Photo by Sarah Bell
Dementialand is an evolving song-cycle and film inspired by relationships to loved ones with various forms of dementia and our work in residential care homes and on dementia wards; composing, listening and observing.
In August 2019, five workshop performances of the cycle took place; in Paignton (Devon, UK), Ashburton (Devon, UK), Edinburgh (Scotland, UK), Kyoto (Japan - with composer Emma Welton) and Tokyo (Japan -with Emma Welton and composer Makoto Nomura).
We’ve also been consulting with Magdalena Schamberger, Independent Creative Collaborator & Honorary Professor at the School of Health Sciences (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh) who has been instrumental in linking us to potential partners in the field of dementia work, as we look to taking the work forward again.
Rekindling Dementialand in a changed, not-quite-post-pandemic world, we look forward to growing the piece with dance, new visual/textural elements and new players who will bring their own lived experiences and insights.
Photo by Emily Appleton
“I was so pleased to be able to be there and really loved it. It was moving, challenging, funny and really engaging. I really liked the shape of the evening, shift in dynamics, various perspectives etc. it felt like a really loving & human look at the subject. Films worked well for me - how they are framed in live space something to think about both practically and creatively. balance between these elements felt good and film added didn’t detract.
It felt very uplifting for such a heavy subject - thank you.”
“Dementialand is wonderful collaboration of songs and film. It teaches us that logical thought never understands dementia, and shows how contemporary society excludes nonsense repetition and absurdity. Imagine the life of people with dementia through this work. This is a special experiment for the post-truth world. ”
“All in all, great songs, top quality musicianship, experimentation, beauty, laughs, sadness, empathy and a new window on human experience.
I thought the Dementialand songs were moving, empathetic and highly original. Dementia is a subject that does not get addressed through music very much, it seems to me, and yet the value of music to the therapeutic rekindling of memory and the balancing of mood among people with dementia is well documented as I understand it. ”
post truth world
A song/film from the Dementialand cycle - with electric piano, vocals and old pipes by Hugh Nankivell, guitar and care home textures by Steve Sowden and brushed snare/cymbals by Ben Ballard.
