An Unsingular Beach Assemblage

The Assembled
Friday 13 May
7pm
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York

A group of strangely-clad musicians arrive, unadvertised, on the beach….’: these words introduce Trevor Wishart’s summary of the events of Beach Singularity, a series of beach performances in 1977 that combined typical English seaside activities and soundworlds with extensions and distortions. Beach-related sounds and tunes were combined with experimental montages, sand-castle building with stylized moments of marching or dancing.

An Unsingular Beach Assemblage is devised by The Assembled as an homage to Beach Singularity, but also to its making. The Wishart Archive held in the Borthwick Archives here at the University includes various bits and scraps of Wishart’s notes towards Beach Singularity: index cards with ideas, lists, plans, letters to relevant council offices to Gian permission for the events, and so on. Our performance incorporates some of the activities of the original performance, but also draws on the archive materials, playfully exploring the project and its making.