No silly, not a Guinness World Record. And it’s not my release.

But the Vanderhyde album Between Orange and Green LP is available now to stream or download, and represents an unusually full documentation of my work as a hired hand collaborator on someone else’s project: instrumentalist (violin, viola, mandolin), improviser, to some extent arranger (though watch this space for much more ambitious explorations of that field). There is some earthy fiddle on a couple of tracks which I think is Elliot himself (as well as his vocals, guitars, bass and drum programming), but if you’ve listened to much of my playing I don’t think you’ll have trouble working out my contributions on stylistic grounds alone.

It’s also an interesting example of the meeting point between live performance and loop-oriented creative music editing. I recorded most of my contributions in full song takes, but on early versions of the tracks. However, almost everything had at least a click track to it already, and so in several places the process of recording final core band parts also led to rearranging the sections, of my playing as well as the new lines. The interesting thing to me is how rarely I think anyone could tell in a blind test …

So go on, have a listen. Show Elliot some love if nothing else – the sort of musical figure only Oxford’s landscape could possibly produce and sustain; we ought to cherish him.