9.29°C Last night I had the pleasure of witnessing the first ever live performance of Colchester Round, a musical collaboration created to celebrate the opening of Firstsite.
The project, organised for Firstsite by artists Grennan & Sperandio, brought together an extraordinary mix of Colchester musicians: The Band of the Parachute Regiment, heavy metal band Sanctorum, medieval shawm band Colchester Waits and world music community choir Quire.
Each group performed 14 songs in their own distinctive style, covering tracks chosen for them by one of the other participating acts. The result was a remarkable exchange of musical identities – familiar songs transformed through completely different traditions and techniques.
Colchester Round highlights just how rich and diverse Colchester’s music scene truly is, pairing musicians with strikingly different approaches to create something entirely new.
Simon Grennan described the project as being inspired by the most famous musical mash-up – Run DMC and Aerosmith’s Walk This Way. He explained that as soon as listeners become acclimatised to one musical world, they are propelled into another, allowing us to feel what is shared and what is distinct – and in doing so, a musical portrait of Colchester emerges.
We’ll be hearing more about Colchester Round when the commemorative CD is released, so if you missed the live performance, you’ll soon have the opportunity to experience this ambitious and uniquely Colchester piece of work at home.
