NMC producer Jim Unwin writes about the launch of Extended Play - Jerwood Series and its collaborative approach.
Extended Play is a new NMC initiative that brings together music, film and artistic mentorship. The series launches in February with Ben Nobuto’s Hope Spiral, followed by Bushra El-Turk’s Three Tributes in April, with projects by Alex Ho and Yshani Perinpanayagam currently in production. Extended Play combines each featured composer’s music with an NMC commissioned film inspired by their work. The initiative also includes one-to-one sessions with industry professionals, covering areas such as maketing, publishing, and business management.
The idea for the project grew out of open conversations with the composers, aimed at identifying what actions would be most useful at this stage in their careers to help promote their work and support their professional development. Film and visual content consistently emerged as priorities in these discussions, driven in part by the importance of social media and the need to make an immediate visual impact. Music-industry-specific advice sessions were also highlighted as valuable. We used this feedback and insight directly from the composers to shape and create Extended Play.
For Ben Nobuto’s project, we recorded a new work, Hope Spiral, at Battery Studios with string quartet Brother Tree Sound and horn player Ben Goldscheider. The piece combines live performance with electronics created by the composer, alongside spoken-word excerpts from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence (1863).
Hope Spiral Recording Day
Hope Spiral explores themes of renewal and optimism, with the spiral of the title conceived ‘not as a downward, negative force, but as an inverted one - a vortex spiralling upward towards the sky, a euphoric feedback loop.’ For the film, we collaborated with videographer Willow Hazell, who employed creative techniques including filming reflections in water. Willow recorded the musicians performing in sync with the master recording at Kunstraum Studios in East London, creating a visually distinctive and immersive response to the music.
Ben Nobuto
I'm very grateful to be part of the Extended Play series. To be able to have my music recorded and mixed in a studio - to see into that process and all the care that goes into making a recording - feels really special. Also, to have the funds to work with a director to make a music video is so rare. We were very lucky to work with the incredible Willow Hazell, who was able to bring so much playfulness and life to the piece in their own unique way. I also found the industry sessions with different publishers really insightful.
Bushra El-Turk’s Three Tributes is a cycle of three string quartet portraits honouring female Levantine singers from the Nahda - the cultural renaissance of the Arabic-speaking world in the mid-19th to early-20th centuries. The work blends Western string quartet writing with Eastern vocal traditions, incorporating archival recordings, improvisation, and musical material inspired by traditional Arabic genres.Through Three Tributes, El-Turk seeks both to give voice to historically overlooked women and to allow the individual personalities of the performers to emerge within the music. Three Tributes was recorded by the Dudok string quartet in Battery Studios.
Dudok String Quartet recording Three Tributes
NMC Recordings
NMC commissioned Dutch videographer Bowie Verschuuren to create the accompanying film, which was shot at the historic house De Pastorie in Diemen, Amsterdam, and features Dutch actor Nadia Amin. Verschuuren projected archival images connected to the themes of Three Tributes onto the building’s walls, creating a series of atmospheric and visually resonant scenes that echo the work’s cultural and historical references.
Bushra El Turk
"My experience working with NMC on the recording of Three Tributes was very collaborative. Hearing the string quartet bring the piece to life in the recording studio allowed me to refine my intentions and discover new nuances in pace, texture and tone. Being selected for the scheme is rewarding in itself, not only because a music video and scrolling score will be created for the piece - which is extraordinary and really amplifies its reach - but also because it has opened doors to meetings with publishers and managers that are usually inaccessible unless you already have an introduction. NMC’s international reputation as a champion of new music provides exactly the kind of boost a composer needs."
Extended Play has been made possible with generous support from the Jerwood Foundation and the Fenton Arts Trust.
Music Map
Discover more about the classical music of today with NMC's Music Map, and exciting and educational online tool which enables you to see and hear the connections between composers, their teachers, pupils, influences and their works.
