from silence

“With no music prepared, just an idea of which instruments we might play, we decided from the outset to seek our inspiration from our surroundings and the cathedral’s acoustics, so that the music would, in some way become part of the building, and aspire, for the 70 minutes or so that we played without a break, to something beyond ourselves”.

So said Dave Bainbridge, describing the process and approach used by him and Troy Donockley to create the music you can hear on this atmospheric film of the duo’s completely improvised performance, in the otherwise vast, deserted space of Lincoln Cathedral, late on a dark evening in October 2004.

What transpired were six improvisations, which the duo aptly titled ‘From Silence’ (parts 1 to 6), referring to the inspiration of the otherwise silent, huge space, once the tallest building in Europe. The film, which captured the complete performance exactly as it happened, also includes insightful interviews with Troy and Dave and also an interview about the binaural recording process used to capture this unique performance by sound sculptor Dallas Simpson. Listen on headphones if you can!