Molten Meditation

On the 10th December we co-produced an event called Soul Circus at Norwich Cathedral. It was sort of an "ancient/modern" Eucharist using multi-media, music, liturgy, lights and other interesting devices to create an inviting and participatory environment in a spiritual space. http://www.soulcircus.org.uk

We wrote some very interesting and cool original music for the event and put together a mountain of visuals, video loops and stuff. One of the most successful parts of the service was the Gloria. It was based upon words written by Rev. Phil Smith and was designed as a finish to the service. Myself and Hannah worked on a few ideas initially along the lines of having the words read over some ambient music and then accompanying that with a sung refrain - a bit like other Molten Meditation material. With Hannah's voice becoming more wonderfully operatic as she studies down at Goldsmiths it became obvious that we should use that for the whole lot. Unfortunately Hannah couldn't be there on the night so we decided to record her vocals and then film her performing them in front of a green screen. Later on I'd work out how use that material in the event to create a virtual performance. Once we had the vocal line in place the music evolved quite a bit until we reached the night of the service. There was one other part that doesn't appear in the final version that we toyed with where the idea was to join in part of the refrain in the chorus as a response to what Hannah was singing - "We worship You, we give You thanks, we praise You for Your kindness". In the end we used this during the distribution of Communion, acoustically, with guitar, but it also gave a nice echo of what was to come with the Gloria.

The background of the video is some time-lapse photography taken from the International Space Station and published by NASA. I think it gives an extraordinary sense of the wonder of God, the fragility of life and the accomplishment of human kind, and how we're all bound up together on this glowing orb of life, bustle and activity - the natural and the unnatural, the spiritual and the cold dark of space. The combination of that with the music, with Hannah, both visually and vocally, makes for a beautiful piece of work.

Here it is:
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