Excited to be performing new arrangement of The Driver with Luke Wright in the Theatre Arena at Latitude Festival!
Tag Archives: Luke Wright
Latitude Slot
Excited to be going to Latitude next week to play a new piano arrangement of The Driver alongside Luke Wright. Our slot is Sunday 27 July at 12.15pm in the Theatre Arena…
https://www.latitudefestival.com/artists/luke-wright-benjamin-oliver-the-driver

The Driver @ Latitude
‘The Driver’ Kickstarter funded
‘The Driver’ Kickstarter
Luke Wright and I have just launched a Kickstarter to fund the production of vinyl and books of ‘The Driver’. The first couple of days have been awesome, sold lots of rewards. Go grab yourself a bargain!
THE DRIVER Premiere
Had an amazing few days putting together The Driver for the premiere featuring Luke Wright and the Hartley Loop Orchestra. We got some nice coverage from the University.
Big plans on way to record the piece at end of April to produce a vinyl!


The Driver
The Driver narrates his life from behind the wheel, taking in the ring roads, flyovers, service stations, leisure parks, motels and lay-bys of England. As he drives, he keeps an eye on the past through the rear-view mirror.
Luke Wright‘s words are set to music by composer Benjamin Oliver and their work is performed by the Hartley Loop Orchestra in this world premiere performance. The music combines orchestral sonorities, at times referencing English medieval polyphony and music by Purcell and Parry, with the familiar sounds heard within the environment of a car.
Wright’s narrative is both a travelogue of England’s least glamorous places and the story of a break-up, a love poem to being away and our ability to keep on going. It’s sad, celebratory and caustic with all the squalor and romance the road has to offer.
The Driver Promo
The Driver
I’ve been on research leave from University over the last few months. I’ve written a sax and percussion duo Shuffle (more on that soon I hope) and nearly finished the editing of a new 45-minute poetry-music piece with the wonderful poet Luke Wright called The Driver. We will premiere this piece in February with an orchestra of students at Turner Sims in Southampton. The gig is free (details in Events)!
The piece narrates the life of a driver from behind the wheel, taking in the ring roads, flyovers, service stations, leisure parks, motels and lay-bys of England. It’s both a travelogue of England’s least glamorous places and the story of a break-up, a love poem to being away and our ability to keep on going. It’s sad, celebratory and caustic with all the squalor and romance the road has to offer.
The music I’ve written sometimes underscores Luke’s poetry, and sometimes comes to the fore. It draws on a range of music from England including some medieval polyphony shared with me by my ace colleague Amy Williamson as well as music by Purcell (linked up to me by Andrew Pinnock) and Parry. There’s also recordings from inside a car, including recordings I took driving up to Fleet Services with a posh microphone in the passenger seat back in 2019!!
It’s been great working on this project with Luke and been a long time coming as we started it before the pandemic. I’m grateful to the Department of Music for helping make this happen and super excited to share The Driver with the world!

The Driver
Terrific workshop last week with Riot Ensemble for my collaboration with poet Luke Wright. Exciting to be putting stuff together and making plans for a tour, hopefully in 2021.
Here’s a taster of the poetry:
Is this how it ends for all of us?
love born at festivals
in chemicals and poetry
love that lived beyond our bodies
love that conquered motorways and calendars
love that conquered half of England
is this how it ends?
from The Driver, by Luke Wright
More info and some taster audio on the Riot Ensemble website: http://riotensemble.com/the-driver/

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