We are so excited to announce a new addition to our Come On In: Life Journeys project. Adam Walters is our new composer attached to the Loughborough Farm site. Adam will be composing new music for Anthony Joseph’s poem based on, as he says “small corner of the natural environment” in the midst of Loughborough Junction.
Adam said that the Come On In project appealed to him because of its celebration of community spaces, and creatively the project encourages us to find artistic expression and universal truths in what we might consider the “everyday”.
Adam is a versatile composer who has written music for concert performance, for dance and for film.
“The thing that defines me I suppose is that idea of having really absorbed non-native cultures to me in the Carribean, particularly music for the steelpan and the musical traditions of the Spiritual Baptist faith… fusing these influences with my background in Western classical music is my thing.”
It was such a pleasure to talk to Adam about his process and how his background and skill of finding contrast and harmony across genres will be applied to this space. During his visit to the space, Adam took several sound recordings to capture the soundscape of the farm. The urban peace of the garden, with intermittent trains passing by, particularly resonated with Adam and he has tried to capture some of this atmosphere in his music. We spoke about the notion of “moving on” expressed in Anthony’s poems and how the changing states of compost can be viewed as a metaphor for this. The music is scored for a single percussionist, focusing on xylophone and steelpan in a direct reference to the wooden and metal objects found at the farm. Adam has also incorporated body percussion to represent the trains that pass nearby.
Talking with Adam was incredibly inspiring and we can’t wait to share with you his and Anthony’s work soon!
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What we (have been/will continue to go back to) be watching: Small Axe, Steve McQueen’s beautiful and long awaited series of films on BBC iPlayer and on BBC One on Sunday nights. Each film focuses on a different story within recent Black British history. It’s moving, delicate storytelling and incredible cinematography certainly will have us rewatching.
What we’ve been reading: Jacaranda Books, an award winning independent publisher have launched their #Twentyin2020 publishing programme. Twenty titles by 20 Black Britons were published by Jacaranda Books in just one year. Covering adult fiction, nonfiction and poetry, the series aims to normalise the presence of diverse literature and to embed the voices of emerging Black authors as valued members of British culture and society. You’ll definitely find something on this list that’s up your street, and then we recommend you work your way through all the others too!
What we’ve been listening too: It was with sadness that we learnt from our friends in Puentes Caribeños of the recent passing of Haitian flautist and composer Julio Racine at the age of 75 in October this year. Click here for one of our favourite pieces.
Read more from our Artistic Director Dominique about our upcoming programmes in Rye!
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THIS WEDNESDAY! Join the London Sea Shanty Collective, Hackney Voices and other singers to raise money for Medecins Sans Frontieres' life-saving work ..
StrongBack Productions is thrilled to have been awarded a grant from a private Estate Fund in support of their SongMaps Rye Programme.
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