Past Work – Mel McCree

I like Grayson Perry’s idea that phones and laptops are like portable shrines, where we store and cherish that which we love. Here are some wonderful projects I’ve been part of. My archiving is like a messy bedroom, under the bed, or the bit at the end of the garden where nobody goes…(I have fairies for secretaries).

Now the pile of messy experience is self-organising and growing its own mutant form of intelligence, spreading rhizomatically all around the place.

It’s time for action. I am cautiously undertaking some tidy-up time and will gradually add more past projects to this page.

Image credits: internet scavenged from bedroom, perry shrine, fairies

My LinkedIn Profile lists most of my past projects

SELECTED PAST PROJECTS

Vocal Migrations 2012

Audio-visual artist Kathy Hinde invited the choir and I to collaborate on her project creating a form of human sonar, or echo location. We have been playing like bats and developing a new vocal composition using the devices. The project journal charts the journey it has taken.

Outdoor Play and Learning 2010-11

Two projects for Black Country Creative Partnerships, developing creative outdoor approaches within KS1 with children, training and mentoring staff. There were been worm races, monsters in the woods, homes to build, stories to tell around the fire, clues to unravel, problems to solve and trails to follow. I was cloaked in my alter ego, a reflective detective, who loves nothing better than a messy mystery and some assistant detectives to help investigate.

You can listen to the story trails from one project.

Posted in ecopyschology, improvisation, interspecies communication, music, news, outdoor, pedagogy, play, research, voice

Words In Music: A musical & spoken word performance for literary events. Booking for 2012.

The Bookshop Band write songs about books. Mel McCree sings and writes books.

Together they present a new show that meanders musically through literature, like a slow afternoon walk with a good friend. With lyrical accompaniment from the Bookshop Band, Mel reads and sings extracts by request. This part is fresh and improvised. Then the Band present a menu of songs based on books from their celebrated residency at Mr B’s Book Emporium in Bath.

The Bookshop Band have attracted national attention since forming at Mr B’s in 2010, appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. Their album ‘Travels From Your Armchair’ (mixed at Real World Studios near Bath) sells from Mr B’s while the band members Ben Please, Poppy Pitt and Beth Porter busy themselves with a host of musical and creative projects. With a background in theatre, music and voice, Mel is well suited to the role of reader and vocalist, bringing playful and adventurous possibility to the collaboration.

You’ll like this if you enjoy:

BBC R3‘s ‘Words and Music’ , acoustic singer-songwriters, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, ‘A Digested Read’ by Crace, sparse and beautiful sounds.

Note to event organisers: Specific texts can be requested by the organisers to tie in with author appearances or book launches.

A selection of book extracts can be chosen live during or preceding the event by the audience. Spoken simply with a subtle soundtrack, or evocative musical reconstructions of the text leading into song or groove. Both bring the book’s words and themes to life in new ways.

An engaging live music performance that embraces the form of book reading; ‘Words in Music’ lends variety and audience interactivity to a literary event.

‘Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.’ Victor Hugo
‘Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.’  E.Y. Harburg
‘Music does not replace words, it gives tone to the words.’ Elie Wiesel