The Northern Triangle: Part 1
In March, Jack Drum Arts participated in a collaborative day of music and performance at the TCR Hub in Barnard Castle. The day brought together young musicians from local youth band Arcanum, Skimstone Arts, and The Cream Tees for a day of workshops, musical exchange and networking. The fruits of their combined efforts culminated in a grand performance in the evening, showcasing each group’s individual musical talents- from string ensembles to rap and songwriting improvisation.
In mid-March I was approached by Jack Drum Arts and was asked if I would like to extend my volunteering hours to support Arcanum in a large ambitious workshop taking place in Barnard Castle at the end of the month- needless to say I leapt at the chance to take part.
When we arrived the main workshop room was littered with a myriad of instrumentation. From the full string ensemble of the Cream Tees to a cornucopia of congas, djembes, microphones, basses, guitars, keyboards, synthesizers and more. After a brief set of warm-up games led by each of the groups we dove in to the 3 main workshops of the day. As a mixed group of over 30 musicians in the same room, project organizer Rupert Philbrick led us through 3 main workshop exercises, each with a focus on a separate set of techniques including minimalist improvised composition, rearrangement of existing source materials and call and response.
A particular highlight for us was getting to learn a haunting old English folk song known as “Geordie” that tells the story of a Geordie man who poached a king’s deer in order to feed his family, but now faces execution for his crime. It was our task to first learn the song as a group, then split off in to 3 smaller groups and in a very small frame of time rearrange it. The results were outstanding- one group ended up with a waltz, another with a vibrant string focused ballad and the last group produced an incredible reggae fusion track. The whole day came to a head with an amazing triple-headlining performance inclusive of a newly restructured Arcanum with a flurry of folk rock and improvised experimental fusion music, a fantastic set of old folk tunes and jigs from the Cream Tees, and a powerful and musically diverse performance from Skimstone’s Reality Boots.
The project was hugely successful and has paved the way for many future collaborations between the groups and their leaders.