Future Proof

It's not quite as bad as the days when companies were destroying assets to save themselves tape and space, but a certain short-termism still dogs the business.

Richard Mitchell, who composes music for film and TV, told me, "A dubbing mixer recently explained that the UK TV industry has dug itself a hole which the Americans anticipated many moons ago... most of the decent drama that we produce is still not mixed in 5.1. This probably means that in a year or two, major TV buyers will use this as an excuse to disregard most of our back catalogue!"

(5.1 being Dolby 5.1, the multichannel stereo sound configuration you'll find on most of your DVDs and computer games)

I've known Richard for some time. In the sleeve notes of his soundtrack album for The Bridge, he included the following quotation from Albert Camus:

"I know with certainty that a man's work is nothing but the long journey to recover, through the detours of art, the two or three simple and great images which first gained access to his heart."

See if that sticks with you, the way it's stuck with me.