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| NEWS (the Intro is at the end, for a change)
August 14, 2008 MORGAN'S ORGAN NOW ON SALE * Each Morgan's Organ album is on sale at a budget price and features one of Morgan's Light Paintings on the cover * Excerpts up to about 10 minutes long may be heard at the Morgan's Organ myspace website * Tracks under 10 minutes long may be purchased individually * On Amazon.com, search under "MP3 Downloads" for "Morgan's Organ" * On iTunes, search for "Morgan's Organ" (better than "Morgan Fisher") * Due to occasional technical problems, some material may be edited, so album lengths vary. Never mind the width, feel the quality... * Medama means "eyeball" MINIATURES/HYBRID KIDS REISSUED More information here: http://cherryred.co.uk:80/cherryred/artists/morganfisher.htm http://cherryred.co.uk:80/cherryred/artists/hybridkids.htm May 18, 2008 Morgan has just opened a Guest Book where you may say hello, leave messages, ask questions, etc, etc... Looking forward to hearing from you! It's over at the Contents page. March 17, 2008 The new Morgan's Organ myspace website is now open. It features several long excerpts from the live recordings, and a continuous slide show of live photos. More material will be uploaded in the future; any comments will be much appreciated! November 27, 2007 Miniatures 1 is now available for download purchase. Please see the Miniatures page. Three fascinating new releases include Morgan as arranger/singer, photographer, and interviewer: The Delta Saxophone Quartet album mentioned last June, entitled "Dedicated to you, but you weren't listening" has been released on Moonjune Records. It is receiving rave reviews everywhere. More information here: http://www.moonjune.com/MJR017.htm (includes audio samples - the track Morgan arranged and sang on is #7) http://www.musicontheedge.com/delta.html "Abbotts Langley" is a new CD of previously unreleased songs by Ollie Halsall (RIP) and John Halsey - the incredible guitarist and drummer from Patto and The Rutles (Ollie also played with Tempest and Kevin Ayers). Several photographs taken by Morgan when he was playing with them in the late 70's are featured (including the front cover). More information here: http://www.olliehalsall.co.uk/abbots.htm http://www.marketsquarerecords.co.uk/store/pages/html/olliehalsall2.htm A new 2-CD reissue is now available of the fascinating album "An Evening With Quentin Crisp." Additional material includes a long interview Morgan had with Quentin Crisp in his Chelsea apartment in 1980 while recording him for the "Miniatures" album. Several photographs taken by Morgan of the inimitable and much-missed Mr. Crisp are included. More information here: http://www.cherryred.co.uk/cherryred/artists/quentincrisp.php (may also be purchased here as downloads) http://www.crisperanto.org/news/AnEveningWithQC2007.html July 11, 2007 LIGHT PAINTING / SOUND PAINTING is the title of Morgan's photo exhibition to be held at the Cool Train gallery/jazz club in Tokyo's Nogizaka district, from August 1 to 12. He will perform there on August 4. Please see the Live Information page for details. The interview Morgan filmed for monday9am.tv (see November 20, 2006 below) can now be downloaded for free from www.monday9amtv.com Dozens of other fascinating and inspiring film interviews are also available there in wmv and ipod formats. June 26, 2007 Morgan has been invited to arrange a Soft Machine track for the Delta Saxophone Quartet, England's leading contemporary saxophone quartet. He finally decided to merge two classic tracks from Soft Machine's "Third" album, singing "Moon in June" on top of "Out-Bloody-Rageous," titling the resulting collage "Outrageous Moon," and dedicating it to his old friend, Keith Moon, drummer of The Who. Morgan's voice sounds uncannily similar to that of Soft Machine's singer/drummer, Robert Wyatt. The album will be released in October 2007 on Moonjune Records. More information here: http://www.musicontheedge.com/delta.html January 25, 2007 ONLINE ALBUM SALES. Over 20 of Morgan’s albums listed in the Discography now have direct links to Amazon web pages in the USA, UK, and Canada, making it easy to purchase them. All of his albums currently available from Cherry Red Records also have links to their downloads website, where you can listen to excerpts and purchase mp3 downloads of an entire album or individual tracks. For non-Japanese residents living in Japan, some albums have links to Amazon.co.jp (pages are partially in English), which can often be a cheaper and faster option for purchasing albums. Please go to the Discography page, then click on individual albums for more details. January 11, 2007 LIGHT PAINTING EXHIBITION. From January 12 to 31, there will be an exhibition of Morgan's Light Paintings at Superdeluxe, Nishi-Azabu. Please see the Live Information page for more details. Please also visit the Light Painting section of the Art Gallery, which has been updated and expanded to coincide with this exhibition. November 29, 2006 Morgan recently had the honour of composing and performing the music for a new film A Zen Life directed by Canadian Michael Goldberg. This fascinating 77-minute documentary covers the life of Zen scholar Daisetz T Suzuki (1870-1966), who played a leading role in bringing Zen Buddhism to the western world. The film includes interviews with a variety of renowned people whose lives were deeply affected by their contact with Suzuki, including John Cage, Gary Snyder, Donald Richie, Huston Smith, as well as Suzuki's personal secretary, Mihoko Okamura. Rare footage and recordings of D. T. Suzuki himself - the man who insisted the question is not “to be or not to be” but rather “to be and not to be” - are featured. Evidence of his influence on Carl Jung, Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, Eric Fromm, and many others is also included. A Zen Life has already received accolades at numerous international film festivals, and won the Chris Award for the best film on religion at the 2006 Columbus International Film and Video Festival. A DVD version of the film is planned. Today it had a packed-house Japan premiere at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. It will be screened at the 34th Morgan's Organ concert on December 13th, 2006 (see the Live Information page for details). November 20, 2006 Morgan is the featured interviewee in the Film Of The Week on a fascinating website called monday9am.tv. Englishman Nic Askew, who created the website, describes it like this: We make short films that provoke you to think about what it is that makes you feel truly alive. A new film every Monday - all you need is around 5 minutes each week. The films star a catalogue of extraordinary people who are following their path in some way. But the films are more about you & me than they are about them. They ask questions of you. Questions we don't set out to answer, as often they are the ones that only you should answer for yourself. monday9am ... because Monday at 9am is the time at which most of us question what it is that we're doing, and then proceed to completely forget (or is it ignore) the question. Morgan expresses some of the realisations he had after working with major rock stars - then tells the story of something remarkable that happened to him on a train to Kyoto. The film runs until November 27 (Monday morning, of course) after which it should be available in the Archives section. Morgan is a regular monday9am.tv viewer, and recommends it highly. September 26, 2006 The Minus 5 are a band formed by Scott McCaughey with Peter Buck (guitarist of REM) and Bill Rieflin (drummer of REM). They appeared on "Miniatures 2" (released in 2000), and subsequently Morgan played on several of their album tracks. Morgan will play live with them for the first time, at FAB in Omotesando, Tokyo, on October 7th and 8th. Famed British singer/songwriter Robyn Hitchcock will also appear. Please see the Live Information page for more details. Morgan recently made his acting debut - a small but significant part as a German classical pianist named Liechtenstein in a beautiful Japanese feature film entitled "Shindo" ("Child Prodigy"), produced by Picnic Pictures / Bitters End and directed by Koji Hagiuda. Release will be in spring 2007. There is some brief information here. "Overflow" (tracks on the theme of hot springs, electronica/ambient plus traditional Japanese folk) The Links Page has had a major update. July 31, 2006 November 27, 2005 April 30, 2005 Three new CD's featuring Morgan are now available - two of them re-issues, one a brand new collaboration. First, the re-issues: "Nova Solis", the first album recorded by the Morgan band in Rome in 1972, has been gorgeously repackaged in a gatefold cover replicating the original LP sleeve, with extensive sleeve notes in English, Japanese and Italian! This is part of the "Legends of British Rock" series from the Japanese label, Air Mail Recordings. (The same label have also just re-issued "Igginbottom's Wrench", the 1969 debut album by jazz guitar hero Allan Holdsworth, which was co-produced by Morgan.) The other re-issue is a two-for-the-price-of-one CD of the last album Morgan recorded before moving to Japan, the John Leckie production "Seasons" (1983), plus the first album he recorded in Japan, "Look At Life" (1984). It's available from Voiceprint Records, UK. See the Discography page for more details on these two re-issues. The collaboration project is "Tenma", by Japanese jazz drummer Osami Mizuno. This CD is dedicated to Miles Davis superdrummer Tony Williams, who tragically passed away in 1997. Osami studied at Berklee with the same drum teacher as Tony, and was a close friend of his for many years. This excellent blend of jazz and world music features Morgan as player, remixer and arranger and is highly recommended as an opportunity to see him working in yet another new area of music. For information on this release (in Japanese) please click on this link. June 16, 2003 After a long gap, (3 years since "Miniatures 2"), Morgan has just released a new recording. "Three Faces" is a 7" vinyl single, his first in over 20 years. Please see the discography for more information. Yes, it's a modest release, but its three tracks point to some interesting new directions for Morgan's album releases in the near future. Morgan's home studio has just been updated with a new superfast Macintosh G4 and some other high-tech toys, and as soon as everything is running smoothly he will be working on a large backlog of musical ideas - watch for news. The Futon Logic concerts in the UK went really well - they wowed the audiences with their brilliant blend of traditional and modern music and visuals. After living in Japan for 19 years, Morgan has got used to the richness of Japanese culture and was quite amazed at the impact it had on the English listeners. The band are now working on organising more shows in Europe, as well as a DVD release. April 15, 2003 Futon Logic, the music/visual art unit of which Morgan has been a part since last summer, are going international - they have been invited to play at London's Institute of Contemporary Art in May. For more information on this fascinating creative combo, please go to the new Futon Logic section. For details on their live performances please look in at the Live Information page. On the same page you'll find details re Morgan's live events, as well as links to numerous photographs of previous performances, which include Morgan's recent collaborations with Jane Siberry and the OK String Quartet. January 1st, 2003 At last, a major update. More updates will follow at shorter intervals. Also watch for announcements of Morgan's concerts in the future. The Art Gallery is open, with three sections showing different aspects of Morgan's visual works. The Discography has been greatly expanded. Thumbnail images of each of Morgan's solo albums can be clicked on to lead to an individual page for each album, featuring larger cover images, track lists, details of musicians, descriptive text and in some cases, reviews. (If you see any other reviews online it would be great if you could email Morgan about them). The Complete Discography has been renamed Bands and Collaborations, and lists all the albums other than solo albums that Morgan has made. The Biography page has been brought up to date, and includes several photographs of Morgan from the age of 3 months old to the present. The Links page has been updated, its layout simplified, and includes links to web pages where several of Morgan's albums may be listened to online (music samples will be uploaded to this website later). Enjoy!
Finally, I would like to thank my good friend, Mac expert, photographer and glider pilot Tim Exley for invaluable advice in the creation and upkeep of this website. INTRO • • • |
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