaged, and decided yesterday to share them here. There's nothing particularly special musically, indeed there's a kind of beautifully simple naivety which I didn't seek to hide. But I wanted to keep his memory alive. And so I dedicate this collection not only to Gareth but also his parents and everyone who was close to him. Especially his three children, Jake, Jude and Ollie, who not only uncannily resemble him as a child but also each carry a bit of his essence with them.

Jim, 11/4/11 (revised 2023)

credits

released April 11, 2011

Recorded one sunny afternoon in August 1997
Mixed and mastered 5th January 2011

Artwork comprises of details of mixed media experiments made upstairs at John's place, 15th June 1997

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all rights reserved

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about

Jim Tetlow: collabs & compilations Leicester, UK

Jim has been recording music in some form or other since 1990, currently focusing on a hybrid music combining instrumental and acousmatic elements. He has involved himself in Leicester's thriving music scene since 1997, playing in a number of bands/duos/projects covering a wide variety of musical territory. ... more

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