Joanna Wallfisch blogs for BWW about taking The Great Song Cycle The Great Song Cycle to the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Sometimes the best art is created as a result of emotional and physical struggle, whether caused by heartbreak, bereavement, losing your job, or, in my case pushing yourself along at 8mph in 40 degree-heat on a pushbike for 100 miles in California completely dehydrated and semi-delusional. It is the unique nature of the 'muse', the moment that inspiration hits that, as artists, we can't predict nor foresee, but when the iron strikes, it strikes hot!
In the summer of 2016 I released my third album called "Gardens In My Mind" (Sunnyside Records), and I was seeking a way to combine an album release tour with a real adventure. I was tired of the grind and inward looking nature of New York City, and needed to get out of my skin and reconnect with the simple, basic fundamentals of what it is to just exist. Then the idea came to me - I would take my bike, my ukulele and loop pedal, my camping gear and my concert clothes, and cycle nearly 1200 miles down the west coast of America, and play concerts all along the way. I would call the tour "THE GREAT SONG CYCLE".
Fast forward two years and there hasn't been a day that I've not spoken or sung about that journey. It completely altered my perception and changed my life. In trying to distill an experience that was beyond even my imagination I have turned THE GREAT SONG CYCLE, into THE GREAT SONG CYCLE, SONG CYCLE - a through composed piece, inclusive of spoken word, vocal and instrumental soundscapes and, of course, song. As was the initial bike trip itself, this is a one-woman show, and I will be accompanying myself on many instruments, including: baritone ukulele, toy piano, kazoo, melodica and percussion, all the while creating sublime and atmospheric soundscapes with my loop pedal, telling tales and singing these songs!
I invite you, the audience to saddle up with me, so that you too can feel the wind in your hair, the sun on your back, your mind clearing, your senses heightening, and life zooming into a single focus - the present. I will take you with me on a journey that travels from mediation and solitude of the road, to a hilarious friendship made with Rex The Travelling Dog, to the dark and sometimes tragic encounters with a father-son camping trip soaked in whiskey, or the mysterious man with the sapphire blue eyes... and everything in between.
I will performing this piece on the two year anniversary of the actual journey, and I am so glad to be reliving it through music with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival audience... it has been a long and epic journey to this point, but worth every drop of sweat, blood and tears.
Timings and ticket information for The Great Song Cycle The Great Song Cycle are available on the edfringe website.
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