A Year in Music – 2023 – John Lambert (Chequerboard)
by Killian Laher

How are you? How are things?

Good thanks. Quite tired at the moment by default as I’m 8 months into raising son number two (Rua) with my wife Katie so we’re deep down in the parenting tunnel presently.

Do you think it’s been a good year for music? What were your highlights?

Oh gosh, I’m not sure to be honest. I find it very hard to get a gauge of whether it’s broadly speaking been a good year. Personally, I’ve been enjoying Ron Geesins’ back catalogue and re-issues from Hiroshi Yoshimura. I also discovered Teebs and Innesti this year.

There’s also been a lot of kids’ music infiltrating my algorithms so Teebs might be followed by Blippi singing about tractors. (Not a bad song actually.)

Music seems to be on an endless cycle of comebacks – with goth making something of a resurgence this year.  What do you think about that?

I wasn’t actually aware of that but it does seem like we’re going through a phase of recycling the past. I suppose It’s always happened but to me, it feels like music has become so commodified that it’s harder than ever to take risks and break through with something new.

Music will always surprise us though I think as by its nature it’s a reflection of the world we live in so will always be striving forward and changing in subtle ways.

Anyone you’d like to see reform/return?

It would have to be Boards of Canada.  I’d really love to immerse myself in a new opus from them.

How is the album going?  Anything you can tell us about it?

Yes, after some delays I finally have a release date for Souvenir which is March 8th 2024.

I’ll be launching a pre-order vinyl campaign on 5th January.

I’ll be doing a launch gig in the Pepper Canister too on Saturday, March 9th.