Aphasia New Music Group: Drop the album please!
Before I begin the main article I wanted to take a moment to talk about the incredible work of Aphasia New Music Group. Aphasia is a language processing disorder that is the result of brain damage, typically manifesting in difficulties speaking, reading, writing, and understanding. It does not affect intelligence. Aphasia New Music Group began in January 2023, challenging its impacts on a person’s everyday life in addition to their sense of self, confidence, and relationships, since. People with language difficulties, speech and language therapists from UCL’s Communication Clinic, and professional musicians, were united as part of a collaboration with Oedipa. Whilst the project has been funded historically by Arts Council England, and currently by the City Bridge Foundation, The Tavistock Trust for Aphasia, and a private donor I have included a link to their GoFundMe page. Any donation that can be made will support the future of Aphasia New Music Group and the wonderful work they do.
On to the live review…
Picture this. It’s a drizzly evening on November 8th and I’m late getting to Bloomsbury Theatre (classic). Frantically I’m trying to convince my phone to hold out its last 10% to see me through the door. Everyone is inside already, the attendants are not impressed and understandably so. I hear the subtle hum of ‘Learning (Again)’ just ended, the lull in the noise before the audience erupts into applause. I sense my opportunity and take it, clapping and clambering to my assigned seat getting redder with each second as the result of my transportation transgressions. Note to self: always leave an extra 15 minutes when taking the bus past 4pm.
I thankfully settled into my seat in time to catch some of the speeches given by singers within the group. Each one offering their insights and experiences to us that inform the reasons why the group was put together. More importantly what its members put into the group, as well as what they get out of it. Fe’s sentiments stuck with me most. Smiling widely, she said that for someone “musically-minded”, being able to “blast out the songs” she created alongside the people standing around her is something so important to her. Having a community is as essential to us as humans, it was so special to see one with such creativity and passion for what they do.
With that, their creativity shone through with ‘Alone With You’. What was at first a darker sentiment was uplifted through a seamless key change into a song about hope and the singers’ relationships to those around them. Advocating for themselves and recognising the love they deserve, as well as the love they give to their family, friends, partners, and wider support networks. The music swelled and softened, like lungs taking in a breath of fresh air. Fresh is a more than apt description, having written all the songs performed as part of Aphasia New Music Group, singers worked with other music makers and speech and language therapists resulting in a unique and vibrant setlist speaking to personal experience. It was accompanied by carefully crafted visuals that reflected the people that made them so beautifully. This included a specific typeface created by Eilish Briscoe that utilised the handwriting of the various group members to present the lyrics in a meaningful way that allowed the audience to truly appreciate their nuance.
As well as musical performances, a stand out feature of the evening was Haide’s poem: ‘Plant a Tree’. Through prose and powerful speech we were taken on a journey of growth, both through the metaphor of the tree but also in confidence. From small beginnings (seeds), Haide detailed the various meanings of the trees in our life. They are nurturing, they are strong, they are steadfast. Her piece ended with the call to “let us grow” just as we should let trees grow. A kind reminder that all good things take time and it is always worth it for everyone involved.
A new energy filled the room as the group launched into their performance of ‘The Red Room’. A song that speaks to the group’s passion both musically in the marching power chords of the pre-chorus, the soars of strings, and the collective voice of the members of Aphasia New Music Group. “Red is the colour of strong emotions: anger, love”, said Andrew Stooke, the illustrator behind the images and animation of the displayed lyrics. The drawn characters are on a journey, reflecting the personal journeys undertaken by the group members with Aphasia, a “journey of being messed up together” and “the harmony [they] are working towards”. Red is also the colour of the room that the performed songs were composed in, it was a place of meeting. With “red walls, red blinds, [and] red curtains” the title of the song was situated not only in emotions but a physical story of the performers.
Two images taken by the author of the performance and illustrations of ‘The Red Room’.
One of those stories was shared by Colin Lyall, who had suffered a stroke 12 years prior to the performance and had set up Say Aphasia – a space that provides support, inclusivity, and understanding to adults with acquired communication disabilities. He also explained that one of ‘The Red Room’’s influences was David Bowie, with the group adopting his writing technique of cutting up and rearranging lyrics to craft the song. On that same note he spoke fondly and lightheartedly about his mum’s relation to Bowie, how she liked his music but not so much his clothes. She had passed not long before the performance and so ‘The Red Room’ had been dedicated to her.
The planned setlist ended on ‘Diamond Grit’. It was full of the same energy that had characterised the rest of the evening. Here on stage was a group of people proud to be performing their experience and their work, something I find to be one of the best bits of seeing any live show. Everyone was playing their fullest. With the lively movements of the conductors, the invigorated singers and the seven instrumentalists alike flourished with the presumed final song.
The audience had other ideas. During roaring applause and congratulations, chants of “one more song” and “encore” began to ring around the room. We got what we wished for. Given the chance to vote, ‘The Red Room’ was selected, though now being more familiar with the words the audience joined in on the final chorus ending the show on the same themes that Aphasia New Music Group had started with. Community, passion, as well as a love for music and all it has to offer.
