'Here' film & soundtrack - view online

Here - Philip Larkin from Classlane Media on Vimeo.

Earlier in the year I scored & recorded a soundtrack to a short film made by some fantastic film makers at Classlane Media. Based on Philip Larkin's poem 'Here', it is part of the commemorative Larkin 25 celebrations. The poem is read by actor Sir Tom Courtenay & the film shot around East Yorkshire, Hull & out towards the North Sea at Spurn Point. It is now doing the rounds at film festivals in the UK.

The Yorkshire Post writes of the film - 'the area's ethereal beauty and the searing loneliness of the Holderness plain where "silence stands like heat" shines through'. Classlane recently tweeted - 'Just received a lovely note from Sir Tom Courtenay saying he thought our Larkin film "very beautiful". Top man.'

My film score to 'Here' - premiers at 'Glimmer' film festival

I have scored & recorded a soundtrack for a short film! Voila, le speel ... It is a contemporary adaptation of Philip Larkin’s 1964 poem 'Here'. Read by Sir Tom Courtenay (seen playing the Ukelele & calling Barbara 'Barbara' in The Royle Family) , the film journeys through Hull and East Yorkshire, seeking the characters and landscapes that inspired Larkin nearly half a century earlier. It will be premiered on Tues 20th April at the http://www.hullfilm.co.uk/webdocs/HF_brochure_web.pdf">Glimmer short film festival. This will also be the first time I have seen it on a big screen, so pretty exciting in all.

Lulu x
Classlane Media in association with Larkin 25
Featuring: Sir Tom Courtenay / Director: Dave Lee / Camera: David Stubbins / Editor: Andrew Olssen / Score: Louise Bennett

All Night North - Larkin 25

I was in the recording studio on Friday with the lovely Awash With AntleR ladies, engineer extraordinaire John Spence & James Orwin of the Philip Larkin Society. We were recording a track that sets Larkin's poem 'Far Out' to music. It will appear on a compilation cd out in June 2010, called 'All Night North'. It is part of Hull's commemorative programme 'Larkin 25'. We can't wait to hear the whole cd, which includes many other musicians doing takes on different poems. There's more information about the project here -
http://www.larkin25.co.uk/

Photos courtesy of Jim Orwin



John seemed surprised that we wanted to put some 'Alka-Seltzer' down.





The joyous sound of Alka-Seltzer dissolving in pint glasses.

The wooden box doubled up as Sally's stomp box.





Mixing time! 3 part vocals, piano (moi), viola (Sally) & drums (Emma).





Emma having a well deserved tea after nailing the drums in two takes.


The finished track is one part fizzy, two parts prog, three parts gregorian chant. We can't wait to hear the whole cd!