Being a musician isn’t usually too physically demanding (except on the liver), but today I am racked with pain in the back and hand after several days of writing orchestral arrangements and copying parts for Ed Harcourt’s next album. Aside from that, I just love arranging. There’s unprecedented freedom and opportunity to shape every aspect of a song. On this occasion there are so many hidden musical gems in the bass, piano and trumpet parts that a lot of my job has been picking out all my favourite bits and orchestrating them into the forefront. It feels like grown-up colouring-in. We also did more recording at the wilfully retro Toerag Studios; one of the tracks I played on, “Visit From A Dead Dog” also featured amazing guitar from Graham Coxon.

The last two weeks have seen a couple of projects get tied up after long waits – James Wolfe and Cinema Strange/Sexgang (see below). Also I played a couple of gigs at the Edinburgh Festival with Petra-Jean Phillipson. It’s a great setup in that band; the other guitar player is Simon Tong (ex-The Verve). He takes care of all the chords & parts, leaving me free to add laptop textures, pump organ, percussion and backing vocals to my heart’s content. The atmosphere in the band onstage is the calmest I’ve ever encountered; much of that emanates from Petra and it makes for an even more intense musical experience, much more pure than those gigs where you’re worrying about screwing up/those people in the front row/whether it’s coming across…

I am typing this inside a wardrobe in a Majorca hotel. It’s been quite a fortnight. First, thanks to everyone who came to the gig in Hackney on Tuesday and made it such a great night - friends old and new, and welcome strangers. It was the last of a trio of gigs that represented the wonderful variety of life as a musician. Sunday - playing in front of 10,000 people at a stately home with a pop star. Monday - in front of 10 people above a café, supporting a man playing an electric cheese-grater.

After those it was straight off to the countryside to start work on Ed Harcourt’s next album. It was a gloriously makeshift setup in his parents’ house; cue endless rounds of boules on the lawn with Hadrian, recording one-take wonders crammed into a tiny space between piled-up chairs and books, and anxiety over the wisdom of recording trumpet and bell at 3am in the hallway. Needless to say Ed has come up with a stunning selection of songs once again.

Then off again to Belfast to score a film with David Holmes - a very dark psycho-drama about a suicide-bomber. It manages to avoid anything resembling a cliché or an obvious conclusion, and it was an interesting challenge to reflect this pervading ambiguity in the music. We also worked a bit on David’s upcoming album.

Next, to Majorca for a gig with Peter Schwalm. It was a beautiful setting, in the open air in a courtyard by the museum, looking out over the harbour. On bass was Tim Harries, one of my biggest inspirations. Just like the old days in Eno’s band, his playing was so shockingly wonderful that I just wanted to stop what I was doing and listen! His band is called Spin Marvel. They’re pretty deep.