We are waiting for video and audio to make sure that we didn't just imagine this week, it really happened!
The mood was quiet, contemplative, reflective, emerging, creativity and imagination took their time to flow but when they did... it was like being enveloped in something magical, extra-ordinary!
Animo met Duncan Chapman, a fine and intuitive composer/sound designer who works frequently with Supriya Nagarajan and also plays flugelhorn.
We all discovered something new; perhaps that was the best thing about our adventure: we have all moved forward. Supriya is used to improvising using many of her native Ragas (there's hundreds of them and Supriya knows them all!). We, Animo, started improvising live last year when we first worked with Yiannis Maramathas and more seriously this year with Supriya when we worked on her commissioned composition. There are similarities between us in that we all want to be embraced by soundscape and we all want to feel the freedom to express what's in our minds. As Duncan put it "use the flappy things on the sides of your head": listen.
There was a lot of listening going on. We agreed, disagreed, we moved backwards and forwards, we flexed and bent around ideas, we stopped and went to the beach, we lay under the stars in the night, we ate far too many sweeties (!), we also forgot to eat most of the time especially when making music, we walked by the reed beds at Snape, Sarah ran from Snape to Alderburgh and all around Alderburgh (she's getting ready for a Marathon so that was a piece of cake really whilst Supriya and I went sightseeing to Thorpness (what a lovely village!). We loved Snape Maltings and we loved our practice room. It was a massive space with windows all across the side and on the other side another room overlooking the estuary, reeds and Snape. 
Snape was busy during the week. So nice to see people enjoying themselves and busking in the sun!
We met some amazing musicians and a wonderful poet: Jo Clement. If you can, read her poetry, it is stunning. Jo became part of our group's performance at the Festival of New. Her poem 'Paisley' took a new meaning when it was weaved into our loom and into our piece titled 'The River'.
I hope that I will be able to share with you the film and audio soon so I won't say any more. I think we can let music speak. We loved our time at Snape. It was a gift for the soul and for meeting colleagues who, like us, want the adventure to carry on forever!
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