Flit: Martin Green
(Thursday) October 27, 2016 - 20:00
Barbican Centre - Barbican Centre, Silk Street (Map)
43 people attended
5.0/5 (1)
DESCRIPTION
At a time when migration is constantly on our screens and on our minds, Martin Green, experimental accordionist and electronic musician from contemporary folk group Lau, reveals the human side to the story in a performance combining atmospheric music and breath-taking stop-motion animation.
Inspired by first-hand stories of human movement across the world – Green along with Becky Unthank (The Unthanks), Dominic Aitchison (Mogwai), Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Adam Holmes craft dark, atmospheric songs, setting Becky’s ethereal vocals against a backdrop of enveloping electronics and guitars. As they play, animated figures created by BAFTA award-winners whiterobot (Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson) weave in and around them, evoking the stories that inspired the project.
Researching at length, Green started the project speaking to those closest to him, gathering stories from friends and family. Approaching songwriters Karine Polwart, Anais Mitchell, Sandy Wright and Aidan Moffat (Arab Strap) to turn these first-hand accounts into lyrics, he manages to capture in Flit the real breadth of people’s experience of migration - some stories are heart-warming, life-affirming tales, others are tragic and heart-breaking, but all have a common humanity at their core.
Flit the album will be released on Reveal Records on 7 October.
Please note: this performance contains strobe effects
