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Teasers and Talks

The first edit of the full soundwalk which is happening in York on the 27th and 30th of October is done, and I thought I’d try and tempt a bit more interest. So for your delectation (listen through headphones, and click through to the HD version for the best sound) the Nightwalk, York teaser trail:

Available on the Youtubes here.

The writing was (as usual) pretty hard until I clicked with a main through-line, something which is hard to find until you actually get writing (I find). So I kicked myself off by writing five stories about different kinds of dark and light; A story about mistaking planes for stars, a story about sitting on a bench under a tree in the streetlight with a stranger, a story of a power cut and light and dark from your childhood, a story about bonfires, and a story about walking at night and being able to breathe better. Then I set out finding out what connected them all. I think this has more clearly become the idea of reclaiming our dark cities – something which I’ve thought about a bit since Reclaim the Night, and the Vampires pervasive game that I played last year. So after testing for timing etc., I shall also tighten the connection up with some additional pieces of writing.

Working with Genuine Musicians this time has been a mix of total awesome and middling daunting. It was so good to have something entirely new and bespoke, but at the same time it’s so beautiful in places that I struggled to believe that I could do it justice. Hopefully I have. How will you find out? By adding yourself or inviting a nearby friend to the facebook event, and checking the website for more info. That’s how.

Finally, in upcoming shenanigans, I shall be speaking at a Pecha Kucha in Coventry this Tuesday on Theatre and the Age of the First Person (which I’m beginning to think should be called the Renaissance of the First Person). You can buy tickets and see who else is speaking here. I’m particularly intrigued by ‘safe sex with robots’. Good title.

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York Wanderings

And Lo. I returneth from York. Where I ate my first pasty*, and walked around the Minster embarrassing Simon of Lantern Music by talking loudly into a microphone. The music for Nightwalk York is almost complete, so we took it up to York to test out a couple of possible routes, get a feel for the place, and capture enough that I can carry on the writing process from home. The music is absolutely beautiful, and I’ve got a little taster here for you, complete with some of the images I took whilst wandering around the routes. See if you can spot Simon looking not at all embarrased *stares at the sky*.

Do listen/watch in HD – the sound quality is much better.

To find out more, and to attend #NightwalkYork, follow the hashtag, visit the site at http://nightwalkyork.tumblr.com and join/invite people to the facebook event.

Writing continues, and is somewhere, I think, between a love letter to late Autumn, and a revision of the bad press that darkness gets… I have a feeling the piece will start with a match strike. Fun recording session that I think will involve fireworks to come too. Stay tuned, and do share the piece if you know anyone up North who might be interested.

*cheese and onion, since you ask, and yes I chose an odd place to do so.