12.00 am: At this juncture, the desire to be reckless kicked in. There was nothing to lose. I conceived and executed ideas at a whim. Some withered immediately, while others found traction. The sounds that I generated were engaging enough, but had, presently, no significance in relation to the text. (And, I cannot abide arbitrary connections between form and content.) At 1.00 am, I hit a wall. Tiredness and the desire for bed asserted themselves. Eating and drinking, little and often, helped. But I had to keep busy. To sit in a comfy chair was out of the question. (Too tempting.) The darkness of the room, the glare from the computer screens, and the flickering lights on the equipment were soporific: a self-designed, self-imposed, torture. Periodically, I lay flat on the floor in order to recalibrate my spine after having stood upright for so long. The cold and hard surface was not conducive to sleep.

2.00 am: I was plagued by static discharges of the record player decks due, in part, to the devices having been switched on for so long and the dryness of the air in the room. (I’d had the same experience in Colorado Springs.)

I’ll not need to conduct another sound induction marathon of this type again. All that can be known about myself in relation this way of working is known, now.

Once I’d reached 4.30 am, a new energy arose. (I rallied.) I was now far more clear regarding what I didn’t want and need to do in relation to this project. The resolution would be found not in the operation of the peripherals (effectors and modulators, etc.) but, rather, in the acoustic character of the recording and medium (as was the case with the Evan Roberts’ wax cylinder). In this respect, I’d received a confirmation rather than a revelation. However, the peripherals would serve to focus and enhance the artefact’s acoustic properties. 5.00 am: Dawn turned the sky above the atrium an indanthrene blue. The light enlivened. A new day:

7.00 am: A freshen up.

7.20 am: I generated a set of rather compulsive ‘drum beat’ passages from the click and scratches at the tail end of the two ‘Revelation’ records. These really did need to be recorded.

I had to wait until 10.00 am to have a cooked breakfast. (‘How long, O Lord’!) Bacon, sausage, and eggs had never tasted so good. The most significant breakthrough of the event came just one hour before the sound system was due to be dismantled and returned to the studio. (Isn’t that always the way.) Suffice to say, it opened the possibility of a performative dimension to the project that I’d not anticipated. This was genuinely exciting.

After lunch, back at home, I slept for three hours. In principle, I respond to disruptions to my normal routine in the same manner as to jet-lag after a long-haul flight. The trick is to get back into a normal pattern for work and rest immediately.

7.00 pm: An evening of diary updates, postings, and preparations for tomorrow’s duties.