This is an extract from the extended performance we gave at Elmley RSPB Bird Reserve on 26th May 2013 as part of the North Kent Walking Festival.
We played beside the ruined schoolhouse on the site of the abandoned village of Elmley itself. The village fell in to disuse after the closure of the nearby docks in the 1920's.
Thanks to Mark Loos of Medway Swale Estuary Partnership for organising the festival.

Live excerpt from Elmley RSPB Bird Reserve, Kent

On 13th October 2013 HoS performed in Harty Church (St Thomas the Apostle), on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
This constituted the final performance in our mini Month of Sundays tour of Kentish sites of historical interest that remain at risk either from development or environmental factors.
The tour was made possible through funding from Arts Council England via Creative People and Places, Swale & Medway and with the assistance of the Medway Swale Estuary Partnership.
This beautiful 11th century church has neither electricity or running water and stands in an isolated spot overlooking the mouth of the Thames.

Live excerpt from St Thomas the Apostle, Isle of Sheppey

Elmley Frogs

Hand of Stabs, from Rochester in Kent, are a sound worker's collective whose events and recordings draw inspiration from their exploration of local, often forbidden, landmarks. They create improvised sound pieces, which can be simultaneously uplifting, difficult and intense using both traditional and home-built instruments. Many of their performances take place within the landscape – in woodland, field, or rain-lashed long barrow at Winter Solstice. They have played in a ruined school, derelict basements, Kent’s remotest church, the studio of a Turner-nominated artist and on board a light vessel. Each performance is a tense interplay between the performers resulting in a form of archaesonic dowsing, an interaction with place that is unique each time. “Feral Kentish sound sculptors” – Pete Wiggs & James Papademetrie, The Séance.

Hand of Stabs

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