Layla Legard – This is a Portal
This is a Portal developed from field recordings and improvisations at Hob Thirst’s House:
a cave in Deepdale near Buxton. Here, a local tailor and amateur archaeologist discovered a Romano-British burial in the 1890s, and an assemblage of coins, jewellery and precious objects suggesting offerings at a religious site. The piece uses treated field recordings of ancient instruments such as jaw harp and bull roarer, which have often been found in cave habitations across Europe.
These are combined with impulse responses, tape loops, gong and spoken word to explore a collaboration with a presence that continues to linger in the cave. Layla Legard is a Leeds-based vocalist and musician who draws her inspiration from landscape and place via archaeological research, imaginative and magical practices, and improvisation. She plays drums in the Welsh-language avant-goth band Tristwch y Fenywod, has released three albums with her experimental duo Hawthonn, and recently recorded an album with the folk band Wire Worms. She is currently working on a music and arts project called Axe Factory, which connects nuclear semiotics and neolithic archaeology in West Cumbria.
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