July by Piano in the Woods

Date/time: Tuesday 2nd July at 19.20

Weather/light: light rain, 18 degrees, overcast

Artists: Tom Jackson (bass clarinet), Sam Bailey (piano), Neil Sloman (photos), Ben Horner (podcast/sound art)

Vegetation/wildlife: the rosebay willowherb had grown almost 2m high. It was considerably higher than the piano. The audience could not see the instrument from the clearing where they sat. The clarinet player sheltered from the rain in a hollow at the base of a yew tree. The birds answered the clarinet.

State of piano: more keys worked this month. This was probably because the weather had been warmer and drier in the previous weeks (although it was raining during this performance).

Unusual happenings/circumstances: the bass clarinetist Tom Jackson had travelled from London to perform this month. A group of poets came to listen.

The walk from the entrance to Littlehall Woods to the piano takes about 5 minutes. It is just long enough to feel like you’re entering another world. In the late nineteenth century these woods belonged to the artist Sidney Cooper who cultivated a collection of rare trees and plants. Bamboo groves and young Redwood trees give the forest a beautiful yet disorientating feel, like an eerie paradise.

Sam Bailey

pianointhewoods.com