Day 3
I woke up and went for another run along the river spree through the forest, I feel it’s a really great way to start the day fresh! We had another breakfast meeting and planned the day.

Firstly, I recorded a vocal part for one of the beats Nick had made which was in 5/4 timing based on some old Welsh folk rhythms he’d researched. I wanted a song which featured English, Welsh, Sorbian and German on it, so just used one line from the call that Rebecca Rioters used to use in a theatrical call to their ‘mother’ before destroying the toll gates.

Rebecca: “Wait! It feels like a big gate put across the road to stop your old mother.”
Rioters: “We will break it down, mother. Nothing stands in your way.”

I recorded it in Welsh and English, then Maja and Sophia added a Sorbian and German version later that evening. This is a track I plan to produce further with Nick when we get home, and we can mess about with it more once this week is up. I liked that it’s a nod to a creative form of protesting, as well as a powerful statement. I hope I can make something cool with the four languages on, but as we are so busy here I’m planning to finish that one back in the UK.

After this Sophia (Ida Bux) put a Sorbian rap down on one of Nick’s beats, the lyrics were about rumours and gossip within the Sorbian world (something anyone from a Welsh village can also relate to, I’m sure!). Later in the afternoon Erik Schiesko arrived and performed one of his original piano pieces, Paul Geigerzähler played violin on it and Nick used the acoustics of the room and recorded the little interlude for our ‘album’, it has a nice bit of dramatic feel. I began to feel that we should have brought more Welsh musicians with us, as the Sorbian side was definitely coming in stronger on the songs, but then I realised that was probably natural as we were in their region, and we were just being spoilt by all the talented Sorbs that were keen to be involved (it would have costs us thousands of £££ extra to bring a larger group with us, and we were unlucky that Cerys didn’t make it due to covid). I think we can add more Welsh artists later on, as we have strong foundations made during this week – where there are gaps in songs, we can invite a few more people from their home-studios maybe, that is the beauty of the remote working we have become used to. Everyone who has been involved in the project from the Sorbian side is so excited, and I really feel that by getting everybody here in one space we have forged special connections even between folk musicians and hip-hop artists for example.

I cooked us a big curry for dinner (how else could one represent British food, haha) and everyone was super happy to be well fed. After dinner Maja from Kollectiwwakuum recorded Sorbian lyrics for one of Paul’s original songs (which he wrote in German) which we recorded violin for on the previous night. She did it quickly, then after a few other small bits, Sophia and Stoi got onto recording their upper and lower Sorbian rap battle! We all sat down to have a listen to what had been created during the day – 4.5 tunes we reckoned! We have been hugely productive and although we aren’t sure how it will all be tied together, it is such a great experience to make these connections and just be in a creative collaborative space.