Throw Them Up and Let Them Sing

Its getting very busy now and I have not kept up to date on the blog.  I left Cumbria in tears mainly because the dog insisted on sitting in the car while I packed it.  She wanted to come too. Though when I said “stay” to her she got the message and went off to chew a bone.  It made me cry a lot as I left - then I realised later that it was the week before Easter and my former partner Nick Houghton died then.  I always over react to any loss at that time of year.  I do really miss the dog though.  And the village - and the rather eccentric local pub which seems to operate as an animal shelter as well (see above). It was amazing watching the landscape come alive again after the snow.  The buds growing, and the lambs (who really do have some inner vertical propulsion mechanism).  I saw a woodpecker on the bird table on my last day and a buzzard being attacked by crows above the house. And lots of baby rabbits.  Like at the Merzbarn.

I came back to London to film Sylvia Hallett do the music for the Norway section of the film. The Hurtigruten boat trip (bowed bicycle wheel - a recurring Schwitters image) and the Djupvasshytte mountain sequence (hardanger fiddle).  Sylvia herself works in Norway a great deal as both a musician and composer.  She’s doing something with a choir in Trondheim at the moment.  I find her so easy to work with.  A couple of years ago we made a little film together for Matt’s Gallery and Anne Bean’s show TAPS - Improvisations with Paul Burwell. I knew she was the perfect choice for this project.

Then I got the wonderfully bonkers Adam Bohman in to do some sounds/music for the interior of the Schwyttershytte (the Merzbarn in Norway where I filmed last summer)).  Lots of little scratchy noises made on found objects with contact mics attached.  Dave Hunt did a fantastic job of the sound recording.  He’s mastering the sound on the final thing as well.  

But I’ve been massively distracted with lots of admin stuff - press releases, listings for the concert, booking train tickets, planning the installation, etc, etc, etc.