Bristol Beacon to premiere new tracks as part of A New Song For Bristol

Six new tracks by Bristol-based artists working with Bristol Beacon’s ‘A New Song For Bristol’ project are to be premiered weekly from 19 May, via Bristol Beacon’s website and social media channels.

In Nov 2020 Bristol Beacon launched ‘A New Song For Bristol’, a city-wide project calling out to the Bristol public to submit their experiences of life in Bristol over the course of the last year, through words and music.

Following the call out, Bristol Beacon received creations from Bristolians of all ages, communities and backgrounds, sharing a huge range of experiences, subjects and emotions. Many pieces were associated with the pandemic, but also explored themes such as Black Lives Matter and the toppling of the Colston statue.

Now, these creations have been used as inspiration for a new collection of songs by a host of Bristol-based artists. The first of these tracks entitled ‘Trousers Optional’ by This Is The Kit was premiered in March.

This next collection of six original tracks have come about as a result of the collaboration between collective of Bristol artists and members of the Bristol community through a number of special online workshops, and are directly inspired by or co-created with these Bristolians.

The first track to be released on 19 May, entitled ‘Revolution’, is a collaboration between songwriter and vocalist Javeon and three emerging artists from Bristol Beacon’s Multi-Track artist development programme, X4, Kwazi and CVNCH.

‘A New Song For Bristol’ track will be released every week following, sharing the work of the New Song For Bristol collective and artists and the groups they have been working with. Electronic artist Kayla Painter has collaborated with Bristol Beacon’s accessible music making programme Flow Creative; songwriter, musician and Filwood resident KALA CHNG worked with members of the Filwood community; Composer and associate director of Paraorchestra Lloyd Coleman has been working with Bristol Youth Choir, Saffron Records artist Grove collaborated with Bristol Beacon’s programme for children in care, Hope Creative, and songwriter Lady Nade has created music inspired by Bristol Beacon’s choir for Key Stage 1 children, Mini Singers.

Javeon, songwriter and vocalist and one of Bristol Beacon’s A New Song For Bristol artists said: “Working on A New Song For Bristol has been great as I have had the chance to to work with some very talented up and coming musicians who were able to take the brief and really bring it to life. With the artists only taking guidance and advice from me they have really impressed me with the level of their talent, collaborative ability and how they have been able to translate their stories in such an uplifting way.

I think this project has been amazing as it has allowed us to interpret our message in such an open and creative way, which was a challenge at times because we could have taken it in many directions but we are all very happy with our end result and I think people will like it.”

Cathy Mager, creative producer of Bristol Beacon’s Lantern Project, said: “The response to A New Song for Bristol has been incredible. We wanted to encourage everyone to express themselves through words, music or song and to share their experiences, ignite the fire of creativity in everyone and draw the city closer.

“Through these new tracks we hope to show the diversity of talent and creativity of Bristol artists and its many communities, as well as spotlight the different experiences and viewpoints they come from. These six inspiring new pieces of music reflect and interpret these experiences in new ways, so we’re excited to share them with the people of Bristol."

Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Help Musicians, PRS Foundation Talent Development Partnership and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, ‘A New Song for Bristol’ is part of Bristol Beacon’s ongoing work to uncover and share the historic venue’s heritage and role within the city alongside its multi-million-pound transformation.

All submissions for ‘A New Song For Bristol’ are being collated into a living archive, which will be included in the heritage displays at the re-opened Bristol Beacon.

To listen to these new tracks, the public can visit the Bristol Beacon website at https://bristolbeacon.org/anewsongforbristol