old airs

really nice to see my old friend Roland Peelman and The Song Company last night at Abbotsholme. I had been trying to get them to visit either the Lichfield Festival or Abbotsholme for many years, and was thrilled that they stopped off for the first of only two UK concerts this year (their other one is tonight at the RNCM). In a brilliantly conceived programme about the seasons, we even managed to have the UK premiere of Old Airs by Belgian composer Frank Nuyts setting texts by Australian poet Les Murray. That work segueing into Autumn Leaves by Jacques Prevert was a particular highlight for me. I realise that it was written a very long time ago, but I only came came across Autumn Leaves for the first time as Coldcut's Irresistible Force Remix on Nick Warren's version for the very first Back to Mine album and have been slightly obsessed with different arrangements of it since.