An evening of visual, aural and literary journeys weaved within and throughout blustering bucolic landscapes and spiritual vernaculars through latent mythical visions and occultist symbolism.

Penda’s Fen

Written by David Rudkin and directed by Alan Clarke, Penda's Fen was first broadcast in 1974 as part of the BBC's Play for Today series. It tells the story of seventeen year-old Stephen, a middle-class pastor's son who has a bizarre series of encounters with angels, the composer Edward Elgar, and King Penda, the mythical last pagan ruler of England. These encounters - whether real or imagined - force Stephen to question his religious beliefs, his politics and his sexuality. “An unforgettable hybrid of horror story, rites-of‑passage spiritual quest and vision of an alternative England that has been hailed as one of the most original and vauntingly ambitious British films of the last half century.”

Woven Skull

Minimal repetitions made inside of haunted woods and burning bogs under the sacrificial moon in the wilds. ‘Like sweet bells jangled, out of time and harsh.’ Woven Skull is the vessel with which the sound of larks, lakes and the high breeze off tree tops travels from its source to the comfortable confines of rigid amplification, battered drumskins and rusty chimes into repetitive dark melodies. Since 2008 the core trio that make up Woven Skull have been gathering together in the Northwest of Ireland in a place called Leitrim which is known for its tales of ghosts, ‘tree folk’, under water creatures and the constant battle calls of the ancient Tuatha De Danann that can be heard on Letirim's Iron Mountain. These are the surroundings and forces that influence the sound that Woven Skull create: a contrast of minimal drones, repetition and psychedelic distorted riffs all layered in constant unconscious rhythms.

Phil Owen

Phil Owen is a writer and singer from North Somerset. He has been in love with old traditional and folk singing practices from various parts of the world since he was a child. His project ‘where is this voice coming from and who am I when I can hear it?’ explores different aspects of voice, identity, inheritance and appropriation. He will present a section of this tonight, inspired by the Edwardian folk song collectors and the English rural landscape. Expect a voice in the dark.

ONOMATO presents work and events through a line of research; a conversation; a transmission; or unification through the means of sound, music, image,performance,collaboration within alt-culture.

www.onomato.co.uk

samfrancisco5@hotmail.com