Archive for category: News

Summer might still feel a little way off, but tickets are already on sale for Richard Durrant’s 2022 Music for Midsummer Tour from Orkney to England’s South Coast…

Cycling the length of Scotland and England to reduce his carbon footprint, Richard will be travelling between venues by bicycle carrying his instruments on a trailer.

Now in its eighth year, this 27-day Music for Midsummer tour begins on 2 June in the magnificent venue of St Magnus Cathedral on Orkney. 

It will conclude the week following the summer solstice with a performance at Brighton Open Air Theatre with further concerts in Sussex and Kent. 

“My new favourite guitarist… Richard Durrant sits completely outside the accepted genres. He has a peculiar and wonderful mind.”

Tom Robinson, BBC6 Music

Concerts will feature Richard’s Sussex downland inspired The Crest, The Coombe, The Twitten and the richly melodic Book of Spells. These will be performed on a concert guitar made from a 5,000 year old English oak.

Also included in the programme will be unaccompanied Bach played on a ukulele made from cedar rescued from the Oregon ‘Biscuit Fire’. 

“Richard’s album Rewilding is beyond beautiful.”

Isabella Tree, best-selling author

What a fantastic tour this has been and how wonderful to be back on the road and playing to a live audience again! Above is a great pic of the Trinity stage in Tunbridge Wells during the Get-In.

Just a couple more performances to go culminating in two shows at St Mary’s & St Peter’s Church in Wilmington on Tuesday 21 December – see diary for details.

One of the highlights of this show has been a magical new song by band member Django Durrant. Is It All For Christmas? Making some thoughtful observations on the commercial aspects of Christmas, a wintry musical landscape is supplied by the other members of the band.

Django says: ‘It was great to make this recording halfway through the tour – especially after a few gigs!’

And if you love the show, especially if you can’t get there this year, The Midwinter Christmas Collection is the next best thing. 

This is a seasonal collection of Richard’s best wintry, acoustic tracks. The Midwinter Christmas Collection includes contributions from Nick Pynn, Brian Gulland, Django Durrant as well as the beautiful voice of Amy Kakoura.

Available as high quality downloads in our SHOP and also on SPOTIFY.

“Brimful of technically impressive guitar playing on the folk / classical cusp.“

The Independent

How did a lump of ancient wood, buried for 5,000 years in an English bog, become an exquisite and adored musical instrument?

Richard Durrant has teamed up with friend, film-maker and former BBC presenter Neil Pringle to make a short documentary about the story of a unique classical guitar.  

How exactly did a huge Fenland black oak tree, which fell and lay undisturbed in the silt of the flooded forest floor for 5,000 years, end up making music in the 21st century?…

The 30-minute film follows Richard on a journey around England, meeting the cabinet-maker Hamish Low who saved and preserved the wood, and the luthier Gary Southwell (pictured) who lovingly transformed the precious timber into a remarkable and beautiful musical instrument. 

‘A wonderfully interesting and inspiring film. Superb quality… and Richard still playing as beautifully as ever.’

Gordon Giltrap MBE, English guitarist and composer

Also featured are on-location and studio performances of some of Richard’s own compositions, including: 

• Step Gently from the album Rewilding
• an excerpt from Book of Spells
• The Bog Oak Bouree from the album Stringhenge.
  

Bog Oak Guitar is a fascinating and engaging story, which celebrates an extraordinary piece of England’s natural history, and shines a light on the incredible talents of three passionate men. 

Premiering this captivating 10 minute video of Richard Durrant’s latest composition for solo guitar inspired by the magical landscape and rich heritage of England’s South Downs.

The Crest The Coombe The Twitten is a guitar solo influenced as much by the English Folk Baroque style of John Renbourn and Bert Jansch as it is by Vaughan-Williams and Elgar.

The three movements express Richard Durant’s affinity with the Sussex countryside and the South Downs in particular. It was commissioned by artist Tony Sharp for his wife Jill.

The first movement, The Crest expresses two main things: the breathtaking beauty as seen from the highest points on the South Downs Way and the ‘busier’ aspects of a hilltop view – there is usually a lot going on!

Next comes The Coombe, inspired by the riverless valleys punctuating the downs. In this case somewhere to find refuge from the exposed downland trackway, but hung with mist and strange atmospheres.

The Twitten concludes the work by tracing the procession of ancient trackways that still survive as narrow alleyways through villages, towns and often housing estates. They can be mundane, neglected, often forgotten altogether but they often provide a link with the distant – even neolithic – past as well as a route back up onto the ridgeway of the long distance downland track.

Richard has spoken of chance encounters in the twittens of Hollingbury including an 11th century troubadour, a Persian Prince and various old school mates.

The Crest The Coombe The Twitten was produced by Richard with film maker Neil Pringle. The live guitar recording was filmed by Peter Lisney with sound recordist Felix Durrant. Watch out too for the cameo appearances by Brian Gulland, Frank Horsley, Louise Durrant and a hilltop flash mob!

We hope you have enjoy the film!

My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan premiered on ITV on Monday 6 September with original music by Richard Durrant.

You can still see the programme on ITV Hub

This unique film follows the life of a boy in Afghanistan over two decades, telling his story and that of his country in the years that followed 9/11. The film has now been extended to bring things up to date and to include the current worrying developments in Afghanistan.

Richard Durrant wrote the music for this film alongside Asa Bennett and Dimitri Tchamouroff.

Produced by Seventh Art Productions, we first meet Mir Hussain as a cheeky, funny 7-year-old living in a cave next to the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan statues in central Afghanistan. Over the following two decades the film bears witness to his adventures and Afghanistan’s struggles. 

“20 years in the making, following the story of mischievous and endearing seven-year-old Mir Hussain from 2001 to 2021, this film is both a remarkable portrait of one child’s life in Afghanistan and of the conflict that has engulfed the region. This unique film could not be more timely.“

Kevin Lygo, Managing Director, Media & Entertainment at ITV 

More than a personal journey, My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan, is a powerful examination of what has – and has not – been achieved in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

‘I can safely say that no film has captured the life inside an Afghan family in the way this one does. And little did we know that the final days of filming would coincide with the Taliban once again being in control of the country.’

Director Phil Grabsky

Watch ‘My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan’ on ITV1 and ITV Hub on Monday 6 September at 10:45pm (immediately after News at Ten).