Eight leading composers including Du Yun, Thomas Adès, Freya Waley-Cohen and Nico Muhly chart the ways lockdown has eroded our way of life. By setting poetry, letters and speech, each orchestral song brings a new perspective on physical isolation. And each is performed in sequence by a different singer, alone in a variety of locations. The eight films directed by UK film-maker Billy Boyd Cape combine for a compelling musical tapestry of physical separation. Oliver Zeffman, who commissioned each song, conducts members of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, each musician recorded separately in isolation.
Available via: Apple Music, Spotify
Listen
CHINESE
真理中, 朴素的声音
静默中, 我们拥有 对方
乌云, 变浓 渐下
我看你 低眉而泣
声响 蘊着信息
城市 苏醒 融化
鸟鸣,长嘤短呖,
窗外,鸣笛断续,
重启。
树上腾空跃起一群鸟,穿林而过,
打叶声,留下
屋顶的花⼉开了,
“⼈⽣一世,草⽊皆春”
在我们的城市里,
你一定要去 看晨光,(一定要去)听音乐。
春将重访
爱你如昔
ENGLISH
In truth, we find silence,
In silence, we build solace
You turn black, o cloud,
and let your brow sink.
Something disturbs you
I see you weep
The sound that first melted
bursting with blossoming
The city, re-awakening
The bird chirps, the spring begins to trill,
the bellowing beckons
reviving
The wings soar over a forest,
left a sound of waves over the leaves
the flowers flourished the roof,
a life, every grass a spring
In our city,
you must go see the sunset,
you must go listening
to the music
Spring will revisit you
She who loved you once
will love you anew
Text by Du Yun / Yang Nan
One of the most powerful pieces is Du Yun’s Every Grass a Spring, which Shenyang performs from an anonymous hotel room. The words are based in part on newspaper reports by the composer’s friend Yang Nan, who was embedded in Wuhan for four months. It is inescapably bleak and incredibly beautiful, with language – “Spring will revisit you / She who loved you will love you anew” – inspired by the city’s emergence from lockdown.
…
The Sunday Times, UK
The cherry on the cake of a remarkable document of these strange times that encourages us to consider the precious things that bind us. Love, friendship, connection, community, nature, music. And, sometimes, Larkin.