Away from the thick snow of mid Wales, in London today I spied my first crocuses (purple ones) breaking through the ground in Gordon Square – and they felt like such a strong symbol of the pushing up and out we all have to do after our winter dreaming descent… For me it was like a turning of my internal clock: a “time to make something happen!”
So, with the true energy of Imbolc – the Celtic festival celebrating the first awakenings of spring which approaches this weekend, I absolutely can’t wait for some shiftings and outward manifestation to take place… What is bursting to make it through the frozen ground in my world includes doing an edit of all the 13 MOONCHOIR sessions I held over the last year, which were part of my 13 Moons of Music project (gratefully funded by the Earth Pathways Seed Fund).
I am just about to embark on a review and evaluation of this whole project, tied in with my studies in Ethnomusicology at SOAS, and I’m excited to be dedicating the time to editing and sharing much of my process and recordings. I am still deciding exactly what form this will take but trust that the right way forward will emerge, along with ideas for where the work might take me next.
One thing is for certain: that MOONCHOIR, currently a small group of us with varying musical backgrounds in Machynlleth, mid Wales, will continue and grow. It has been a very special adventure so far – bringing opportunity to co-create ‘sacred spontaneous song’ in the landscape, and to consider how we connect with nature through music – that of the earth and our own natures… For now, you can hear some excerpts from a few of the MOONCHOIR sessions, as well as other recordings from my 13 Moons of Music here: https://soundcloud.com/13moonsofmusic
Please contact me through the blog if you would like to joining MOONCHOIR for its new cycle, or check out the page/group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/13MoonsofMusic/
Another – seasonal – piece of music I would like to share for now is my song L-Plates (http://findingdashti.bandcamp.com/track/l-plates), which I wrote at Imbolc a few years ago on a visit to the amazing St Anthony’s Well, whilst living at the beautiful EarthHeart centre in the Forest of Dean (https://jewelswingfield.com/earth-heart/about-earthheart/). It has lots of memories in it as I performed it in the finale of a show called The Boy Who Grew Wings with Whispering Woods, an outdoor aerial circus company in our 2017, and above all, I feel, the song is about exactly this kind of energy that comes when first the spring starts calling us out of our cocoons (feel it yet? Maybe wait till after the snow if you can!!!)…
