On Sunday 12 August 2018, Festival favorites SANSARA performed at the unveiling of a new tombstone for the poet and mystic William Blake at Bunhill Fields in central London. They performed a stunning piece by the Australian composer Chris Williams which sets the following text:
I give you the end of a golden string;
Only wind it into a ball,
It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate,
Built in Jerusalem’s wall.
– from Jerusalem, Plate 77 (1815)
Two years later and they have returned to this beautiful music, with its overlapping textures and hypnotic phrases, and joined forces with videographer Alex McEwen to produce an interactive digital performance.
Using audio recorded by their singers during lockdown, they have made four separate audio tracks, each with their own accompanying video. SANSARA invite you to create your own rendition of the piece by combining these four layers and exploring the possibilities of their infinite variation.
Listen to the Demo video below, then try it for yourself on the SANSARA website.
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The financial implications of having to cancel the 2020 Festival in order to safeguard the health of our audiences, artists and staff due to the coronavirus pandemic, are huge. We can’t wait to get back to what we do best, bringing the best world-class music to Newbury as soon as we are able. But to do this we need your support.
So, we are asking you, and everyone we know, to make a donation to help us survive this extraordinary situation so that we can return next year with two weeks of world-class music.
If you are able, we would be delighted if you might make a one-off donation to support the future of the Newbury Spring Festival.