Britain uncovered

admin August 12, 2015

LOCATION: Swanscombe, north-west Kent

MUSIC: Hand of Stabs 

Unofficial Britain is delighted to share another site-specific performance by the experimental sound collective Hand of Stabs.

In Barnfield Pit, the bones of our ancestors groan and shift uneasily in the shadow of Bluewater shopping centre. Rhythms creep from the ancient gravels. Time creaks.

Here’s what the band has to say about the recording:

“This recording is an invocation of the Palaeolithic woman whose skull fragments were discovered by the amateur archaeologist Alvan T. Marston at Barnfield Pit, north-west Kent in 1935.

The excavation site is a stone’s throw from the Bluewater shopping complex and Hand of Stabs are fascinated that the area itself epitomises both the beginning and end of cultural life on this island.

While recording, we envisaged this 400,000 year-old spirit moving through the retail outlets and food halls, imagining the emotional collision or attraction that might occur between those opposing worlds.

The album ends on a rasping cello note that suggests a final breath and reminds us that in the far future, our shopping arcades and sandwich franchises will themselves be history.”

For further deeply topographical sonic experiments…

Click here to watch Hand of Stabs’ Hallux Working, their performance beside an abandoned monument to arrogance.

Or click here for the video for Asemic Approach.

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

Hand of Stabs is a neolithic soul drone collective from the Medway Delta, specialising in site-specific performance.

Like Hand of Stabs on Facebook 

Or go to Hand of Stabs’ Bandcamp page