A great review of The Impending Storm

It's been a couple of weeks since I finished composing and performing in The Impending Storm and I'm just beginning to reflect on the last few months, which have been ridiculously busy and exciting. A series of posts will follow with reflections and news on upcoming projects, including a UK tour of my show, The Raun Tree, and a trip to Venice for the Venice Biennale with Folk in a Box in August.

First up, here is a brilliant 4 star review of The Impending Storm that featured in The Times a couple of weeks back. They describe the "excellent" music as "melancholic, sometimes ululating lullabies". Needless to say, I was very chuffed!

The Impending Storm

I'm in rehearsals for an incredible integrated dance piece called The impending Storm, with British artist/dancers Lucy Hind and David Toole, in collaboration with South African company Remix and directed by artist Mark Storor. The show is part of the Cultural Olympiad's Boundless fund and is produced by DanceXchange.

I'm the musical director on the project and I'm working with two fantastic musicians - percussionist Greg Felton, and South african singer Sandile Gontsana. We're exploring strange time signatures on vibraphones, mixed with traditional Xhosa singing and 50's electric guitar, all inspired by a classic Elvis song called Surrender. It's a bizarre yet beautiful mix of influences I think. 

The show premieres on May 1st and 2nd at the Hippodrome in Birmingham, as part of the international dance festival in. Tickets can be bought here.

 

Acclaimed dancer David Toole has collaborated with a team of UK and South African artists, both non-disabled and disabled, on this world premiere production for IDFB 2012, produced with the support of DanceXchange. The Impending Storm, created with artist Mark Storor, is personal, particular and political. Pushing the boundaries of integrated dance, the work is an explosive and emotional look at the stories we tell, and the stories that we are.
The dancers of Remix, South Africa’s only professional integrated dance company, will perform with UK-based David Toole and Lucy Hind. UK musician Dom Coyote, in collaboration with South African singer Sandile Gontsana, provides a passionate spoken text and sung score that effortlessly crosses geographic and cultural continents.
The Impending Storm was awarded one of the thirteen commissions in the second round of awards for Unlimited – the ground-breaking programme that celebrates arts and culture by disabled and deaf artists on an unprecedented scale for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. It is one of three commissions in this round created in collaboration with international partners and with funding contributed by the British Council. Unlimited is principally funded by the Olympic Lottery Distributer and is delivered in partnership between London 2012, Arts Council England, the Scottish Arts Council, Arts Council of Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the British Council. Remix is supported by Youngblood Arts Development and the project has recieved support from the Joyce Carr Doughty Charitable Trust.Remix is supported by Youngblood Arts Development.

A Tender Subject

I'm currently working  as composer/performer on an extraordinary project with Mark Storor and Art Angel. Here's some info and a link to the tickets. It's almost sold out, buy them now! TICKETS

"The thought of the act of crying. The terror of, and need to, attach a smile to someone.

These are the quiet and tender moments imagined by men whose lives are not seen to be their own.

A culmination of three years' work with gay prisoners and prison officers, Mark Storor’s a tender subject is a twilight world where questions about who we are as human beings, and why we react and judge the way we do, are posed in a promenade performance that explores the relationship between fragility and brutality, tenderness and violence.

Audiences visiting a tender subject will be transported from a central London location to a secret space where they will be escorted by prison officers along a guided route, encountering performance and installations that tell the stories and experiences of the project’s collaborators.

The men performing the roles of prisoners in the production are working with Artangel through a collaboration with Only Connect creative arts company."

The brand new Folk in a Box

For the last couple of years, I've been working on a project called Folk in a Box. It's a unique one-on-one music venue that can be put up anywhere. We recently received funding to make a brand new box. It was designed and delivered by David Knight and Cristina Monteiro and built by artisan carpenters  Aldworth James and Bond.


To celebrate the completion of the new box, we’ve made a promo video. It documents the first time our new box was assembled in a public space, which happened to coincide with the end of the school day in East London…

Folk in a Box: The Making of! from David Knight on Vimeo.

www.folkinabox.net

Goodbye 2011

Well, 2011 is almost done. And what a year it's been! I thought I'd better do a round up of the exciting projects I've been involved in over the year.  Also, I'm giving away a free song called Riverbed as a belated christmas present to you all. I hope you enjoy it. Here it is -



In January - I was commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) to begin development of my debut theatre show, The Raun Tree; a twisted fairytale, told through ten songs. It is a bridge between a play and a gig, a story told through words and music. I was lucky enough to get my fantastic live band involved, Emily Barker on Electric guitar and banjo, Nat Butler on drums and Adrian Acolatse on Double bass. I was on vocals electronics, electric guitar and autoharp. I also managed to nab the acclaimed theatre designer Michael Vale, to design and direct the piece. Here are a couple of pics.

In Feb, we released a single called The Rowing boat, another fantastical story, also based around the mysterious Raun Tree. This time, the tree was trapped inside an ancient book hidden in the oldest, most secret library in the world. A group of explorers travelled to a deserted old settlement where the mythical library was said to be. Here's  the song -




In March we got some exciting news. Did I tell you all about Folk in a Box? Well, it's a project I've been running for a couple of years with a group of fantastic musicians. It's a one on one music venue, a small wooden box where one musician sits and plays one song to one audience member at a time. It's great fun. Anyway, in March Folk in a Box received major funding to create a state of the art new box and tour it across the UK in 2012. Very, very exciting!

In april and May, I composed the music for an innovative new version of Romeo & Juliet, by Night Lght Theatre. The show was full of beautiful puppets and otherworldly magic - right up my street! Here's the trailer.

June saw the completion of The Raun Tree. West Yorksire Play House commissioned the team to go up to Leeds and make the show over three weeks as part of their alternative theatre festival, Transform. We had an incredible time, writing, rehearsing, composing and performing. Here are some pics and also a link to a live recording from the show.

                                                  Live recordings from The Raun Tree

In August, september and october, I was in Cape Town, South Africa, working on an amazing dance piece called Boundless, a cultural olympiad project set up by UK artists David Tool and Lucy Lane, collaborating with the South African integrated dance company, Remix. What a mind blowing time we had. I was the composer on the project and we found an incredible xhosa singer in Cape Town called Sandile with the most beautiful voice. The show comes to the Birmingham international dance festival at the beginning of May 2012 and will be choreographed by the phenomenal theatre maker/artist Mark Storor. Here are a few pics form our time in Cape Town. (Check out the post below for more photos)

So that leads us up to the last couple of months. I've been working away behind the scenes with producer David Hill of ArtReach on the next stage of The Raun Tree. We will be in residence as six different venues around the country throughout 2012, performing our show and giving workshops in writing and recording music. We have some very exciting partners, but I can't let the cat out of the bag yet, so you'll have to hold on for a couple of months.

Also, the new state of the art Folk in a box has just gone into production! It's been designed by architect/designers Cristina Monteiro and David Knight and is being built by artisan carpenters as we speak. There will be shows throughout 2012 and I'll keep you updated with pictures and dates as soon as they are ready. In the mean time, check out the Folk in a Box blog - http://folkinabox.wordpress.com/

Phew, so with all of that under our belts, it's time to look forward to 2012, where the Folk in a Box team will be touring the UK, I'll be taking The Raun Tree on tour and the South African/UK dance piece will be coming to Birmingham. Can't wait!

Happy New Year everybody!

Dom Coyote x

P.S, don't forget to download the free song, Riverbed!

Pictures from South Africa

I've been trying to put into words my time in Cape Town, working as composer on an exciting new project called Boundless. It's impossible. So much has happened, so many wonderful people, such an intricate and beautiful place, such a mammoth project! So I decided to steal some photographs from Emily Barker and Lucy Hind instead to show you some snapshots. 

Check out the boundless blog for an in depth look at our time here. 

A quick one from Cape Town

Hello from Cape Town! I'm working on an exciting new project called Boundless, with British artists, Lucy Hind and David Toole + others. We are collaborating with an incredible South African integrated dance company called Remix. I'm going to write a big post with pics and sounds and info very soon, but until then, check out the Boundless blog.

http://boundlessblog.posterous.com/