Fiesta was a special audio-visual collaboration between media artist Christopher Thomas Allen from The Light Surgeons and pioneering electronic musician Matthew Herbert for Splice Festival in 2018. This exclusive commissioned live set responded to the theme of Brexit by examining the things we would lose as a result of leaving the EU and their impact on society. All of the visual and audio aspects of this performance were created in the three days leading up to the festival’s opening event at Rich Mix in London.

The piece was driven by Matthew Herbert‘s desire to take apart an old Ford Fiesta car as a symbolic act. Matthew saw this deconstruction and the recording of it as a reflection of destroying something that works into its parts as a representation of the Brexit process at that time. The piece reflected on the impact and disruption on the UK’s economy, particularly the supply lines in our car manufacturing industry, but also stands as an audio-visual metaphor of the wider social and cultural fragmentation caused by the political agenda of Brexit in the UK and internationally.

The result was a sonically and visually intense 20-minute improvised live audio-visual set that was launched without any rehearsal. Herbert and Allen were joined on stage by Hugh Jones on electronics, who used various car parts as instruments and midi interfaces during the show, along with the amazing Byron Wallen on trumpet.

This collaboration resulted in the track “Fiesta”, created from the sounds recorded during the deconstruction of the car, that features on Matthew Herbert‘s album “The State Between Us“, released in March 2019 on the day Britain was officially meant to leave the EU according to the article 50 agreement.

For more audio-visual performances, panel discussions, and talks from the Splice Festival archives please visit: splicefestival.com

Credits:

Partners:

Accidental Recordings
Splice Festival
Arts Council England
Creative Europe