In 2018, BAFTA award-winning Scottish director Paul Wright took us on a strange fairy-tale-like folk horror trip using an electric and eclectic mash-up of 100 years of archive film footage. Arcadia looked at the past from the future, examining the rich and strange history of the British countryside.
Arcadia reminded us what happens when our connection to nature and each other frays and unravels. In the intervening years, that has been put to the test, and for many, our ties to folklore and the land are stronger, so the news of Arcadia Live should be welcome. By exploring and asking ourselves what we have gained and lost in the last century, perhaps we will discover something of what we’ll need to survive in the next.
The film is to get a series of live premieres alongside a specially curated, brand new 9-piece band featuring the soundtrack’s composers Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp), together with acclaimed folk singer Lisa Knapp and a line-up of exceptional musicians and singers. Lisa’s involvement is excellent news. Her own fascination with folk song and folklore runs deep, as she showed with her album Till April is Dead: A Garland of May, which featured “…songs that often have their roots in the pre-Christian rites that took place in the meadows, village greens and town squares across the country.”
Full Lineup:
Will Gregory – lead synth, Mellotron, Korg MS-20, soprano saxophone
Adrian Utley – electric & acoustic guitar, Moog, Mellotron, baritone guitar
Ross Hughes – Musical Director, Microkorg, Circuit, clarinet, flute, baby bass & drums
Lisa Knapp – lead vocals
Victoria Oruwari – vocals
Emma Smith – violin, whistle, guitar, vocals Francesca Simmons – violin, microkorg, Roland SPD, vocals
Zami Jalil – viola, Juno Alpha, Korg Microsampler, vocals
Ivan Hussey – cello, bass guitar, vocals
With Adrian and Will’s powerful score of folk, classical, electronic dance music and archive recordings, Arcadia Live goes on a sensory, visceral journey through contrasting seasons, exploring the beauty and brutality, magic and madness of our changing relationship to the land and each other.
The original soundtrack featured a revisiting of Anne Briggs Lowlands and Bonny Boy:
Watch an excerpt from the film below:
Scouring 100 years of film and TV footage from the BFI National Archive and regional archives, BAFTA-winning director Paul Wright constructs an exhilarating mosaic of contrasting images, sounds and moods. Arcadia takes in folk carnivals and masked parades, harvesting, communes and raves, mechanisation, environmental issues, fires, floods, storms and much more. Bucolic imagery is juxtaposed with stark deprivation; there are hints of psych-folk horror; pagan and orthodox ritual.
With thoughtfully selected speech excerpts and found sound, Will and Adrian’s powerful music makes this a captivating time capsule of an almost forgotten country, its inhabitants and traditions, yet it speaks to our very core.
The live premiere of Arcadia Live takes place at Green Man Festival on 20 August before touring the UK to Hull (3 Sep), Bristol (11 Nov), Sunderland (30 Nov), London (4 Mar) with more dates to be announced soon.
Arcadia Live Dates
Sat 20 August, 8pm – BRECON BEACONS Green Man Festival + pre-concert talk by Will Gregory and Adrian Utley
Sat 3 Sept, 9pm – HULL, Hull Truck (Freedom Festival in association with Hull Jazz Festival)
Fri 11 Nov, 8pm – BRISTOL St Georges promoted by Bristol Beacon
Wed 30 Nov, 7:30pm – SUNDERLAND The Fire Station + support TBC
Sat 4 Mar, 8pm – LONDON Barbican
More details here: https://www.sounduk.net/