Lost in the Hills
8th and 9th July 2023
The second installment of Lost in the Hills, our annual music and arts festival, took place on Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th of July 2023, with live music, an arts and sculpture trail and a host of creative workshops, spoken word and dance performances, craft stalls, artisan food and real ales. The line-up of world, experimental, folk, contemporary and electronic music included performances by Shunya, Balladeste, Elf Traps, Yama Warashi, Sentido Andino, Three Body, Seas of Mirth, Emergence Collective, Kefi, Rosie Brownhill, Araya, The Seekers, Richard Belfitt, Ben McElroy, Alex Skinz, Jimsun and Tom Harris.
There were creative workshops by Les Soeurs Anglaises, By Our Hands We Make Our Way, Dylan Meyer, Miriam Robson, Lois Feather and Hannah Jacob-Flynn and we had some beautiful photography, arts and crafts and stalls by Marie La Starza, Molly Treanor, Bill Elliott, Shaun De Mendonca and Dylan Meyer, the Holm Oak, the Braiding Bike, healing by Nakiki Natural Wellness, spoken word performances by Julian Hackett, Josephine Vaillant, Charlotte Lunn, Megan Louise and Pippa Nayer, and dance performances by Freya Walker, Jen Whittaker and Michelle Williamson. Catering was provided by Chris Quinby and Jamie Osbourne, sound and lighting by Giles Stocks, Chris Smith and Resonant Sounds (with some next level projectors provided by Lemonzest Events) and our comperes were Pippa Nayer and Paul Lynch. Camping was provided by Grove Farm, a beautiful site looking over the valley just a short walk from the festival site. The whole event was supported by the Arts Council England and the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. We had a host of amazing volunteers from the community taking part, with a reduced entry fee on Sunday 9th.
Shunya
Saturday 22:30 Geodome
After a stunning set at the first Lost in the Hills festival back in September, Shunya will be returning to the Peaks on July 8th for another genre-bending, cutting edge, culture-chopping performance.
Shunya is the brainchild of Alan Keary, a multi-instrumentalist who performs regularly with the amazing Abel Selacoe (check out their incredible performance on Jools Holland) and the contemporary classical ensemble Manchester Collective. He also hosts collaborative improvised events throughout the year, putting together some incredible talent including Luke Flowers (Cinematic Orchestra), Rioghnach Connolly (Honeyfeet), Dudu Kouate , Jason Singh, Rob Turner (of GoGo Penguin fame) and Sidiki Dembele.
Check out the stunning debut album ‘I Have Aspirations for Dragonflies’, released on May 19th!
Elf traps
Saturday 21:00 Geodome
Drummer Rob Turner (of GoGo Penguin fame) and synth master Liviu Gheorghe team up to create a brand new, interstellar rhythm. The intricate technical set up sees the drum and synth signals feed and loop between each other to create complex arpeggiated patterns and bubbling, textured breakbeats. A rich, raw and intuitive energy pulses through the sound and inhabits the conceptual process, resulting in a seamless blend of electronic and organic elements.
Yama warashi
Sunday 17:00 Geodome
Japanese artist Yoshino Shigihara was the co-founder the now defunct Maloya-infuenced raucous psychedelia collective Zun Zun Egui. She has more recently blossomed as the driving force behind Yama Warashi (‘Mountain Spirit’ in Japanese), with a meditative and territorially transcendent sound. Japanese folk dance meets free jazz, tribal African and psychedelic music. We can’t wait for their set at Lost in the Hills.
Balladeste
Preetha Narayanan (violin) and Tara Franks (cello) blend traces of contemporary minimalism with Indian classical and folk. Their sparklingly original compositions are vibrant and experimental and their gorgeous debut album Beyond Breath is mesmerising, meditative and transcendental. Please go and check it out... You’re in for a real treat!
Saturday 19:30 Geodome
Three Body
Sunday 18:30 Geodome
Eclectic conversations between floating woodwinds and raw, minimal, broken beats are filtered through the liminal space between digital neon futurism and olde world organica. An innovative and cosmic exploration of contemporary electronic jazz and its relationship with ethnic rhythms and tones.
Three Body are Pete Beardsworth [Keys, Woodwind], Tom Towle [Drums & Moog] and Guohan Zeng [Percussion & Samplers]. The trio are the leading forces behind Nottingham collective Running Circle Records.
sentido andino
Saturday 16:15 Geodome
Sentido Andino will be performing a collection of traditional Andean folk songs and South American laments. The music will transport you to the Andean mountains with their mesmerising and intricate arpeggios and soaring passionate vocal melodies, imbued with the spirit of the Incas. Instruments include the charango, cuatro venezolano, ronroco boliviano and the bombo andino.
seas of mirth
Saturday 17:45 Terrace
The midlands’ most intrepid deep sea explorers Seas Of Mirth will be joining us for a stripped back set at Lost in the Hills in July. Progressive folk, psyche, dark funk, jazz, disco, ambient, latin and club beats merge seamlessly with the sounds of waves, whales and submarines. Their immersive show includes bubbles, luminous sea creatures and audience participation.
kefi
Saturday 20:15 Terrace
Greek Rumbetiko Dub Odyssey from North London and Nottingham. Picture Lee Scratch Perry hiding in the Trojan Horse waiting to shake the city walls down from within with some serious heavyweight basslines.
emergence collective
Sunday 19:45 Terrace
Eclectic improvised minimalism, drawing on folk, jazz, early, and contemporary classical music. Sheffield's Emergence Collective produce a hypnotic kaleidoscope of sound through an intuitive and democratic process and approach to music-making.
Saturday
17:00 Terrace
Rosie Brownhill
Rosie Brownhill communes with the ghosts and histories that inhabit the the land with her ancient and earthy instrumental folk, conjuring up images of harvests, moors, bees and creatures wild and windy, with a whistle, acoustic guitar and a chord organ.
The seekers
Sunday
17:45 Terrace
Experimental, multicultural explorers The Seekers are digging for meaning in the sound patterns of the universe, bridging sufi music, the poetic expressions of the soul and contemplation of the divine essence.
Richard belfitt
Sunday
13:45 Terrace
Derby's Richard Belfitt performs jazz, soul, and folk influenced solo improvisations on electric guitar and synthesizer, with layered mood boards of mathmatical grooves, slick textured wah-wah riffs and warped melting synths.
Tom Harris
Sunday
13:00 Geodome
Tom Harris is a sound artist whose practice takes in everything from social history and deconstruction, to meditation and creative processing. Searching for identity and inner peace, whilst navigating a passage through the labyrinth of the city walls, he explores the constant tension between hope and the insistent and sinking energy of dark matter. The muses tease and taunt and the beats and textures pull against each other to form a carefully considered impression of organised chaos. Thoughtful ambient soundscapes with undercurrents of scratched and sliced hip hop.
Ben Mcelroy
Sunday
14:30 Geodome
Nottingham's Ben McElroy fuses bows, feathers, laptops, loops and wires into a multitude of harmonic echo chambers. A meditative tapestry of digital and medieval spells.
Alex Skinz
Sunday
20:00 Geodome
Alex Skinz draws influence from roots, dub, reggae, hip-hop and blues, full of groove with his finger on the pulse of popular counter-culture and smooth vibes and herbalicious skanks. When Leadbelly, Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain got together for a jam around the fire
jimsun
Sunday
20:30 Terrace
Jimsun aka Jaime Gonzales, will be cooking up a semi-improvised lo-fi set with hip hop, folk, Latin, soul and dub flavours. Silky smooth vocals merge with kooky loops, twisted effects, filters and time-stretched samples to create his signature sun-drenched soundscapes.
Araya
Sunday
15:45 Geodome
'Araya' is Thai word for sunshine and good luck. She performs original songs and music with elements of punk, trip-hop and latin jazz. One to watch for the future...
TWo Mirrors
A reflection of the infinite emptiness within: anguished contemporary folk songs echo through the autumn mists and whisper of the tragedy of the shallow seas. Ancient myths and reincarnated sorrows seep through the melodies and irregular phrasing to shape the earthy and introspective sounds of Two Mirrors. Contemporary folk with experimntal tunings.
Saturday
14:45 Geodome
