FIELD MUSIC TO PERFORM NEW SOUNDTRACK TO SEMINAL DOCUMENTARY DRIFTERS

PERFORMANCE REUNITES ORIGINAL BAND LINE UP OF PETER BREWIS, DAVID BREWIS AND ANDREW MOORE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2007
BERWICK FILM FESTIVAL TAKES PLACE 25TH TO 29TH SEPTEMBER

The Berwick Film Festival is excited to be able to give details about a second commission: a new, musical response to the seminal silent documentary, Drifters (1929).
Drifters was directed by John Grierson – a pioneering Scottish filmmaker known for coining the term ‘documentary’. The film follows the working day of a herring fishing fleet as they set sail from the Shetland Islands to battle the elements of the North Sea fishing grounds.

The newly-composed, cinematic score will be performed live at the festival by Field Music, the Mercury Prize-shortlisted band led by Sunderland brothers Peter and David Brewis. Over the course of four critically-acclaimed albums and numerous extra-curricular projects, Field Music have become standard bearers for music in the North East. This commission sees the original line-up of Peter, David and Andrew Moore reunite for the first time since 2007.
David Brewis said of the commission: “It’s incredibly exciting to be working with Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival to create something quite unique and it’s especially exciting that we’re going to do it with Andy back in the fold. We intended to take a breather from regular band activities this year after a fairly hectic schedule touring for the last two Field Music records and this is exactly the kind of project we wanted to make time for; something which forces us to think and work in a different way and which will hopefully spur us to make something different and inspiring.”

Drifters – which originally premiered in 1929 alongside Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin ­– will be presented for the first time with its new soundtrack in Berwick as part of the Festival before going on to tour other cinemas and events across the UK. The live event responds to the Festival’s theme this year, North by Northeast, which explores the region’s historical links to Northern Europe, and to the North Sea. This new commission has been supported by PRS for Music Foundation and Arts Council England.

Field Music hail from Sunderland in North East England. Led by brothers Peter and David Brewis, the band’s music draws on influences as wide-ranging as Stravinsky, Stax R&B, Fleetwood Mac, Serge Gainsbourg, Thelonious Monk and Kate Bush. Nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2012, Field Music have played festivals world-wide from Glastonbury to SXSW, becoming known internationally for a deconstructionist approach to songwriting, playfully twisting compositions into new and odd shapes, with a refreshing disregard for convention and cliché.

Field Music are signed to Memphis Industries.

http://www.berwickfilm-artsfest.com/
http://www.field-music.co.uk/
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