I Get Reviews…

October 9, 2013 Mike Howe 15 Comments

For which I am very grateful to Michael Foster @ Ambientvisions.com for this latest review of my 4th album “Heading West”….

“….Mike’s latest album is called “Heading West” and was recently released on the Real Music label out of California. As you might suspect by the title this album chronicles Mike’s travels through the American west. Through some beautiful compositions Mike will leave you marveling at how well he has managed to capture what he experienced on this journey in his music.

Although Mike is a multi-instrumentalist and can do justice to a variety of instruments on his recordings he really shines when he picks up his guitar and begins to play his emotions into life. The music on Heading West is a peaceful journey and one that evokes the many landscapes that Mike must have encountered during his time in the west. With titles like Old Wooden House, Badlands, Prairie Dreams or I Can See For Miles you can understand some of what Mike was trying to translate into music as he wrote this album.

Oftentimes Mike’s music reminded me of another wonderful guitarist who has made a name for himself playing in the jazz field, Pat Metheny. There are times that Mike’s music on Heading West flirts with a soft jazz vibe but as you listen it simply becomes a part of the overall sonic canvas that he is painting for you and each new layer brings out more of the depth that he is trying to communicate to the listener”. Read more… http://www.ambientvisions.com/07182013.htm

Edge Of The Trees

October 8, 2013 Mike Howe 12 Comments

I wrote a piece of music about a dream, a bad dream, not a nightmare as such. Each instrument and rhythm is a metaphor for the different elements of the dream. It’s about standing in the light but on the edge of darkness. My heartbeat starts the music and continues throughout. The acoustic guitar is my calm inner voice, talking and comforting. Half way through the piece the electric guitar conveys a rising panic, doubt and fear, but all the while the acoustic guitar, the inner calm voice, keeps talking and assuring me that it will be ok, there’s nothing to fear….beyond the edge of the trees….

Today’s Walk

October 7, 2013 Mike Howe 5 Comments

Life, The Universe and Everything…

October 6, 2013 Mike Howe 8 Comments

Here’s a song and video about life on earth….dedicated to Carl Sagan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nUG28mYIqc

When is a field not just a field?

October 4, 2013 Mike Howe 4 Comments

It’s great when the work you do for somebody else turns out to be useful! Here’s a blog from The National Trust Bodnant Garden that I was privileged to work for earlier this summer.

Bodnant Garden Blog

The grass cutting season is coming to an end, to the delight of many! But grass is not all about creating the perfect turf – at Bodnant Garden we’ve been doing a bit more than striping the lawns this year.

We are developing a Grassland Management Plan to take care of all of our 80 acres, from the formal areas of the Italianate Terraces to the meadows of the Shrub Borders and even areas of rough grass in the car park. It’s part of our long term aim to protect the wildlife so dependent on grasslands and so under threat from their decline in recent years…and also to enable more visitors to enjoy them.

Environmental consultant Mike Howe has produced as report for us, looking at the garden’s grasslands and at ways to look after them.

Put simply, there are two types of grass at Bodnant Garden; the…

View original post 589 more words

Chill, chill, chill….

October 4, 2013 Mike Howe 8 Comments

Goodbye until next spring…

October 3, 2013 Mike Howe 11 Comments

The sea cliff flowers have all but gone for another year, but there will always be colour around us…

Back In The Mountains

September 29, 2013 Mike Howe 21 Comments

This week I have been back in the mountains of the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales working, although it didn’t feel like work, on an upland farm. I was there to help advise on management and to survey the magnificent heathland that has developed on the mountain in the last 30 years.

There are some rare and unique plant communities growing up there now because the traditional farming practice of burning and grazing by sheep has been absent for all that time.

On the valley floor is the beautiful lake (Llyn Dinas)….