In 2020 we received a micro-commission from Lancaster Jazz Festival to create ‘The Secret Elevator’ - a digital piece about a rogue elevator who kidnaps it's occupants and takes them on unwanted adventures.  The piece was made entirely remotely– we sent poetry, snatches of music and sketches to each other to respond to, and the only time we were in the same room was when Tom and Nishla went into the studio to make the recording.

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We’d like to make a second episode of Secret Elevator, which we imagine as a continuing story, and a vehicle through which we can explore abstract ideas, and react to things that are making us think or wonder on a shorter, more immediate time scale. The concept of Secret Elevator is that the elevator appears where it wants and takes its unwitting occupants wherever it chooses. This leaves it wide open for us to play with different ideas and concepts. We’ve talked about making a piece that explores masculinity in its various forms, or that looks at ageing and the concept of ‘oldness’. The beauty of Secret Elevator is that we won’t know exactly what it’s about until we start making it! It’s a very urgent, responsive medium. We pass materials back and forth, and react to each others’ ideas in real time. What we do know is that it will be a digital piece, between 3-10 minutes long, that uses poetry, song, music, and drawings to tell a story within the framework we’ve built. 

 

Made by Ulita - Poem and songs by Nishla Smith, visuals by Luca Shaw, music by Tom Harris.

 

Recorded by Matt Brown - www.mattbrownrecordings.com