'In Place': An extended multi-media song-cycle

This is exploring a sense of place in the British Isles; how it informs our cultural identity; shapes our language and dialects; provides both solace and stimulation, and contains histories both universal and personal.

For more information click on the project website In-Place

The song cycle consists of 10 songs. The writers include Robert Macfarlane, Paul Farley, Nick Papadimitrou, Daljit Nagra,, Jackie Morris, Richard Skelton and Autumn Richardson. This provides multiple styles, cultural viewpoints and personal histories from a contemporary perspective. Other elements are woven into the composition; place names, field-recordings, and folksongs.

The album was released on 11th May 2017 on the Squeaky Kate label.

The April 2021 edition of TEMPO has a feature about the project.

Link to a short film of the premiere at Sound Scotland

A set of videos have also be created in response to songs from the album:

Weather Words Half Written Love Letter Warp In The Rain

Moss Water Over Stone Beneath Above Along Liitanies

Link to a video diary of the Unplugged Scottish Rural Tour October 2018

In Place band rehearsals at Brunel University

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Colin Riley composer (Moov/Homemade Orchestra)

Melanie Pappenheim voice (DV8/The Shout/Damon Albarn)

Nic Pendlebury viola (Smith Quartet/Steve Reich/Django Bates/Pulp)

Kate Halsall piano/keys (Michael Clarke/Ockham’s Razor/Galvanize

Stephen Hiscock percussion (Ensemble Bash/Steve Reich/Nitin Sawhney))

Ruth Goller electric bass (Melt Yourself Down/Let Spin/Gufo)

There are also 3 programmes/podcasts for Resonance FM featuring interviews with the writers, additional field recordings, background to the songs, and a selection of related songs chosen by Colin Riley.

Programme 1: It Does Noting, Absolutely Nothing But Be Itself

Programme 2: Grafted Landscapes

Programme 3: Solid Breakfasts and Gloomy Sundays, Smoky Towns and Winding Roads, Green Fields and Red Pillar-Boxes

This project has come about through the collision of several strands: a) the word-hoard of Robert Macfarlane’s book ‘Landmarks’ (2015), a glossary of lost words which invite closer observation of the landscapes around us; b) an interest in making use of regional dialect; c) the merging of field recording (sounds from the natural world, urban environments and personal conversations) with scored music; d) the collage of disparate texts; e) an interest in psychogeography and walking through unusual terrain; f) the extension of the song-form.

This project has be commissioned by Sound Festival Scotland . It is funded by the Arts Council of England and through the PRS for Music Foundation's 'Beyond Borders' programme which is a commissioning and touring programme run in partnership with Creative Scotland, Arts Council Wales, Arts Council of Northern Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaion.

‘A bewitching, dynamic soundscape’ (Robert Macfarlane)

“An album of rare delicacy. Mysteriously melancholic, inviting, languorous.” (Bill Bruford)

"An engaging and captivating experience. You could hear that music many times and always be finding new things within it." (Kit Downes)

“A fascinating collection of sounds and words, depicting place and all its space with beautiful tranquillity.” (Fay Hield)

Review 1

Review 2

A bit of background

A place can make you feel many things. There is something very powerful about the intersection of a particular location and our moment in it. Places are constantly renewed in unexpected ways by changing conditions; weather, seasons, times of day, the company we keep, sounds and smells, and the surrounding culture.

I have always been fascinated with the idea that layers of history leave contours and traces of those who have been inthe same space before us. I love the way that ruins and industrial relics act as signs to how different a place would have been in a previous time and my walks often involve tracing the routes of disused railways, canals and ancient tracks.

Through these songs I aim to steer a listener’s attention to the smaller details. In an age when there is ubiquitous use of headphones and a consumption of musicas a commodity or mood-enhancer, I feelmy role as a composer is to reclaim a more mindful listening mode. Discovering Robert Macfarlane’s recent book Landmarks, which reconnects us via lost words to a keener sense of seeing, was a catalyst for the project. It brought together my ideas about a sense of place and my hopes for keener musical listening.

In Place is a gathering together of feelings, associations, geographical details, regional identities, dialects, place names, personal memories, imagined routes, and historical connections. To help in this I have commissioned new texts from a broad range of writers for whom a sense of place is very much at the core of their work. These, along with a scattering of various existing texts, have become the lyrics for the songs, enabling the piece to be diverse, multi-dimensional and hopefully, unexpected.

Some blogs from Riley Notes about the creation of In Place

The Sheep and the Pen

http://colin-riley.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/the-sheep-and-pen.html

Taking Place

http://colin-riley.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/taking-place.html

Waking Into The Piece

http://colin-riley.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/walking-into-piece.html

Shelfie

http://colin-riley.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/shelfie.html

Maybe I’ve Aways Been A Psychogeographer

http://colin-riley.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/maybe-ive-always-been-psychogeographer.html

Falling Into Place