In this special programme from the afterlife, Sir David Frost interviews Jimmy Savile. In Hell.

By Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz
Illustration by Alex Morris www.pinvin.com

Radio Spiritworld - broadcasting to the living world from the Other Side. 
www.rsw.cc

Serafinowicz/Popper Present FROST/SAVILE

‘The Swallow’

‘Swallow, swallow, 
Fine bird of Spring!
 Where are you flying
– so fast?’

A song of migration for the 575 Wandsworth Road residency in the form of a transcription of swallow calls for bel canto voice.
Recording of the work-in-progress at the first LSO-National Trust workshop on the 26th April 2015. 

Music – Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian
Text – Gevork Dodokhian

Performers –
Soprano – Ziazan Horrocks-Hopayian
Violin – Tom Norris (LSO)
Violin – Levon Chilingirian



The Swallow (in progress)

This is a rough demo of the start of a piece commissioned for last year's London Jazz Festival. 
'Ser' means love in Armenian, and I recorded this today to commemorate the Armenian genocide 100 years ago.

It was written for Chris Montague (guitar) and Calum Gourlay (bass), but I thought I'd do this quick version on my laptop!

photo by Ziazan Horrocks-Hopayian

Ser DEMO

Underscore for a love scene, set at night in an abandoned building. For Lucy Prebble's 'The Effect' (National Theatre, 2012, dir Rupert Goold). The play is a love story set on a clinical drugs trial and I used metallic and electronic sounds from clinic equipment, along with piano, throughout the score. 

I've presented this here as one piece but actually it’s a series of 13 cues, each just a few seconds long, which dovetail each other. This dovetailing enables the music to follow the script and the choreography (from Aletta Collins), gesture by gesture.

This love scene incorporates a piano, playing in the distance. I used simple piano figures because I was trying to write something sweet and lyrical. Its treatment is inspired by a walk in the Sussex woods a few years ago. Just outside Lewes, I stumbled on an abandoned hospital, ramshackle but still standing. In the middle of the hospital grounds, was the social hall, built in the 1950s, now overgrown with weeds. Paint was peeling from the walls but you could still see old health posters and the twisted remains of tubular metal chairs. There, in the middle of it all, stood an old upright piano, its lid down, dusted in plaster from the ceiling which was about to collapse. If I was brave enough to step into the room and lift the lid of the piano, I’m sure it would have played.

Love in an Abandoned Building - S Angliss (for Lucy Prebble's The Effect, National Theatre)

This is where I upload work in progress! My published albums are distributed by other streaming platforms but this is the only place you can hear live recordings of premieres, and snippets of ideas before they become full compositions.

‘Found shapes’ Image by Emily Juniper 2021

The Swallow (in progress)

CEVANNE

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