After Dark
This series of events has now ended.
But don’t worry, you can still enjoy After Dark! Take a look below for exclusive films created for Dartington featuring our lovely After Dark performers.
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Join us at Dartington as we light up our hidden, dormant and unseen spaces with a series of intimate gigs and events in secret locations.
Writer, storyteller and composer Daniel Marcus Clark, working with Producer and Digital Performance maker Becca Gill, are curating six unique music and event journeys across the Dartington estate for Dartington Arts.
A text message signals where to start. Follow the lights into the unfamiliar. Unbolt doors, uncover maze-like hallways, search down woodland pathways and explore the unseen vistas of long-silent spaces.
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Introduction from Daniel Marcus Clark, Curator
First and foremost, I chose the acts for After Dark because I loved their music. All of them are artists I’ve met either on the road, at festivals or at gigs – from all corners of the globe and the UK and whose music is on almost constant repeat in my life.
Once the line-up was complete, I realized that all of these acts, although stylistically different from one another, all had something in common – they are all artists navigating the emotional terrain of human experience with musical skill, honesty, flair and invention.
Everyone included in this line-up crafts their music with simple acoustic instruments, using innovation in their playing and composition to create exciting new musical worlds.
To create vivid and unforgettable shows we are utilizing some of the hidden treasures of the Dartington estate.
We hope you enjoy it. Book tickets for all of them if you can – each event will be an exciting adventure in itself and forms one part of a specially curated physical and musical journey, all taking place in some of the UK’s most unique and magical spaces.
Welcome to After Dark – intimate world-class performances in the hidden hidey-holes of the magical Dartington Estate.
After Dark presents: performances across the Dartington estate
Limbic Cinema light up Aller Park
In this film, projection technology helps provide a spectacular backdrop to a terrific performance from This is the Kit and Auclair.
Limbic Cinema say: “We were asked to bring the Aller Park building at Dartington to life with projection alongside the incredibly talented This is the Kit and Auclair.
‘We modelled the building using Photogrammetry and Agisoft and created content that combined visual illusions with architectural highlights and 2D animated layers.’
Oh Pep – Tea, Milk & Honey
One of our favourite bands at the moment – seem to effortlessly team inspired songwriting, emotional honesty and musical virtuosity in a way that is impossible not to love.
Oh Pep! performed for us in June 2015 as a four-piece as part of this After Dark series, but we also had them play three songs for us as a duo in a hidden bottle shed at the back of the estate.
Their debut album ‘Stadium Cake’ is out on July 1 and well worth a buy, but in the meantime sit back and enjoy this stunning rendition of Tea, Milk and Honey.
Laura Moody ft Adem – We Are Waiting
Cello virtuoso and songwriter extraordinaire Laura Moody (Elysian Quartet) joined us for our penultimate After Dark event of the Season alongside the musical wonder that is Adem.
For the evenings event they each performed solo but before the audience arrived we had them play a couple of stripped back songs together for us in the sitting room of the stunning High Cross House.
Moulettes – Underwater Painter
Old friends and accomplices of The After Dark team, The Moulettes, are to our ears one of the most exciting bands in the UK right now. Soulful harmonies, virtuosic musicianship, bold arrangements and twisting songwriting combine to create their signature sound.
On the night they performed for us in the epic Great Hall, but first we had them play a couple of stripped back songs for us in Dorothy Elmhirst’s study (The Morning Room).
Their debut album ‘Preternatural” is out now and is busily winning hearts around the world, and this stunning rendition of Underwater Painter shows you just why.
Fiona Bevan – Rebel Without A Cause
Songwriter extraordinaire Fiona Bevan has been causing ripples for years, and this video shows just why.
Clever, talented and effortless in all the right measures, to our ears Fiona proves just what a big sound can come from one woman and a guitar with the right arrangement, right song and right intention!
The Mountain Firework Company – The Beggar’s Prayer
What’s not to like about The Mountain Firework Company? When we were putting the program together for After Dark at Dartington we couldn’t think of a better way to kick off proceedings.
Heartache, humour, virtuosity and verve meet in the hands and minds of the acclaimed Brighton five-piece. Kick back and enjoy their well worn worried blues.
Moulettes – Hidden World
Old friends and accomplices of The After Dark team, The Moulettes, are to our ears one of the most exciting bands in the UK right now. Soulful harmonies, virtuosic musicianship, bold arrangements and twisting songwriting combine to create their signature sound.
On the night they performed for us in the epic Great Hall, but first we had them play a couple of stripped back songs for us in Leonard Elmhirst’s private library.
Their debut album ‘Preternatural” is out now and is busily winning hearts around the world, and this stunning rendition of Hidden World shows you just why.
Fiona Bevan – Blue Denim
Songwriter extraordinaire Fiona Bevan has been causing ripples for years, and this video shows just why.
Clever, talented and effortless in all the right measures, to our ears Fiona proves just what a big sound can come from one woman and a guitar with the right arrangement, right song and right intention!
Adem ft Laura Moody – Love & Other Planets
For a man with a musical career as varied and successful as Adem’s, it’s easy to forget his heart wrenching skill at writing and interpreting a song, so here he is as a reminder with friend and sometime accomplice Laura Moody.
For the evenings event they each performed solo but before the audience arrived we had them play a couple of stripped back songs together for us in the sitting room of the stunning High Cross House.
Oh Pep – Trouble Now
One of our favourite bands at the moment – Oh Pep! seem to effortlessly team inspired songwriting, emotional honesty and musical virtuosity in a way that is impossible not to love.
On the night they performed for us as a four piece, but we had them play 3 songs for us as a duo in a hidden bottle shed at the back of the estate.
Their debut album ‘Stadium Cake’ is out now and well worth having in your collection, but in the meantime sit back and enjoy this stunning rendition of Trouble Now.
The Mountain Firework Company – If Only
What’s not to like about The Mountain Firework Company? When we were putting the program together for After Dark at Dartington we couldn’t think of a better way to kick off proceedings.
Heartache, humour, virtuosity and verve meet in the hands and minds of the acclaimed Brighton five- piece. Kick back and enjoy their well worn worried blues.