Into the workshop-hunting for sound in the workshops of Nikosia with Evis Sammoutis. Here, a very friendly carpenter (still from film) 1 12 14

A word of explanation: I have just spent five days back in one of my favourite places for musical adventure, Cyprus. I have been the guest of the European University in Cyprus, and the Pharos Trust. My work with this extraordinary organisation, founded by the visionary Garo Keheyan, is core to my process as a musician. In recent years, I have had the chance to give many concerts, ranging from premieres to the complete cycle of Bach Sonatas and Partitas, in his wonderful ‘Shoe Factory’, which is an architectural marvel in the oldest district of Nikosia, both art gallery, perfect chamber concert venue, and home. So each time I come, I can stay in the wonderful roof top guest room, a glass marvel, over looked by spectacular palms, and with the roofs of both sides of this divided city below me. I am woken each morning by the muezzin of the nearest mosque, and on Sunday morning, the singing from the nearby orthodox church drifts into my eyrie at 8am.

Roadblock graffiti; fossilised Nikosia 4 12 14

Markmaking. Nikosia 4 12 14

The search for the perfect language; inspired by days exploring and improvising with Evis Sammoutis in the streets and workshops of Nikosia.

Runes found their way everywhere, and of course, the nordic runes are linked to the Veneto Runic and Phoenician scripts. In both Greek and the Futhork, which both have an ‘oxturning’ tendency, this is the letter ‘L’/Lambda

A curiously runic character on the walls of a tiny mosque, once a chapel, entirely constructed of reused Greek, Roman, and Lusignan capitals, gutters, and pediments, and a wall nearby.

Green Line Palimpsest

And this reused Roman doorway, identical to one Malene Sheppard Skaerved and I found reused in a 17th century brick farmhouse in Kent, this summer.

reused Roman doorway

And all around the sound of conversation, of traffic, of tools, hammering, sawing, scraping, and cars, and birds, and the wind in the trees. The starting point for Evis’ ‘Nikosia Concerto’-I have outed the working title

Hill violin in a carpenter’s wood store. Old Town, Nikosia 4 12 14

Working at the Shoe Factory 4 12 14

Composer Evis Sammoutis and Garo Keheyan, true friend to the arts and philiosophy, in conversation

Lecture recital (Adventures in Curated Space) European University, Cyprus 3 12 14

Perfect lunch at the Olive Grove, with Garo Keheyan

Ancient Olive, and the view west 3 12 14

Garo’s River Bed

Ancient Olive

A place for Bach

The last pomegranates

Mandarins

memories of Amathus: in littora (Limassol) 31 11 14

Another workshop. Coffin Maker (moulds on the left) 1 12 14

Philip Glass (Strung Out)-the gallery piece par excellence with early pottery 30 1114

Heaven for a classicist. 30 11 14

Lars Bagger on the Stand, Cyprus Archaeological Museum 30 11 14

Lars Bagger-‘Anton is Sleeping’ Recording Outtake Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin (Stradivari 1698)

Garo Keheyan’s beautiful Shoe Factory, Nikosia. I painted this the last time that I was here, and it has found a great counterpoint…29 11 14

Nikosia Night 29-30th November 2014

Hard at work in the Cyprus Archaeological Museum. 30 11 14

Composer Evis Sammoutis in the sea at Limmasol 30 11 14