The city’s always moved to its own rhythm. Its own beat.
Celebrating the pulse of the place we call home, Liverpool culture magazine SevenStreets has been working with the band Picture Book, aka Dario Darnell and Lorne Ashley, filmmaker Mark McNulty and a cast of city characters who move and shake in all the right places.
Together, they’ve created an entirely new commission in celebration of the city’s newest festival, the Liverpool International Music Festival.
The New Mersey Beat is a composition and film that weaves together the sounds of the city – from the percussion of our pedestrians to the whirl and hum of the hairdryers at Herberts.
“We’ve always celebrated music and creativity in its widest sense,” says SevenStreets editor David Lloyd, “and we were keen to show that, in this city, culture and coolness isn’t constrained within the walls of our world class institutions. Nor is the most exciting music ring fenced in the city’s hottest clubs.”
“We love the sound of the city – the streets, the buskers, the folk singers, the choirs, the cool kids and the curious characters…so we wanted to weave these real music makers together in a piece that really evoked a sense of place. A celebration of the musical DNA that makes up Liverpool.”
“Liverpool and music are my two favourite subjects so put them all into one project and I’m a happy man with a camera,” says McNulty. “I’ve been documenting Liverpool and it’s music scene for over 20 years so to put such a cross section of it into one short film, from lone drummers to the biggest band in town, was just fantastic.
“I’m very excited for the release of the New Merseybeat project and very proud to have been involved in helping make it happen. The music and visual is a testament to the wonderfully vibrant music city we live in and the amazing vision of Dave Lloyd, Picture Book and Mark McNulty,” says LIMF curator Yaw Owusu.
For Picture Book, Dario Darnell says it simply:”What a perfect opportunity to give our best back to a city that gave us it’s best. Thanks go to Liverpool; its people and its music made us.”
The piece will be performed live, in Sefton Park, on Monday, August 26.
To see the amazing video visit www.limfestival.com