Five Telegrams

August 9, 2018 3:10 AM

The most recent episode of BBC World Service's series In The Studio [iPlayer link, 27m] (half-hour profiles of artists of various flavors) featured Anna Meredith and Richard Slaney who created a musical and visual performance piece for the BBC Proms for the centenary of the First World War. It's worth a listen (details under the fold)

Meredith was composing music based on the text of WWI British postcards pre-printed with several quick messages. The soldier would pick one and cross out the others, write an address on it, and in just a short minute could send a guaranteed censor-approved message home. Richard Slaney is a digital animator whose contribution to the project was to design large scale projections that would be using the Royal Albert Hall itself as its projection canvas. The projections were synched with outdoor-broadcast music being played live inside the Hall, with audiences both inside and out.

posted by hippybear (3 comments total)

(Yes, I buried the lede, but not really. I really do suggesting listening to the radio episode before watching the video. The added before-hand context, I felt, gave watching greater depth and texture.)
posted by hippybear at 3:10 AM on August 9, 2018

Anna Meredith, along with Hannah Peel (aka 'Mary Casio') and - in a more pop vein, Jane Weaver and Gwenno, among others, are making this a great time to be enjoying music made by women in the UK.
posted by pipeski at 4:23 AM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

Anna Meredith's band is fantastic live - loud, stomping renditions of tracks from Varmints usually topped off with a novelty cover singalong (previous encores have included 500 Miles and Enter Sandman), the band clad in silver lame (Anna herself has a silver cape) - highly recommended.
posted by Grangousier at 5:14 AM on August 9, 2018 [1 favorite]