Life After Life - BBC.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0bqjrnm/life-after-life

What if? It's a question that requires serious consideration. A BBC adaption of Kate Atkinson's novel. It got some mixed reviews. I'm not a fan of box sets, give me a movie any day. These episodic things tend to go into too much detail, veer off into unnecessary sub-plots and usually have some pathetically, unfeasible "twist". This has none of those things. I've rarely come across such excellent use of the television format. Ok, there are only four episodes, so it's not much longer than a long movie, and shorter than some, chopped up into comfortable one hourish chunks

The first episode is a bit irritating, it's repetetive. But there is a point, as becomes clear. Later episodes include some distressing scenes of domestic violence and there is a rape. But amongst the male characters there are also consistently good people. The Little Bear's father, in particular, is a constant throughout her lives, as, in a lesser, but vital way, is her psychiatrist. The piece is fundementally a fictional exploration of Friedrich Nietzsche's hypothetical question of "eternal return". Like all the good stuff it makes you think, and then think some more. Don't be put off by those reviews, and more importantly, dont miss it.

Hannah Peel and the Paraorchestra at the Barbican.

No, of course we didn't travel to London, the wonders of t'internet brought Hannah and the orchestra into Old Nisthouse.

We would have loved to have been there, what a brilliant gig.

Kicked off with Paraorchestra playing a new piece by their associate musical director Lloyd Coleman. Not having listened to this orchestra before the piece was a revelation. Re-inventing the orchestra for the 21st Century.

On to the main item, The Unfolding. The album is available on Spotify as you've missed the gig. This is not as immediately accessible as some of Hannah's other work, it was influenced by a book, The Underland by Robert Macfarlane, his response to her music was published in The Quietus:

After writer Robert Macfarlane learned that his book Underland had been an influence on Hannah Peel's album The Unfolding, he wrote the following in response

What unfolds in The Unfolding? Life – life unfolds. The first time you meet it, if you can, listen to this music from beginning to end, in one long sitting, one great swoop. For it is a cosmogony, really: a vast, deep-time telling of the birth of the universe, through the creation of matter, to the extraordinary, mystical emergence of cellular life, to our own implausible materialisation, before, at last, evaporating up into the clouds – from where the whole epic cycle begins again. Here Hannah Peel answers in music Leibniz’s unforgettable question: ‘Why is there something and not nothing?’ ( https://thequietus.com/articles/31327-hannah-peel-robert-macfarlane )

The Unfolding is a true collaboration with the Paraorchestra, Hannah developing the music with each of their remarkable musicians.

The encore (more!) was a piece from Fir Wave, Emergence in Nature, a favourite.