Joshua Idehen, Sifundo and Jamal Msebele, Hannah Silva and Alexis Kirke, and Sound of Rum awarded Phrased & Confused festival commissions

After receiving 75 commission proposals from poets around the country, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve commissioned Joshua Idehen, Sifundo and Jamal Msebele, Hannah Silva and Alexis Kirke and Sound of Rum to create new material for the Phrased & Confused stage at Summer Sundae Weekender (14-16 August 2009).   Each artist will perform twice during the festival and you can keep up to date with their work in progress by subscribing to our blog.  For now, here’s a quick snapshot of what to expect:

Joshua Idehen: title tbc
Poet Joshua Idehen will be working with saxophonist Stewart George and loop pedal cellist Jon Cottle to create intimate, dark and melodic pieces on love, relationships and urban living.

Recently, Joshua has been listening to a wide range of folk by artists such as Grizzly Bear, Jono McCleery and My Brightest Diamond and this has influenced his most recent writing to become more personal, more narrative-based and more revealing.  The Phrased & Confused commission gives him a chance to take this new writing style and set it to music.

Sifundo and Jamal Msebele: Generation X/Y
In Generation X/Y, 15-year old MC Jamal Msebele and his mother, poet Sifundo, explore their experiences of being teenagers, responding to the things they don’t understand about each other using traditional poetry, slam-poetry, MCing and music.

Mother and son will be exploring and responding to the things they don’t understand about each other. Sifundo loves 80’s music, Jamal loves grime. He can have 10 conversations on MSN, she’s “emailed out” (again). He loves the low bats, cap and baggies ,she’s trying to get out of the ghetto and take it out of him too. She says she loves him, he says he hates her.

Sound of Rum: Patterns
Sound of Rum, the band fronted by poet Kate (Excentral) Tempest, will create a new extended piece of spoken word and music telling the story of three different people, and highlighting universal truths and patterns in the way life unfolds.

The commission will allow Kate, drummer drummer Ferry Lawrenson and guitarist/bassist/loop-pedalist Archie Marsh, time in the rehearsal studio to write a carefully structured piece combining spoken word, rap, music and soundscape.

Hannah Silva & Alexis Kirke: I Said/You Said
Drummer Alexis Kirke and spoken-word virtuoso Hannah Silva perform a multimedia dialogue – one behind the kit and one in front.   I Said/You Said will tell the story of a love affair between a poet and a musician whilst exploring the relationship between music and spoken word.

The musician is not just a percussionist but also a character in the narrative. Can the power of the poet’s words convince him to come back to her? How can the two communicate across the languages of music and poetry? Which will prove the most powerful communicator, and where do the boundaries lie?

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