Light Stories was born from a wish to tell a personal story in sound and image: the tale of a near-tragic event in my teenage when I attempted to take my own life during a psychotic episode brought on by a drug overdose, and the subsequent healing through music and therapy.
I had been wanting to compose for many years and this presented itself as an ideal vehicle for this new aspect of being a musician. The music is almost all for multi-tracked cellos, but there are also synthesizer sounds, percussion, keyboards and a collection of Brazilian birdcall pipes.
The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker outlines the archetypical tales we tell ourselves, and one of them, Voyage and Return, resonated especially, so I divided up my life story into 15 parts, giving each part a sentence or two to sum it up. I then matched pieces from my repertoire to these chapters, and where there was no existing work, I wrote something.
Yeast Culture’s video design also features Mavin Khoo dancing, bringing a human element to the wide range of often nature-inspired imagery.
Part 1 Introduction, and dreaming of a future, naively, from those places in my childhood that were often murky and mysterious, and setting out, nevertheless, full of the confidence of youth.
Matthew Barley Spell
Matthew Barley The Dreaming
Matthew Barley Cathedrals and Caves
Bach Prelude from Suite No.6 in D for solo cello, BWV1012
Part 2 The journey begins, meetings with strange beings, foreign lands, brushing with danger, wide-eyed and adolescent.
Jan Bang Implanted Memories
Giovanni Sollima Hell 1 from Songs from the Divine Comedy
Anna Meredith moonmoons
Anna Meredith Blackfriars
Part 3 Beginning with unease, danger mounts until the moment of greatest jeopardy arrives, with a classic narrow escape from death as everything falls apart.
Matthew Barley Unravelling
Joby Talbot Motion Detector
Matthew Barley In the Crosshairs
Matthew Barley Timefolding
Part 4 Healing takes place in the spirit realm as well as the body, heart and mind.
John Metcalfe Constant Filter
Matthew Barley Full, Empty
Part 5 With the wisdom gained from life’s lessons, returning home in peace for a celebration and dance.
Matthew Barley The Unwaiting Sky
Post-Show Q&A
This concert will consist of one set followed by a short interval and then a Q & A.
