Larsksong Performance

Nick Jordan & Jacob Cartwright

Larksong: live music performance, expanded cinema projections, poetry reading and soundtrack album launch in Goodshaw Chapel.

The evening featured performances from musicians and artists David Chatton Barker, Mary Stark, Sam McLoughlin and Bridget Hayden, creating a live re-imaging of the music and visual projections they created for Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright’s BTB/English Heritage commissioned film Larksong. Utilising harmonium, recorders, spinning wheels, hand looms and foraged plants, many of the songs were inspired by manuscripts from the Larks of Dean, and feature lyrics from gravestone inscriptions found in the chapel’s burial grounds.

The evening also featurde poet Emily Oldfield, reading the poem she had specially composed for Larksong, ‘The Pew Watches, the Hand Sows’. Written from the perspective of a chapel pew, the poem weaves together social, industrial and ecological themes; ruminating upon the changing landscape, social mores and working practices that have been witnessed since the founding of the chapel in 1760.

This was also the launch event of the film’s soundtrack album, released by Folklore Tapes. Available on limited edition vinyl, with an accompanying booklet by Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jordan, the LP features music from the film, Emily Oldfield’s poetry reading, plus bonus songs and audio material.

The evening included a special screening of Larksong, plus an opportunity to see Cartwright and Jordan’s installation in the chapel, which featured botanical illustrations printed with wode.