UPSWING - SEASONS
Upswing is a leading contemporary circus company, whose productions and creative engagement programmes use circus to unite people from different backgrounds, uncover the extraordinary potential in humans and explore the ideas and stories that can connect us as communities.
The Seasons project is a multi-platform piece of work, spanning live performance, film and immersive soundscapes requiring ten music compositions. The pieces had to vary in style to represent the changing of seasons and landscapes but also be cohesive, working together on a holistic level.
Seasons was broken down into three main elements
Live 25 minute performance
3 films
3 Musical soundscapes with spoken word and sound design
Musically the idea was to use instruments to represent specific elements, for example the earth or solid ground was made up of bass guitars, cellos and low synths whereas the wind and rain are represented by shakers, other high percussion and fizzy synths. The mid-range instruments like keys, vocals and guitars were used to add melody.
“Steven was a fantastic collaborator flexible, creative and responsive. Seasons was a complex project with lots of layered elements but from the first conversation with Steven I knew he perhaps better than me had a vision for how the audio world could connect the live and digital pieces, creating a rich and holistic experience for the audience.” Vicki Amedume - Creative director of Upswing and the Seasons project.
The film content for the project has been nominated for “Best Short” at the International Circus Film Festival.
Find out more at www.upswing.org.uk