Portishead Star’s Surprise Appearance at Sanctuary Music Event in Scottish Forest
Experience new realities in Galloway’s Dark Sky Park
Portishead’s Geoff Barrow made a surprise appearance last night at Sanctuary – an experimental music and arts event in the heart of a Galloway forest.
Arriving in a camper van after driving 340 miles from Bristol, Geoff and colleague Ben Salisbury performed a set under the name of Drokk, in front of a 100ft glowing blue light sculpture.
Hundreds of music fans, musicians and artists gathered for Sanctuary, which took place in the fields and woodland at the foot of the towering Murrays Monument, miles from the nearest town, in the Dark Sky Park in south west Scotland.
Geoff said: “Coming here is an adventure for us – we like the event. You just need to look at what it’s about, the music and where it is to see why. It’s really cool, we really enjoyed coming here.”
Sanctuary experiments with sound, light and space, featuring light installations. It featured Dark Outside FM – a radio station which could only be received in the forest and played 24 hours of previously unheard music donated by bands and musicians from across the world. The sound files will be destroyed so it can never be heard again.
Other performers included from veteran sound experimentalists :zoviet*France, just back from gigs in San Francisco and Moscow.
Ben Ponton, of :zoviet*France, said: “It’s a great occasion and really resonates with what we do musically. What we do is informed by our own part of the world in the north of England and this area has some real similarities, it’s a fantastic place to perform.”
They were also joined by Broken20, who created an eight-hour improvised light and sound event specially for Sanctuary. Dave Fyanes, of Broken20, said: “It’s a one off, because the whole thing about this event is its transience. We create something in the moment, and at the end we pack up, leave and it’s gone for good.”
Sanctuary also featured a lecture by paranormal investigator Innes Smith, a silent disco with light projections onto a screen beside the Grey Mare’s Tail waterfall in the woods and the Dark Skies Lounge, where people could hear the music from Dark Skies FM.
Tracks were donated by artists as diverse as, Carter Tutti, Bis, Craig Safan and Jon Brooks and came from as far afield as Australia, Canada, the UK, Norway, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, Denmark and the USA.
Jan Hogarth, of Wide Open which co-produced the event, said: “The whole magic of Sanctuary is that it only exists for 24 hours. People gather here from every part of the UK to be part of it – and you can only share the experience if you are here.
“The whole thing has an otherworldly feel about it – with the landscape lit up by a huge neon sculpture. The audience have loved the chance to mix with all the performers and musicians and to camp out in the forest listening to amazing music and enjoying the art.”
The artists behind Sanctuary are Jo Hodges, Robbie Coleman (who created the neon sculpture called ENCLOSURE) and Stuart McLean who curated the music.
The event is supported by Forestry Commission Scotland which runs the Dark Sky Park.
Keith Muir, head of tourism for Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park, said “The Dark Outside FM event not only highlights the importance of darkness but will also help visitors and locals understand light and how it affects who and what we are. How often do you get a good reason to take a drive to the countryside in total darkness and listen to music?
“For the Dark Sky Park art is proving to be one of the best ways to communicate the importance of light and darkness, the Sanctuary of music and the space it creates is a very powerful instrument and Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park is delighted to be able to host this event and the growing number of art works.
“The visitors who come to be part of an event or see the art works all contribute to making the south west of Scotland the premier destination for environmental art which further enhances the new Unesco Biosphere status in the area”.
Scottish brewers Tennent’s also supported the event. The company served Black T, a new premium lager for visitors.
Sanctuary was part of Mini EAFS, a curtain raiser for the Environmental Art Festival Scotland 2015. This included the Trading Journeys event by the Stove arts collective and the launch of Zero Footprint, a landscape photography work by Leeming + Paterson – both of which were at the Wigtown Book Festival.
