Songs of Sea and Stone
An atmospheric show with film, live words and music
Songs of Sea and Stone (1.5 hour programme with break and artist Q+A)
Quarry Paths + Distant Voices (30 mins approx) is a new show developed in residency at Sandy Hill Arts and as a site response to the Purbeck stone landscape and stories weaving layers of ghost voices that track ancient routes of stone, quarries and clay mining in Purbeck alongside stories of quarries and the stone industry from Portland. This new programme starts with a presentation of Seiners (25 mins) commissioned by SoundUk celebrating traditional mackerel seine fishing and families on Chesil beach.
Two live sharings:
22nd July with Emily Burridge virtuoso cellist & composer
23rd July with musician and composer Julie Macara
films by Adrian Cooper and Anson Hartford (Common Ground)
and with director & consultant Laura Burrow
Sandy Hill Arts 6.30-8pm with bar available
Sandy Hill Studios, Sandy Hill Ln, Corfe Castle, Wareham BH20 5JF
FREE but booking essential through sandy hill arts website/ https://sandyhillarts.co.uk
Using archives, site response and collaborative research Dorset Songs of Stone: Quarry Paths + Distant Voices follows stone on its journey across millennia from quarries, and quarrymen and stone masons in their physical and stoic routines as well as the industry’s long standing tradition that connects identity of the local land memory to its people. The stone industry shapes Purbeck and Portland landscapes and people.
Real conversations, archives, listening walks and memory talks form inspiration for this series of sketches that remember and celebrate local communities, families and link everyday life along the quarried coast to sense of place and collective memory. Here multiple voices and music drift along hidden ancient paths through the valley and ridgeways to highlight more than human agency and suggest a complex ecology of deep memory held in dimensions of stone.
The show is offered for bookings following the sharing.
Sarah Acton – Sarah’s work includes collaborative performances, community theatre, myth-making and socially engaged arts projects. She has received commissions from Dorset National Landscapes, SoundUk and Stepping into Nature and long-standing partnerships with local museums, libraries, and organisations. Her book, Seining Along Chesil (Little Toller, 2022) captures memories, voices and stories of Dorset Seine fishing traditions. Sarah has been researching quarrying oral histories for eight years on Portland through Heart of Stone and now Dorset Songs of Stone projects. She lives in Devon. http://sarahacton.co.uk
Adrian Cooper is a film-maker, producing and directing work for Channel 4, BBC Films and the BFI. He is also the executive director of the arts and environmental charity Common Ground, for which he conceived and coproduced ARCADIA BFI (2017). Alongside this, he is editorial director and co-founder of Little Toller Books, a library of classic books on landscape, place and natural history plus new and debut nature writing https://www.commonground.org.
Julie Macara is a multimedia artist based in Cornwall.
Julie’s work combines both classical and electronic music with voice, film and painting. Julie has collaborated with writer Mercedes Kemp, composing lullaby’s for art festivals across the UK. Composing music in response to writer and poet Sarah Acton on a South West tour supporting Jason Singh. Composing music for Re-Voice, Tate St Ives and frequent WildWorks projects. Julie is currently writing an album and starting a new collaboration with spoken word poet MCMC.
Emily Burridge
Emily is a virtuoso cellist, composer and producer with thirty seven years working within the music business performing and recording as a soloist, and in ensembles working with many luminaries as a session musician and arranger for pop songs and soundtracks.
Celebrating the natural landscape within her musical compositions has long been an aspect of Emily’s productions. As well as collaborative albums she has seven album productions of her own and her most recent being in 2024 “At the turning of the World”
Composing with narration commenced early in her career with “Sacred Elephant”, when she instigated writing a musical accompaniment to accompany readings of this prose book and subsequently toured with the actress Virginnia McKenna ’89 -‘91
2019 She was commissioned by the Bristol based playwright Dionne Draper to compose a cello underscore for the play “Dawta”.
2024 Sarah found Emily and commissioned Emily to create a cello accompaniment utilizing her looping pedals for the production “Seiners”
The looping pedals originally designed for electric guitar enable Emily to multitrack harmonies and rhythms and recreate multitracked compositions in performance and are an integral aspect of Emily’s solo performance productions.
Laura Burrow
With over three decades of experience, Laura Burrow is a highly versatile performer. From directing Brecht in East London to leading theatre tours across Europe, to being violinist in an Australian festival dance band, to producing and narrating audiobooks, radio plays and her own album. Last year she directed the acclaimed Jackie Juno in her sell-out show ‘Cancer Dancer’. After the joy of working with Sarah on the Seiners, Laura is thrilled to be supporting Sarah again. lauraburrow.com
Funded by Arts Council England
Supported by community partners:
Burngate Stone Centre, Sandy Hill Arts, Langton Matravers Museum
And in collaboration with National Trust Corfe Castle, Purbeck Mining Museum, Swanage Library and Planet Purbeck.
The artists are grateful for residencies at Sandy Hill Arts and Sanctuary at Lighthouse Poole to research and develop the show.
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