Last Thursday we were supposed to be performing live at All Saints’ Church, Edmonton. I had been collaborating with poet Cheryl Moskowitz and electronic composer Alastair Gavin and cellist Kate Shortt and we were looking forward to the wonderful atmosphere of the beautiful church where I have been lucky enough to have been in the audience for previous AllSaintsSessions. However, times as we all know, have changed dramatically, but we decided to go ahead with a Facebook Live event. The brilliance of Alastair is to be acknowledged for bringing everything together in ways we could not have predicted, and some surprising additional layers. We were able to incorporate visuals thanks to Brooklyn film maker George Gavin on video design – at a very safe, but creative, social distance.
The process was a joy in very unsettling times – recording separately and leaving microphones behind plant pots to be safely received with their poetry and musical contributions spliced and diced and reconstituted into a collaboration that you can listen to on the All Saints site, www.allsaintssessions.uk or on their Facebook page.
We are all being pushed in new and challenging directions and sometimes it works. Hope you agree.
Lisa Kelly 