sadness

It's hard sometimes to put a sense of loss into words, I think the Scotsman's obituary writer says it best:

"Scotland's musical landscape is a sadder, less colourful and vastly poorer place following the death on Sunday night of Martyn Bennett"

It's rare to stumble into something genuinely original, but that's exactly what happened the night my friend Justin animatedly popped a tatty copied D90 cassette into my car stereo as he, Lara and I drove up the coast from Aberdeen to look for the Northern Lights. "You've got to hear this" are words I'm used to hearing from Justin, but that and the background engine noise of my old Panda were all that sounded familiar for the next hour or so.

It's possible that the magical atmosphere of that evening has coloured my feelings toward Bennett's music ever since - it was quite a night all round, though the three of us never did see the Aurora - I think though that I could have encountered that music any where or when and still have been moved in the same way... Something about that unexpected fusion of sounds and textures captures Scotland perfectly for me and over the years its become indellibly linked with my sense of this land as home.

Sad that such a powerfully original voice is silenced so young.

:(