Aerial, Cumbria’s festival of new work, is teaming up with Kendal musician and former Wild Beast Hayden Thorpe to mark the release of his new album.
Hayden will headline a packed bill, featuring some of the most exciting talent to hail from the Cumbria, at Kendal’s The Brewery Arts Centre on October 9.
It will be the first public airing of tracks from his much-anticipated new album backed by a full band.
Moondust For my Diamond will be released on October 15.
When the inaugural Aerial Festival, planned for 2020, was moved online, due to the pandemic, many of the artists involved were asked to contribute new work for presentation on the festival’s website. This event is an opportunity to experience some of that work and to celebrate a new wave of artists with links to the area doing things differently.
Sam Hunt, of Aerial, said: “Aerial is a festival that uses Cumbria as a starting point, asking if the unique cultural, natural and social history could in some way act as inspiration for artists.
“Hayden really personifies this and collaborating with him is a great opportunity to platform the extraordinary talent who have deep connections to this place, it really feels like something special is happening at the moment and we want to celebrate that.”
The event will run from 2pm until 1am, with free events running through the afternoon and tickets required for evening performances.
The afternoon will feature a public debate led by young people from the area in partnership with Great Place Lakes and Dales, asking ‘what kind of place do we want to live in? ‘.
There will also be an opportunity to experience the ‘deep listening’ of a series of audio pieces created by artists with links to the Lakes in response to the first lockdown. All afternoon activity will be free to attend for all, although access to some venues may be limited to due to capacity.
The evening will feature a live performance of MARRA by Lone Taxidermist, a work first commissioned for Aerial in 2020.
MARRA is a deep interrogation into the dialect, ceremonies, endangered voices and esoteric rituals of West Cumbria and The Seychelles drawn from her experience as a first-generation immigrant in a small farmers town on Cumbria’s West Coast.
The evening will be rounded off in style with a sound system from Barrow Underground Music Society head-to-head with Kendal’s own leading purveyor of electronic wizardry Sierre.
