SPOTLIGHT

Lilith, for Ultraviolet Productions, is a multi-year endeavour and when ANTE Collective ltd approached the company about composing and recording the music for the show, we wanted to make sure the final product lives up to the effort and dedication that has already been spent on the script. Given the brief for this piece of work, I thought the experience available within ANTE, in classical music performance, composition, and recording made a good match. Working closely with the producer/director, throwing ideas, snippets back and forth for a few months, we found a consistent sound. I mainly took inspiration from contemporary and romantic era classical music. Being an admirer of composers such as Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jonny Greenwood, I used them as linchpins for source material during my research and my journey to craft the soundscape for the performance. The devised nature of Lilith also helped a lot. The ability to watch the actors developing their characters during rehearsals was invaluable, giving a sense of dynamism and that extra dimension to the script that can be lost when composing in isolation. Looking to compliment the themes in the script, I used conventional string instruments as the main voice, while leaning on some of the more unique sounds available. I wanted to usher the audience into a scene of unknown and uncertainty with the use of col legno, harmonics, the body of the violin. These unconventional performance techniques very soon became a feature as opposed to accompaniment in my composition process. The ANTE Collective is a multi-medium creative collective based in London and Cardiff. Formed of three partners at its core, our goal is to realise creativity from the ANTE community setting no barriers throughout the process. We are very excited to build this relationship with UltraViolet Productions, as our first of what we hope to be a long standing collaborative creative partner.