West End Shore (Reprise)

A version of this (composition-as-output) work from 2020 was re-worked in 2022 (by Sam Gee as co-author) and included on the mid-length album Magu Hiraeth (released in 2023).

Sleeve Note
West End Shore is a pebbled beach that sits beneath the quarry-carved most northerly peak in the mountain group Yr Eifl. It's a beach rarely visited except by those in the nearby village of Trefor, and yet it is a place where glorious sunsets over the water to Ynys Môn are common, as are sightings of dolphins and seals. And when the evening light is right, distant across the Irish sea, the Wicklow mountains haunt the horizon. It can be a peaceful place - the mood captured, I hope, in this piece - but also a wild one when the storms lash in off the sea and where, on occasion, we have quite literally been blown off our feet.    
The original version of this track opens this EP, and here at its close is the wonderful reworking of it by Sam Gee (who also plays sax on both versions as well as being the sound engineer for everything). Sam adds so much to all the musicking I do - from my musical lumps of clay he fashions works of great beauty, giving the very best of his own performance (listen to his sax solos on both versions of this piece for example) and bringing out the best in all the other performers. Here, in this closings to the EP, we also benefit from his arrangement skills and re-imagining of my original musings.