I was invited to Spire last Friday evening, as part of Frequency Digital Arts Festival, which proved itself to be a very inspirational evening.
Spire brought contemporary musical performances into the setting of Lincoln Cathedral.
Spire is a particularly poignant title considering that at the time the Cathedral had spires, it was the tallest building in Europe, and the music was meant to replace those lost spires.
So we were treated to Olivier Messiaen’s Chants d’oiseux, which I swear must be the soundtrack to a Jan Svankmajer animation, Philip Jeck, and my all time favourite, B.J. Nilsen, whose hauntingly Scandinavian sounds caused me to imagine that the Cathedral had been hewn out of a fjord, an icy glacier of a space, then the arched ceiling transformed into whalebone, as if I were Jonas inside a whale, swimming in frozen seas.
I got chatting to someone there by the name of Michael who had just returned from Graz supporting Apparatjik, and he introduced me to the festival organiser, Barry.
He told me that my proposal was the best one they’d had, and we discussed to work on it, then he offered to show me round an ice book and the rest of the festival, for which I have yet to receive a reply.
B.J. Nilsen @ Spire, Lincoln Cathedral
