"I could hear the music spilling out of the pages. " | 5 minutes with composer Dom Coyote

When I first read Lanny, it cast a spell on me, a weird, folky gnarled tree type of spell. I could hear the music spilling out of the pages. 

I could hear the music spilling out of the pages as I sheepishly wept at the beauty and power of the thing. 

I had strong instincts immediately. The music needed to feel like folk but not as we know it; witchy, pagan, ancient and modern all at once. 

We knew there’d be singing - playwright Bea Roberts threads a folk song through the adaptation. I started excavating and became obsessed with a very, very old song, the oldest known song in the English Language - ‘Sumer is icumen in’, written down by a monk in the the thirteenth century. I’m convinced it was an ear worm from people singing it around him. I reckon this song is much older. (for Folk horror fans, it’s also the final song in The Wickerman, you know the scene…) 

The song that now weaves through Lanny is really an  Ode to ‘Sumer is icumen in’. I hope the threads of that ancient song spark something in the ears of our audience. A half-remembered melody, the oldest ear worm we have.  

For the score of Lanny, I used elements of traditional English Folk, and some ancient instruments, (Bowed Psaltry and Hurdy Gurdy) but reworked into a gnarled, contemporary world of trip hop/folktronica, beats and bass lines really prominent, to bring this world into the present day, like a possession from a medieval spirit who just discovered the Bristol music scene. 

Then I had an idea! 

What if we made beats from the forest itself, a kind of organic folktronica made from branches and mulch and leaves and hollowed out tree trunks. I persuaded sound designers Dave and Elena, and intrepid reporter Kate from the Guardian, to join me on a sound expedition to an ancient woodland near Bristol. It was summer solstice and it felt like ancient Gods were with us as we collected forest sounds for our pagan purposes. 

Right now we’re deep in rehearsals, I’m teaching songs, and working with the sound team to weave all this material into the play. It’s a mountain, but when we get to the top, the view will be epic.