Stay ConnectedThis is Nothing Concrete, the Barbican podcast – here to inspire more people to discover and love the arts with weekly episodes of archive finds and themed series exploring music, cinema, visual art, theatre, architecture and everything in between.
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We return to our archive and remember a conversation with Mike Leigh about Peterloo, a gritty, real and sorrowful film from this excellent British director.
'With one of my films you’re discovering things - be they real things or things I’ve invented which take on a new reality for you because that’s what it’s all about.' – Mike Leigh
There is nothing not ambitious about Mike Leigh's twenty-first film, in which he turns his attention to the 1819 Massacre in St Peter’s Field, Manchester, where British forces attacked a peaceful pro-democracy rally. The collection of characters include reformers, members of the government, the military, royalty, journalists and not forgetting a couple of spies - portrayed by the likes of Marion Bailey, Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake and Tim McInnerny. Working with a regular team of collaborators behind the camera, this film is packed densely tight with layered drama, emotion, and historic relevance. We met with the director to explore its many themes and messages.
Leigh's films include the much praised and referenced Abigail’s Party, Vera Drake, Secrets & Lies, Happy-Go-Lucy, or the one most relevant to this film and interview, his portrayal of the British painter in Mr Turner.
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
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Maxine Peak plays Funny Cow, a woman who want to make people laugh, someone who refuses to give up on her dreams. The film is the fictional tale of a woman who dreams of making it in the unforgiving northern comedy circuit of the 70s.
On this week’s archive edition we grab some popcorn and speak to actors Maxine Peak and Tony Pitts about their 2017 cinema collaboration. In Funny Cow - Tony Pitts is the writer, Adrian Shergold directs and Maxine Peake stars. Alongside Maxine, the cast include Tony Pitts as her husband, Paddy Considine as her boyfriend, Alun Armstrong as tragic comedian and mentor Lenny, and Lindsey Coulson as Funny Cow’s bitter Mother.
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
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Over this three-part series we’ve entered a parallel universe of video games music, from the chunky world of 8-bit tunes to the full studio cinematic scores that define the modern immersive gaming experience. These mechanical melodies have been sneaking out of the consoles and into the concert hall for well over a decade.
Now in our end of final edition we take a step back and look at how the music is escaping from behind the screen and invading the concert stages of the world. We explore the point where the gaming and record industry meet as these transfer from digital analogue to vinyl. And finally we loop back to Episode 1 and hear the Gameboy transformed into a crunchy, chipped easy to carry live music tool.
What would happen if you took that old world and put it actually on to a Symphony Orchestra. It’s like taking those plastic, very synthesized sounds and kind of giving them the technicolour that only an orchestra can provide. – Charles Hazelwood.
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
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From 2018 we present the second of our three-part series Ode to Joysticks. Sit back as we move from 8-bit to 64-bit and find ourselves in worlds old and new, searching for mystical treasure, solving puzzles, joining ancient societies, driving fast cars or at the most fundamental level just trying to survive that new very scary looking new monster coming toward us.
We learn how some of the top games composers, conductor and orchestral arrangers challenge themselves with each project to create something new: imagination and determination are needed in equal measure, and within the region of 100 years of experience between them there is plenty to talk about.
We speak to composer Winifred Philips who alongside scoring some incredible games has encouraged others into her world with her book A Composer’s Guide to Game Music.
Composer Nitin Sawhney, who was awarded the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award, but for him it was an invitation from actor and director Andy Serkis that began for a five year adventure scoring two stunningly successful games - soundtracking gamers' moments of frustrating and exhilaration.
Composer Austin Wintory who was nominated for a Grammy for his score to Journey, has built a career through a sense of exploration and curiosity.
Irish composer and conductor Eímear Noone, the world’s current premier conductor of video game scores. As a composer, Eimear is part of the team writing the music for World of Warcraft: Warlords of Dreanor, and conducted of The Zelda Symphony, a full four-movement symphony created from the themes from the iconic video game.
Film composer Inon Zur who started off writing music as in-house composer on the Power Rangers TV series, but ended up writing video games scores to be played by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Danish composer Jesper Kyd, a self-taught musician who used the Commodore 64 and Amiga as his initial tool for composing - as the computer systems grew and expanded so did his ambition.
And Bulgarian composer Penka Kouneva who has worked with the likes of Steve Jablonsky on orchestration the games score for some big franchise game such as Transformers and Gear of War.
Finally we speak to professor of psychology Lauren Stewart from Goldsmiths University about how the beep beep 8-bit phenomenon of the earworm has become a common malady for the serious or even casual gamer.
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
Subscribe to Nothing Concrete on Acast, Spotify, iTunes or wherever you find your podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
From 2018 we present the first of our three-part series Ode to Joysticks. Sit back and enter a parallel universe of video games music from the chunky world of 8-bit tunes to the full studio cinematic scores that define the modern immersive gaming experience.
Computer or Video games have been with us since the 70s, from their money gulping origins in the amusements arcade to the invasion of the home computer and the eating up our pocket money. What accompanied them was the most incredible inventive machine melodies, reveling in the limited channel and sounds. Pioneering composers and coders created tunes so annoying, so brilliant, so catchy, so avant-garde they’re practically invented their own genre of music.
On this first of three editions we attempt a rough history of video games music and try to unravel an 8-bit tune…with a professor, a doctor and one of the most legendary composers for the Commodore 64 - Professor James Newman, Dr Kenny McAlpine and Rob Hubbard.
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
Subscribe to Nothing Concrete on Acast, Spotify, iTunes or wherever you find your podcasts.
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In this episode we talk to writer and director Rungano Nyoni where she talked in detail about her debut film, I Am Not a Witch, and about the struggles and triumphs of the film making process.
‘It’s a life or death acusation which can be based on as little as someone has a dream about you, it’s a bad dream they dream they’re chasing them and then they wake up and they’re like - you must be a witch, why were you in my dream?’ - Rungano Nyoni
In this film Nyoni's has created an impressive drama which tells the tale of superstition in a small Zambian community…we follow the young girl Shula played by Maggie Mu-lubwa who is accused of being a witch.
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
Subscribe to Nothing Concrete on Acast, Spotify, iTunes or wherever you find your podcasts.
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In this week’s archive edition we return to 2017 and take time to discover or re-discover director Sean Baker’s film – The Florida Project, where in the shadow of Disney World, in a rundown motel, a mother fight to survive and bring up her daughter.
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
Subscribe to Nothing Concrete on Acast, Spotify, iTunes or wherever you find your podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, we find ourselves transported in time back to 17 September 2014 the red carpet was rolled out for the Gala Premiere of the film 20,000 Days on Earth.
This musical documentary drama is based around one day in the life of musician, singer, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer, father and occasional actor Nick Cave. It was the debut feature film of artists and film-makers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and I spoke to them about their hopes, ambitions and challenges they faced
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
Subscribe to Nothing Concrete on Acast, Spotify, iTunes or wherever you find your podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Ben Eshmade opens the door and crawls through the imagination of Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson who co-directed the 2015 Oscar-nominated stop motion film Anomalisa in this archive interview.
From the Archive sees us dig into our extensive contemporary and classical music and cinema podcast archive as we rediscover interviews and discussions with artists, with our long-standing producer and presenter, Ben Eshmade.
Subscribe to Nothing Concrete on Acast, Spotify, iTunes or wherever you find your podcasts.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Tracing the histories of transnational Asian diaspora struggles and solidarities across the Asia-Pacific, Professors Marci Kwon and Ming Tiampo, curators and researchers Mika Maruyama and Annie Jael Kwan thread a discussion regarding Isamu Noguchi's artistic legacy and lived experiences to their reflections on contemporary challenges when working with institutions, issues of inclusivity and visibility, and finding new intersections of solidarity.
Part of our ongoing digital residence Noguchi: Resonances
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