When music finds a new space
There’s something about hearing music somewhere you don’t expect to hear it.
A song you know can suddenly feel different. The room changes the sound, the light changes the mood, and the place itself becomes part of what you’re listening to.
We had the opportunity to see all that come to be with National Museums Liverpool, filming their latest Museum Session with Bill Ryder-Jones and musicians from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at Lady Lever Art Gallery.
Three songs. A handful of musicians. A huge, beautiful room. And a museum after hours. It felt a long way from a traditional live music session, which was exactly what made it interesting.
Music, place and story
We spend a lot of time thinking about stories at A Few Good Things. Sometimes people tell them to us. Sometimes we find them in a building, an object or a place. And sometimes they're already there in a piece of music: a feeling, a memory, a sense of place, a beginning, middle and end.
When you add imagery to music, you're not illustrating it. You're creating another way in.
The room becomes part of the story
Bill's music already has its own world. Filming it inside Lady Lever Art Gallery added another: the paintings, the architecture, the scale of the empty rooms, the musicians sitting together within it. None of it explains the music. It just gives your eyes somewhere to go while you listen, and somewhere along the way the two become connected.
Filming without an audience, you notice different things. The breath before someone starts playing. The sound of a bow across a string. The size of the room around them. We weren't trying to recreate a gig. We were making something that can only really exist as a film.
That's what The Museum Sessions by National Museums Liverpool do so well. They take something familiar and give it a new setting. The magic didn't come from us directing. It came from watching the music and the place start talking to each other.
Coming back to music
This session also felt like a return. Before A Few Good Things grew into the documentary and cultural work we do today, a lot of my world was music: management, music videos, artists and live performance. I've always loved the space between sound and image. The right image can change how you hear a song, and the right song can change how you see a picture.
It's a thread I'm picking up again next week in Austin, working with the House of Songs. More on that soon.
Watch the Museum Session
Bill Ryder-Jones is joined by musicians from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for three songs filmed inside Lady Lever Art Gallery.
Violin 1: Peter Liang
Violin 2: Sophie Coles
Viola: Sarah Hill
Cello: Alexander Holladay
Double Bass: Ian Stephens
Filmed & Edited by: A Few Good Things
Supporting videography: Emily Lomas
Sound: Rory Ballantyne
Blog reflection by Natasha Arciniega
