‘We would like folks to return away feeling like they’ve related with one another extra.’ The Widespread Room(s) is providing a recent strategy to experiencing music and phrases. A sequence of eight occasions throughout the south east, supported by Arts Council England, will deliver collectively audio system, dialog and music underneath one roof. Izzy Blankfield spoke to Mark Edwards concerning the new undertaking:

The concept behind The Widespread Room(s) is easy: what can we find out about ourselves, from others?

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Brighton-based pianist, producer and composer Mark Edwards began The Widespread Room(s) with a couple of mates with this philosophy in thoughts. Every occasion will showcase music from featured visitors alongside passionate audio system, who will share their insights and experiences on subjects akin to mindfulness, self-acceptance and ecopsychology.

Each ingredient of the evening is rigorously deliberate. The efficiency area will probably be arrange within the spherical, with particular consideration paid to sensory results: scent, lighting and ambient noise will all play a task. Edwards tells me: “We’re making an attempt to make it as immersive and exquisite an expertise as attainable. I wish to create an area the place folks can see one another’s faces.”

Music on the evening will oscillate between ambient background sounds and extra outstanding musical interludes. Every occasion will characteristic a mixture of up to date jazz and delicate classical music, alongside different experimental kinds and unique compositions – all acoustic, and curated by Edwards to enrich the meditative and contemplative values behind The Widespread Room(s). Featured visitors will carry out alongside a delicate rhythm part made up of Edwards, James Osler and Oz Dechaine.

“Usually we obtain music simply as noise air pollution. A variety of issues get in the way in which,” Edwards says. “There’s a tremendous energy that we don’t usually faucet into. I would like folks to really feel that the music can nourish them, that it could reorder their feelings.”

The music at The Widespread Room(s), subsequently, shouldn’t be a lot a efficiency as one thing for folks to soak in and digest. The tranquil, dimly lit occasion area will draw on the conviviality that comes from an intimate jazz gig, the place the viewers is totally drawn in. Persons are invited to soak within the music in any means they really feel; yoga mats are inspired.

Over the approaching months, six occasions are deliberate in Brighton on the Brighton Unitarian Church, every with a special theme. In November, the Birley Centre in Eastbourne will host a complete weekend of occasions with totally different audio system and musicians.

The inaugural occasion, entitled ‘All the things is Extraordinary’, came about on Sunday 2 July, hosted by creator, journalist and seasoned interviewer Cole Moreton. Moreton spoke concerning the totally different individuals who have impressed him all through his life and profession, earlier than opening up the area into a bunch dialogue, giving the viewers the prospect to mirror on the exceptional individuals who have formed their very own lives. After a brief break, classical and jazz singer Heather Cairncross and cellist Matthew Forbes handled the viewers to an improvised exploration of works by Fauré, Messiaen and Richard Strauss.

Later occasions will welcome different excessive profile jazz musicians together with saxophonist Alan Barnes.

Up to date dancer and incapacity activist Annie Edwards will share the stage with jazz vocalist and music therapist Lou Beckerman for the second occasion, entitled ‘Enter the Now’, on Sunday 6 August. Questions akin to what music and dance can do for folks therapeutically, and the way our relationship with our our bodies can change, will type the centre of the broader dialogue. Music on the evening will probably be led by Bansuri participant Kate Hogg, in a fusion of Western improvised and Indian music.

Occasions within the autumn embrace ‘Of Hope and Endurance’ on 15 October and ‘A Means of Pure Being’ on 12 November. The ultimate occasion of this 12 months’s sequence, ‘Residence’, will happen on 10 December.

Wanting forward, Edwards hopes to ask folks from totally different religious practices to speak about experiences which might be frequent to all of us. By means of poetry, sound and dialogue, he tells me, he desires to discover what spirituality means for various folks.

“It’s in these small intimate gatherings that it’s best to construct group and connections,” Edwards explains. “The music, the conversations, the totally different views: they will present us easy methods to dwell extra sustainably and kindly, easy methods to be extra conscious and perceive one another’s experiences on a deeper degree.”

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LINK: Tickets for ‘Enter the Now’ on 6 August

Begin time: 6.45pm. Venue: Brighton Unitarian Church, New Highway, Brighton BN1 1UF