Paul’s Poem (2010)

Fragments from ’Adventures in the House of Memory’, a poem by pyrotechnic drummer and musician Paul Burwell, were performed randomly in locations with different acoustics; by the Thames, under railway bridges, in St Paul’s cathedral, over roof tops above the City, in a café, on the Underground, as screams, drills, sirens, footsteps and arias rattle to the drifts of metallic percussion from a recording of Paul drumming solo at the LMC. In a collage of chance polyphony, words from the poem are scratched the length of 35mm struck stock with a potato peeler, layered in loops and arabesques over scraps of Super 8 and 16mm footage from the ’80’s, ’90’s, Burwell era with flares, ropes, derelict buildings, knives, fighting, graffiti and peeling walls…