Variations on a theme of re-enchantment
Mike Collier and Bennett Hogg
One of the things a visitor to Cheeseburn first hears is the rich and liquid sound of birdsong. It is a joyous and uplifting singing of the world as the air becomes enchanted with the song of Blackbird, Song Thrush, Wren, Goldcrest, Blue Tit and many more birds. As Joseph Beuys said, in a world ‘where everyone talks too rationally, it is necessary for a kind of enchanter to appear’. Here, in this work for the chapel at Cheeseburn, the enchanters are the birds.
Mike’s series of small circular pieces made especially for the chapel. They are based on visualisations of each song, roughly annotated using Geoff Sample’s recordings and sonongrams;
Bennett’s music filled the chapel with piano pieces that reimagine the dawn chorus as interlocking but independent melodies; a tapestry of sound.