Burrough on the Hill was privileged to host an outstanding performance of Country, Folk, and Pop songs sung by The Athenrye Duo last Friday. The Church of St Mary the Virgin formed an atmospheric venue for local musicians Jackie Smith and Anton Mardel-Ferreira, who formed the Duo a year ago and are rapidly making a name for themselves. The fully live music had Jackie as lead singer with Anton on backing vocals whilst also accompanying on guitar and harmonica.On a warm summer’s evening the audience were treated to beautiful renditions of classic songs such as ‘Catch The Wind’ by Donovan, ‘The Climb’ by Miley Cyrus, and of course ‘Fields of Athenry’ by The Dubliners. Rich sound floated through the acoustics of the stone church building, which was filled with glorious light from the setting sun as it shone through the colourful Victorian stained glass windows. At the end of the performance an encore was acknowledged by a standing ovation and the audience were reluctant to leave.Jackie and Anton generously gave their time and their skill for free, in order to raise money for The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT), a charity which holds particular significance for them: they have recently seen at first hand the help which CHECT has provided to a young girl called Mabel, who lives in a nearby Leicestershire village and is the grand daughter of friends of theirs. CHECT is dedicated to supporting children, families and adults affected by Retinoblastoma, which is a rare form of eye cancer that typically affects children under six, the impacts of which can last a lifetime. Anton spoke movingly inbetween numbers about how important this support had been for Mabel and her family, and how humbling it is to see young children bravely and even cheerfully coping with their condition.A proportion of donations and profits at the concert also went towards the upkeep of the historic venue, The Church of St Mary the Virgin. Annual running costs for an ancient building such as this are currently around £9,000 per annum, which has to be funded by local parishioners from donations and events. On top of this, the building urgently needs repair to the soft sandstone of the tower, which will cost in the region of £20,000, a huge sum which also has to be met through fundraising and grants.The generosity of the concert audience raised a total sum in excess of £800 which will be put to good use by the charity and will also help keep the church open both for worship and for community purposes such as this wonderful concert.
We are currently raising funds to repair the stonework to the church tower. This work has been highlighted as urgent in the latest five-year quinqennial review by a professional architect. The architect estimates it will cost a six figure sum including scaffolding, alarm extension and professional and other fees. We are seeking grants to cover the majority of this sum but in reality at least several thousand pounds of it will need to be raised by the PCC and Friends of Burrough through donations and fundraising events. The tower is constructed mainly from local sandstone with local limestone. This needs regular monitoring and maintenance to the mortar joints to prevent rain ingress and ice eroding and cracking the stone. The church architect's recommendation is that repairs including lime mortar pointing and replacement of eroded stones to the steeple, tower and parapet coping stones should be undertaken in the next twelve months.If you would like to help by making a donation, download the attached document at the top of this page (Sumup QR Code 3) and scan the QR code. This will lead you to the Sumup donation page.Alternatively, cut and paste the following link into your browser:https://pay.sumup.com/b2c/QZMG9XP7?utm_source=qr&utm_medium=digital&utm_campaign=imageWe would be hugely grateful for any contribution.
Artist and multi-instrumentalist Flaer looks to the landscape to explore pastoral melancholy on debut release, Preludes.Ensconced in his family home in rural Leicestershire in the early months of 2020, painter and musician Realf Heygate (b. 1994) picked up his childhood cello for the first time in several years and began to play.Setting himself parameters to only record onto 4-track tape with acoustic instruments – cello, piano and acoustic guitar – he assembled a suite of instrumental compositions that form the basis of Preludes, his debut album as Flaer and the inaugural release on Odda Recordings.Channelling the tension and unease between the pastoral idyll of the English countryside and the darkness which lurks beneath the surface, the mini-album draws inspiration from the analogue aesthetic of 1970s folk horror films, weaving field recordings of birdsong, church bells and the natural environment into chimerical melodies that reflect on Heygate’s childhood experiences of rural England.“It was really important not to isolate the sound from its environment,” he explains, describing the compositional and recording process as “site-specific”. Developed over a series of intuitive musical enquiries, the mini-album’s uncanny quality emerges from combining raw demo takes with overdubs of an almost orchestral grandeur.Heygate points to the final track as indicative of the work as a whole: “‘Follow’ really is the mantra for the release and embodies the practical approach I was taking to music making: not to force the music but see where it takes you.”As a painter, Heygate’s practice takes artefacts through sequences of reproduction that embrace the fluctuating materiality of the copy. Since obtaining a degree in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in 2017, he has exhibited solo at Peter von Kant and Springseason galleries in London, and has participated in group shows at Saatchi Gallery, Cob Gallery and Senesi Contemporanea.Describing his artistic practice as one of self-erasure, music instead provides Heygate with a more personal and autobiographical outlet. Where the two worlds combine is on Preludes’ striking artwork, which features paintings of 13th century stone carvings from the font of the church in the town where he grew up.Speaking to a time where people were connected to the land in a more profound way, each symbol is assigned to a track on the album, which Heygate likens to giving them a title.“To add that one juxtaposition might open a whole new interpretation or language that might be hard to find otherwise,” he explains. “Over time it might reveal itself to you, which is why I'm excited about it being released. To throw them out there and see what comes of it.”As the name suggests, Preludes is just the beginning.
