Leftovers and Burgeonings

HYMAS& LEWIS : THAT WAS THEN…..

What to say about Sarah Hymas. She has been a soulmate, playmate and important confederate for 20+ years. She even officiated at my ‘wedding’! Check her Website and Substack if you don’t know her.

She and I blow ideas around like bubbles. Some pop immediately, others float enticingly for a while then burst. Occasionally something will land, and slowly solidify.

Have a look and a listen to some of the things we’ve done together Hymas & Lewis. Towards A Stranding. Sealegs.

This time last year we had the idea of taking on ‘This Cultural Life’ a BBC Radio Four programme in which the excellent John Wilson talks to all sorts of creatives about the people and experiences that have influenced their work. Our take was that we would do it with ‘Lifers’ - people like us with lifelong but less sung, creative lives. People who John is unlikely to invite onto his programme.

To try the idea out we interviewed each other. Great fun. We posted a little sample of Sarah talking about the sailor, Bernard Espinet . The plan was to follow up with a extract of me talking about my first conga drums - my pathway into being a professional musician.

It was my job to publish it here. But the bubble burst on the project for me for various reasons and I forgot to do it. Mostly because I realised I just wanted the chance to think and talk with someone about just who and what I might choose if I was on the programme. And having satisfied that desire interviewing lots of others lost it’s lustre.

Sarah recently reminded me of all this. So this is me belatedly keeping my promise. An extract from the ‘Lifer’ pilot with Sarah Hymas talking to me about one of the key moments in my creative development.

HYMAS & LEWIS : THIS IS NOW……

Hispering

Sarah and I met at a sort of speed-dating event for writers wanting to meet musicians and vice versa. As a duo we’ve stayed interested in working with art forms. Around Covid time we were working with Sally Slade Payne, an extraordinarily multi-talented visual artist. I will never forget being on Zoom as Sarah told Sally and I the story of a serendipitious alignment of experiences she’d had that I heard as a crossing to and fro over a threshold between worlds. As I said as much and we all wondered together about it, a project emerged that became a film, that kept us all enchanted beyond the end of the pandemic.

Sarah’s story was eventually published as the hispering. Sally was just turning her hand to video and, with the same forensically imaginative verve she goes about all her work, set about making a artfilm of the book. Sarah and I created a soundtrack of Sarah reading her text to an accompaniment of prepared guitar played live.

I left it there really but Sally continued to work on the film. Essentially it became her project. A few weeks ago she let me know that, five years on it it going to be shown at The Natural History Museum as part of the the London Nature Films Festival this autumn. You can watch the film here.

Dying To Live, Living To Die

In recent weeks one of our bubbles has caught, settled and is becoming something.

It started of as being a piece about Death. Then it became a way of bringing in everything we do. Words and music of course, but also making artist books, ceremonies, animation, cooking, psychotherapy, Wild therapy, Soulcraft, nature connection, voice workshops, making communities…and the rest. A piece beyond just ‘performance’ or ‘ workshop’. A piece that would offer our whole selves to see what might emerge that would be useful to the world. A piece that might last 3 hours, 3 days, or 3 years.

At the moment I’m calling it ‘Dying to live, Living to die : A Beginners Guide to Composting, Change and Uncertainty. Sarah doesn’t like that so it will certainly change! Whatever we call it, it’s beginning to take up a lot of my thinking and imagining. A process I love. Gathering ideas, materials. Becoming compost. Waiting for what will become to become. Knowing, from a visceral sense of inner ripening that something fruitful will grow.

This one will be a long time brewing though. This time next year minimum. But we might have a little something to show by December. At the next C23 event. The occasional gig I put on at a ‘secret’ indoor Lancaster venue. A rare beast. Last one was Dec 2024. So save the date - Sun 13/12 2-4pm - and await further announcements closer to.

MY MANY COMPANIONS

Talking of dates. There will be two more offerings of MMC in September. They will probably the last times I offer this work in this form. So, if you have yet to witness it or would like to do so again, make a note of these dates.

“It felt like an intimate gathering……I was moved by the softness and vulnerability of your offering.”

“loved being a companion…felt so joyously connected with your offerings….relished the setting and being outside on cherished land….feel truly blessed to have been there”

Ottergear Bridge

Sun 6/9 2-4pm with Sarah Hymas.

Near Clougha Pike, Quermore, Lancs, LA2 9HD

(TryBooking link coming very shortly)

The Sondering (Festival)

Sun 20/9

Barn in the Fells, Rydal Farm , LA22 9PN

With thanks to Ben McCabe, Richard Davis and Matt Turley for photos.