Programme note

One evening in late autumn, I was walking home across Blackheath and noticed that the light of the sun, very low in the sky just before setting, was casting spectacular long shadows across the heath. In theatre, ‘crosslighting’ is a technique where the lights are positioned low down and light a scene from the side rather than from above.

It had been an amazing summer, weather-wise. There were quite a few people around.. families, kids larking about.. chatting etc. but amongst them all and myself I sensed a collective feeling of quiet, peaceful contentment.. almost a silent appreciation of a perfect kind of close to the whole summer. As if summer was saying “that’s yer lot folks!” (and indeed the weather turned miserable the very next day).

But I decided to capture that magical moment in this short piece. It’s a kind of early autumn evening nocturne.

-Adrian Sutton

(audio extract is a studio production of the piece by Adrian Sutton)