1 00:00:24,020 --> 00:00:29,430 Modern fairy Modern Fairies with Caroline Larrington and Faye Hield. 2 00:00:29,430 --> 00:00:36,870 Hello, I'm Faye Heald. And I'm Caroline Larrington. Welcome to the Modern Fairies podcast series two. 3 00:00:36,870 --> 00:00:41,430 And this is Episode one, Introducing the Modern Fairies Project. 4 00:00:41,430 --> 00:00:46,230 This is our second podcast series about the project. Modern Fairies is a Ladies. 5 00:00:46,230 --> 00:00:51,900 The project's aims were to find out what would happen if we gave 13 artists, musicians, filmmakers, 6 00:00:51,900 --> 00:00:56,250 writers and poets a collection of around 50 traditional tales and songs about 7 00:00:56,250 --> 00:01:01,650 fairies and about lovely ladies and ask them to make new art responding to them. 8 00:01:01,650 --> 00:01:06,600 And we also wanted to find out what audiences would make of the results. 9 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:12,840 So we had the sharing at Sheffield University's Festival of the Mind in September 2018. 10 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:20,610 A workshop at the stage in Gateshead in January 2019 where we could work through material and do some rehearsal, 11 00:01:20,610 --> 00:01:25,620 and then we have full performances at the stage in April 2019. 12 00:01:25,620 --> 00:01:33,120 And then finally, there were some performances in Sharings at the Sound Post Singing Weekend in Dunsworth near Sheffield in May. 13 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:39,030 Twenty nineteen thirty is officially opened now, but the creativity is inspired. 14 00:01:39,030 --> 00:01:46,200 It's continuing in various offshoot projects and the first podcast series we introduce the collection of folk tales 15 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:52,860 and songs about fairies and talks about the kinds of stories the artists might choose to explore in this series, 16 00:01:52,860 --> 00:02:01,740 too. We're going to share work produced by the artists and talk about their processes gathered into themes that the artists felt were important. 17 00:02:01,740 --> 00:02:06,300 This first episode will introduce those themes and introduce our artists. 18 00:02:06,300 --> 00:02:11,160 So the original five themes or the five-fold is given to the artists. 19 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:20,940 And you can hear all about them in series one were Fairyland Time and Space Fairy Wives and Fairy Lovers, Fairies at work. 20 00:02:20,940 --> 00:02:26,610 And that includes helpful fairies, fairies and children and lonely ladies. 21 00:02:26,610 --> 00:02:33,600 Those of women who transform themselves or are transformed into hideous hacks and the artists 22 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:39,630 could choose whatever they liked or indeed go off and do their own research into fairy themes. 23 00:02:39,630 --> 00:02:46,440 And some of the went off on different tangents altogether. It was surprising for me what got picked up on wasn't popular, 24 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:53,520 particularly what the new research turned up, the topics that really captured the artist's imaginations. 25 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:58,800 Partly corresponded with and partly diverged quite a bit from the original folder 26 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:03,600 organisation when we looked at the work that the artists actually produced. 27 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:10,380 We decided to group together the songs, stories, drama, poems, music and artwork. 28 00:03:10,380 --> 00:03:20,520 Similarly, in two distinct strands, and these include two things from the original folders fairy time and space and fairies and children. 29 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:26,550 But the artists also evolved to new things, which you will find in episodes four and five. 30 00:03:26,550 --> 00:03:31,830 That's fairies and the environment and fairies and other transformations. 31 00:03:31,830 --> 00:03:37,200 There were 13 artists involved in creating new work. Is it alone or collaboratively? 32 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:40,140 We included a variety of art forms and styles. 33 00:03:40,140 --> 00:03:47,280 The linking factor was that everyone had previous experience of working with archival folkloric material in some form. 34 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:52,500 The project was first conceived as a musical one, and so musicians were key from the outset. 35 00:03:52,500 --> 00:03:59,820 I'll start by introducing myself. I'm a singer and editor of traditional songs, a newly a banjo player, 36 00:03:59,820 --> 00:04:07,440 and I also researched the folk scene and why traditional music remains important to people, hence devising this project with Caroline. 37 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:11,880 And now we'll tell you a piece about all the other artists involved in the project. 38 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:20,250 So first, Murray Waterson. She's part of the Waterson family musical dynasty and she thrives on communal music making 39 00:04:20,250 --> 00:04:25,440 while developing highly original and distinctly English performance styles of her own. 40 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:31,380 And not only does she sing. Murray also makes visual art and animation. 41 00:04:31,380 --> 00:04:41,640 Thompson was raised in a musical family on the Fair Isle, where stories of Selkies trousered Greek Fixx and other fairy folk are still widely told. 42 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,460 Her main instrument is the piano Kaede accordion. 43 00:04:44,460 --> 00:04:53,410 But she also works with a range of unusual instruments and composes music rich with the textures of natural, created and manipulated sounds. 44 00:04:53,410 --> 00:04:58,170 When MacPherson was born in Liverpool and raised in Wales and he trained at 45 00:04:58,170 --> 00:05:02,670 the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts before settling in the Highlands, 46 00:05:02,670 --> 00:05:10,690 there, he worked for some multi instrumentalist, um, plays with Schubel Nifty Sold House and various other groups. 47 00:05:10,690 --> 00:05:15,240 And he also makes films. And he even wrote a short story for this project. 48 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:23,290 Barney Morse Brown, a.k.a. duo Tone is an alchemist weaving his pioneering, unconventional cello, playing a. 49 00:05:23,290 --> 00:05:33,290 Full use of Lupa into blankets of intimate sound. Ben Nichols is a singer songwriter, double bass player, a multi instrumentalist. 50 00:05:33,290 --> 00:05:43,850 His work crosses many genres. He's a member of a whole lot of bands and he was a co-writer on the Mercury music prise nominated Nadine Shaw album. 51 00:05:43,850 --> 00:05:48,620 His work has been featured on many TV shows in films and adverts. 52 00:05:48,620 --> 00:05:56,660 Lucy Farrell is a member of the Furrer Collective, as well as a solo performer and appearing in many of the line-ups an innovative collaborator. 53 00:05:56,660 --> 00:06:02,240 Many have been entranced by Lucy's haunting and quintessentially English voice, 54 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:07,070 subtle and instinctive musicianship, and her ability to connect emotionally with an audience. 55 00:06:07,070 --> 00:06:15,050 Lucy works with ballads that inspire her own compositions, telling fantastical stories imbued with handed down beauty and strangeness. 56 00:06:15,050 --> 00:06:18,020 So thanks to the musicians, but from an early stage, 57 00:06:18,020 --> 00:06:23,870 we also thought it would be really interesting to involve writers and visual artists in the project, too. 58 00:06:23,870 --> 00:06:29,180 Sarah Hesketh is an exciting young poet now just completing her PHC and creative writing. 59 00:06:29,180 --> 00:06:36,920 She's published several poetry collections and done some extraordinary projects, including one on poetry and people with dementia patients. 60 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:43,430 Barbie is an award winning writer and someone who's very interested in traditional mediaeval material. 61 00:06:43,430 --> 00:06:47,870 She's best known for her brilliant work, perhaps in retelling the Canterbury Tales. 62 00:06:47,870 --> 00:06:55,160 But she's also performance poet and her new young adult novel, The Infinite has just come out to great acclaim. 63 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:58,820 Terry Wendling is an award winning blogger on folk topics, 64 00:06:58,820 --> 00:07:05,120 hugely knowledgeable and experienced writer and editor, widely known within the folkloric world. 65 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:09,530 Jackie Morris, the amazing illustrator, was originally part of the project. 66 00:07:09,530 --> 00:07:15,320 But due to the time pressure connected with the success of her book lost work, she had to drop out. 67 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:19,700 But nevertheless, she had really important input into the early part of the project. 68 00:07:19,700 --> 00:07:28,720 Fortunately, we were able to get Natalie Reid to join us later in the project, and she brought her unique visual imagination and illustrative style. 69 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:34,580 And we also had a filmmaker, Jim Locky, who made a video record of the project filming our final sharing, 70 00:07:34,580 --> 00:07:41,600 and he also made his own extraordinary art film. It's difficult to pigeonhole all these creatives into one box or another. 71 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:46,640 Many people worked across a variety of media, so they brought other talents into the creative mix. 72 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:54,320 But others had no understanding of the different creative practises. So getting to know what each of the needed to work was a process of exploration. 73 00:07:54,320 --> 00:08:00,830 We also have to mention to the extraordinary work put him by and the Belle Isle creative project manager, 74 00:08:00,830 --> 00:08:04,850 sound technician and all round organisational genius. 75 00:08:04,850 --> 00:08:08,750 And then there's Mary, our outreach officer, Stephen Hadley, 76 00:08:08,750 --> 00:08:14,600 our research associate who did so much of the audience research and our industry partners. 77 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,860 Amy Leach at the stage and Helen Bell and Jenna Walker at Sound Post. 78 00:08:18,860 --> 00:08:26,690 They were invaluable in understanding how our weird and wonderful, somewhat unconventional project could come face to face with audiences. 79 00:08:26,690 --> 00:08:34,180 Now, you've been introduced to the project and its staff. It's time to listen to the next episode to hear what the artist actually did. 80 00:08:34,180 --> 00:08:42,050 Our next podcasts episode is about Fairyland as a different space and with a different imagining of time from the normal world. 81 00:08:42,050 --> 00:08:50,600 And it's called fairy time in space. But first, we're going to call you into this magical world with the song that led our audiences into the theatre. 82 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:59,380 The sage phrase calling on song invites you into a new space, assuring you that although you thought fairies were long gone, 83 00:08:59,380 --> 00:09:05,270 have been driven away from the woods and groves, they are actually still here. 84 00:09:05,270 --> 00:09:07,900 What inspired you when you came to compose this song? 85 00:09:07,900 --> 00:09:13,700 Faye I was struck by Chaucer's description of fairies in the introduction to the wife of Bath and thought 86 00:09:13,700 --> 00:09:18,560 you had so many resonances to what we've been talking about in the early stages of this project. 87 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:26,120 Yes, it was so old. I love that fairies seem timeless and that I could collaborate with Chaucer was just magical in itself. 88 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:28,610 It seemed like an introduction to the project, 89 00:09:28,610 --> 00:09:36,260 an invitation in there's a song in the rapid dancing wells called The Calling On Song, and it's sung to introduce the dance. 90 00:09:36,260 --> 00:09:40,100 I used this tune and some of the words to frame Chaucer's words. 91 00:09:40,100 --> 00:09:47,930 Then I went about making it relevant to our project, adding specific things that described what we were doing, taking out things that jarred. 92 00:09:47,930 --> 00:09:53,340 And I got some more contemporary words from Sarah. One of the poets and incorporated those. 93 00:09:53,340 --> 00:10:01,240 The work was in smoothing them all out and avoiding the rough edges between the three different sources and making it hold together as one voice. 94 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:06,890 I struggled most with the contemporary words like glitches, but felt that they were important to include. 95 00:10:06,890 --> 00:10:14,420 After a lot of singing through spaces for the dust to settle and re approaching it, the song is settled into something that feels natural to me now. 96 00:10:14,420 --> 00:10:21,050 That's when I know it's finished. When there are no awkward corners left and it makes sense to me literally under aesthetically. 97 00:10:21,050 --> 00:10:26,350 Well, let's hear some of it. Good people, I pray, get attention. 98 00:10:26,350 --> 00:10:35,310 Come here, all we have for to say they're firing line colon less with your eyes open wide. 99 00:10:35,310 --> 00:10:46,480 Now we pray you'll hear about how we shall work together by chance to tell tales of dark deeds and road burn. 100 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:52,220 Saying to lead. You saw the. 101 00:10:52,220 --> 00:11:00,170 In days of old, long past and gone now, all of which we sing with great regard. 102 00:11:00,170 --> 00:11:12,360 Her country was riven with Ray, the high queen, and her sprightly health hold to high health and delight in murder. 103 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:18,350 So green rejoice in the village, in the forest fire. 104 00:11:18,350 --> 00:11:26,440 In the carax. Fall betwixt and between. But these are long days passed and gone. 105 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:35,490 Now we hear no more. And so far, the prayers of old priest and bold friars drove out. 106 00:11:35,490 --> 00:11:40,920 On our thoughts are the Thirroul Blessing Hall Chamber Kitchen. 107 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:47,640 Well, they overrun Reverend Storey walking past old stories. 108 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:51,430 Forgotten gold flaks turned to dust in. 109 00:11:51,430 --> 00:11:57,300 So the. But never were we hollowly redon. 110 00:11:57,300 --> 00:12:06,130 They found a new power, sir. Aside from the prices they have lately been Heddon call to arms. 111 00:12:06,130 --> 00:12:21,820 Now ready to ride to take back Built-up City Skyline Casts Shadows or US Mickey Ayten Street at dawn falling dusk and inStar Lights Glan Sideways. 112 00:12:21,820 --> 00:12:31,530 You catching your dream. And that song really worked when it was played over individual headsets, 113 00:12:31,530 --> 00:12:37,050 warm by the audience to give them a sense that they were being invited into a different space. 114 00:12:37,050 --> 00:12:41,280 And they also made those who weren't coming into the performance look around and 115 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:46,350 realise that there was something mysterious going on that they weren't part of. 116 00:12:46,350 --> 00:12:48,390 If you want to see what we're talking about. 117 00:12:48,390 --> 00:12:54,810 Don't forget to go and have a look at the Modern Faries Web site where you can find more of the work with illustrations, 118 00:12:54,810 --> 00:13:01,920 a film of the whole performance at this age in Gateshead, and lots of interesting blog posts from the artists about their processes. 119 00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:30,045 And in the next episode, we'll be looking at what the artist did with the theme of fairy time and space.