This spoken word and music piece was commissioned by Apples and Snakes for their Architects of Our Republic project and features The Last Poets: Abiodun Oyewole, Umar Bin Hassan and Babatunde (drums. Also featuring Zena Edwards (vocals)and music by Charlie Dark.

Mixed and mastered by Drew Horley @ The Lab Studios.
Commissioned by Apples and Snakes.

The Last Poets, Charlie Dark, Zena Edwards - Apples and Snakes Commissions

Girl Abandoned by her Lover

One of Nine Poems by Bill Manhire from "Song Cycle"
His response to a poem by Edward Shortland - from his Papers in 1864
www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/shortland-dr-edward

Violin: Anna Bowen  http://www.catgutandsteel.com/
Cello: Jono Squire http://www.pppl.gov/news/2014/08/jonathan-squire-wins-princeton-university-honorific-fellowship-0
Photography,Music Composition,Guitar & Vocal: Adair Bruce
Recording Engineer: Nigel Jenkins @xensonic
Photograph: St Clair Beach at Dawn

With the kind assistance of CreativeNZ & the Dunedin City Council.

GIRL ABANDONED BY HER LOVER

Look where the mist hangs over Pukehina
There is the path
by which went my love

Turn back again hither
that may be poured out 
tears from my eyes

It was not I who first spoke of love
You, it was, who made advances
To me, but when a little thing

Therefore, was my heart made wild
This is my farewell of love
My farewell of love to thee

Girl Abandoned by her Lover - English Sung Version

"Kinder Scout" is an adapted version of the 'Dark Outside 2015' collaboration between Derbyshire's Poet Laureate, Helen Mort, and the Lippy Kid Electronica Project.

Special thanks to Simon Ferrar for use of the original 'Kinder Scout' image adapted for the associated artwork. 

The original version of the track was premiered over the weekend of Sept 26th/27th 2015 as part of the 'Dark Outside Radio Broadcast' within the 'Sanctuary 2015' 24 Hour Art installation, at Galloway Forest, Dark Skies Park, Scotland.

Helen Mort's 'Kinder Scout' is one of a collection of poems published in her book 'No Map Could Show Them'.

You can read more about Helen Mort and her poetry at: http://www.helenmort.com

Further details about Sanctuary and The Dark Outside can be found at:
http://sanctuary2015.org/the-dark-outsidefm/

Music © Lippy Kid | 2015 | 
Poetry © Helen Mort | 2015 | 

Kinder Scout: Helen Mort & Lippy Kid

A bedtime sketch for tired parents and their ever-ready children. 

Tired

Kote Lalolagi

Vocal in Tokelauan Language : Selina Mulder
Photograph of Selina, sound & vocal arrangement: Adair Bruce
Recording Engineer: Nigel Jenkins @xensonic
With the kind assistance of CreativeNZ & the Dunedin City Council.



This small work is a recording of my friend Selina. She immigrated from the Tokelau Islands as a young teenager to study nursing & early childhood education here in New Zealand. I am sharing this with you to coincide with the celebration of the Tokelauan Language week here in New Zealand.

Tokelau lies to the North of the Samoan Islands in the Pacific ocean. It has a very rich and special culture that is sea & land based, possessing a deep spiritual bias with the advent of Christianity. It is a culture with story telling steeped in  song and dance. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokelau
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/atoll-people-1970 

TOKELAUAN LANGUAGE

Kote Lalolagi

Kote lalolagi e hahala ona tala
Na tuhi ai Paulo ni otaota katoa na 
Manatu iho au te ikuga e faigata
Malepele toku tino liu masei e

An interpretation : What is going on in the world at this time is actually inconsequential or "meaningless". We believe that we are in control & own the world but we do not. In effect, Paulo said "what is the use of worldly goods when we lose our souls?" 

We come here with nothing and we go back with nothing.

Kote Lalolagi - Tokelauan Language

Poetry improvisation recorded at Nottingham Writers' Studio, 3 December 2016, with Mark Goodwin, Rich Goodson, and Robin Vaughan-Williams. 
Music: 'Seno-Keé' by l.minygwal from their album E'er.

The Man

Farewell to Tinsley Towers, August 2008. Poem by Matt Black, music by The Only Michael

Matt Black - The Cooling Towers' Farewell

She tells me Mark is coming over. He’s my gardener. He’s deaf and dumb.

I look at her as if she might be talking about me.

Well, she says he lip reads and responds to everything with his thumbs up. He can laugh though, he laughs all the time, I'm quite fond of him. He’s coming over to dig a grave in the garden for Hollie. She was put down this morning; she had a good life though. Say, have you ever dug a grave? Hard work that. Makes you really respect gravediggers.

I never feel like a poet around Grandma, I rarely know what to say.

I can’t lie she says, I’ve been crying all night. I’m going to miss Hollie. Hope I don’t get too many lonely moments without her. I ate chicken earlier and couldn't help but feel strange to be mourning Hollie while eating a dead animal. You get to be old as me and life still surprises you. I hope when I get to heaven I get my young body back. See that picture of me on the mantelpiece? That’s me at 22. I was in love with a man called Keith. He was so handsome, taller than you. Always wore grey jackets and trimmed his moustache. I’d say kissing a man without a moustache is like eating a boiled egg without salt. He took that photo, I’m smiling because he asked me a naughty question, I shan’t repeat it. You don’t appreciate beauty when you’ve got it. You shouldn’t put so much pride into things that fade. Life is full of sad things and happy things. The sad things are important; they give you compassion, which in the end gives you more to be happy about. That’s just my opinion though. How’s your poetry going?

I tell her it’s ok.

she says don’t you find the more you talk to people the more you realise how important words are? I used to work for an organisation called Talking Books. We’d read books to blind people. Each book took a while to read out loud but it did so much for them. One man I used to read to told me, when you live in the dark your only light is a good story. Are you hungry?

I tell her I am.

she asks

Do you want to finish the chicken?

I say I’m ok, thanks.

Conversation With Grandma

Beat by Artiste.  J.Cal ft JC da Kid, Artiste, and Court Street Keys.

Cloud 9

She's running...and this is what she's running from. 

An extract of part 1 of 'Time Is Running Out! (restart your system now)', recorded during a rehearsal at The Riverside, Sheffield, October 2009, for a performance there on 27 October as part of Off the Shelf Festival. 

Words by Robin Vaughan-Williams, music by the Ella Luk Project. 

Time Is Running Out! (extract, part 1)

Poet, live literature producer, author of The Manager. 
Find out more at http://www.zeroquality.net/zqme/aboutme.html

Time Is Running Out! (extract, part 1)

robinrvw