BOTTLE ALLEY MUSIC TO LIGHT SHOWS

Shortly after we’d completed our first presentation of our Wavelength artwork, in Bottle Alley 2017, a 500 meter long beach side walkway bridging the two seaside towns of St.Leonards on Sea and Hastings, the local council, in consultation with PR Lighting and Osram, installed a programmable LED lighting system that runs the entire length of the space. In order to showcase the systems capabilities the council commissioned us to create an audio reactive presentation for a few invited guests. We created a 12 minute show with music. The sound was a mixed sequence of electronic music, which was amplified through out the space. We designed an audio reactive animation sequence which was pixel mapped across 10 DMX universes. The lighting system went on to win the 2018 ‘Outdoor Lighting Project of the Year’ Award at the prestigious LUX Awards.

On Thursday 28th March 2024 we re-visited the idea of the Music to Light Show and created a unique musical happening for the local community, a 2 hours in Bottle Alley as part of our current run of work in the space.
We created a 20 minute pre-recorded music to light sequence for the alley’s 1524 lights and lined the space with speakers for the great folk of Hastings and St Leonards to congregate and promenade amongst. Most people chose to walk or dance their way through the space constantly moving up and down.
The low tide and galeforce winds formed a dramatic backdrop to the event adding to the often intense atmosphere. It was a truly magical experience, a shared collective appreciation of music/ darkness/ light/ togetherness. It was beautiful to see young and old people spontaneously dancing together to music ranging from 70’s Disco to 90’s Sheffield Bleep, in a storm, in an alley, in the dark. 

No marks were made in the making of this artwork but the memories will remain.

Thank you to @starskyandhatch and @selkieseafoodbar for supporting the event. @miss_mmm for being our backbone and guiding us through. Our wonderful and generous volunteers for the audience counting. @accordav.co.uk for the soundsystem. @StirlingSecurityServices for their excellent staff. Also thanks to Aaron Woods for continued and unwavering support.

SOUNDTRACK:
– Wild Signals (Close Encounters of the Third Kind OST): John Williams
– Flutters: Church Andrews & Matt Davies
– Windowlicker: Aphex Twin
– Dance: ESG
– Love is the Message: MFSB
– Black Umberella: Broadcast
-Tour De France: Kraftwerk
– Testfour: Sweet Exorcist
– Unknown Bach compostion: Wendy Carlos
– Night on Bald Mountain: Modest Mussorgsky