2022 has been an intense year for me so far. Back in January my lovely dad died and I went back to Australia to be with my mum in the aftermath. Then, not long after returning to the UK, and not personally recovered or handling the grief very well at all, my mum got sick and I travelled back to care for her. An only child living very far away from home, this was two of my worst nightmares happening back to back. Then again, actually being back home was amazing in a way. I was able to work remotely due to the strange hybrid-reality of the pandemic. I got to reconnect with old friends and family who I love and miss very much. I got to celebrate my 43rd birthday with a solo trip to Uluru, which turned out to be an extremely special experience for me.

Since being back in the UK (again), life has been a whirlwind of stuff. A lot of it has been really great – the Stylophone Orchestra album did amazingly well, selling out of vinyl copies on Bandcamp. Our tracks were played a number of times on BBC Radio 6 Music. The orchestra performed some live shows in May and June, our first performances since 2019 when we first formed, and we also shot a music video (!) for 'Akoustiki'. I've received some fantastic responses to Blackstar Theory, including reviews published in The Wire and Uncut Magazine. Bigo & Twigetti released some new music that I made on my laptop while in Australia, one a re-work of a Jim Perkins track called 'In The Menagerie', the other a new composition called 'Little Beating Heart'. I've written a chapter for the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to David Bowie, and collaborated on an essay about analogue recording with the amazing Isabella van Elferen.

I wanted to post this update to let people know that all is well. New music is happening, a collaborative project with saxophonist Lara James that I'm really excited about. Also, a new book proposal is brewing. But first, a moment to catch my breath.