These New Puritans Unite With Indira Varma, Maxine Peake + John Heffernan For E.P. Release Of Four New Singles

THESE NEW PURITANS UNITE WITH INDIRA VARMA, MAXINE PEAKE AND JOHN HEFFERNAN FOR E.P. RELEASE OF FOUR NEW SINGLES FROM INCIDENTAL: MUSIC FOR THE STAGE

Royal & Derngate Theatres and Atlantic Screen Music have today released an E.P. of four new singles from their charity compilation album INCIDENTAL: Music For The Stage. The release sees leading UK act These New Puritans collaborate with Indira Varma, Maxine Peake and John Heffernan to deliver music from their groundbreaking score to director James Dacre’s acclaimed theatre production of Brave New World, adapted from Aldous Huxley’s prophetic novel by Dawn King. 

Their Brave New World score was described as “grand, intrusive, incredible” (Vice), “powerfully ambient” (The Scotsman), “dazzling” (Observer) and “rich and disturbing” (Daily Telegraph) when performed live. These original compositions have since been recorded and are now being released on CD and digitally for the first time. 

Over the past decade, James Dacre has commissioned some of the most prominent composers working today to write original music for stage productions at Royal & Derngate Theatres – including  White Lies, Guy Chambers and These New Puritans; Oscar, Emmy and Grammy award winning film composers Rachel Portman and Anne Dudley; leading opera composers Orlando Gough and Jessica Walker, British Bhangra pioneer Kuljit Bhamra, ground-breaking classical and electronic composers Isobel Waller-Bridge and Valgeir Sigurðsson, pioneering rock musicians James Johnston and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, sound Designer Donato Wharton and 2020 Ivor Novello Award winner Renell Shaw. 

Now, as the theatre recovers from the devastating impact of the pandemic, they have partnered with Atlantic Screen Music to bring together those pieces together as a classical and electronic music album, specially recorded with spoken performances of the monologues from the plays which inspired them by actors including Judi Dench, Amanda Seyfried, Felicity Jones, Giles Terera, Patricia Routledge, James Norton, Sharon D Clarke, Lesley Sharp, Stephen Fry, Indira Varma, Maxine Peake and Simon Russell Beale. 

90 years after Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World, his novel shines a blazing light on our present. Envisioning a dystopian future, where a genetically engineered class system has finally brought order and stability to the world, Huxley’s groundbreaking novel imagined a society without family, religion or war. Lust and pleasure have replaced love and art. People are safe, healthy and not afraid of death. They get what they want, and they never want what they can’t have. Everyone is happy. Yet when this stability is threatened, one young woman learns the pain of love and one young man gives in to the love of pain.

INCIDENTAL: Music for the Stage raises vital funds to support Northampton Royal & Derngate Theatres’ reopening, helping the venue to recover from the devastating impact of the pandemic and to continue to produce their award winning Made in Northampton productions. The album is available to pre-order or pre-save on Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes, Deezer and Tidal here. 

The full alphabetical list of actors who appear on the album includes: Roger Allam, Simon Russell Beale, Bertie Carvel, Sharon D Clarke, Denis Conway, Judi Dench, Simon Dormandy, Charlotte Emmerson, Stephen Fry, Nicholas Gleaves, Iain Glen, David Harewood, John Heffernan, Michael Henry, Douglas Hodge, Felicity Jones, Asif Khan, Anton Lesser, Emma Lowndes, Joseph Marcell, Taz Munya, James Norton, Maxine Peake, Patricia Routledge, Amanda Seyfried, Lesley Sharp, Jamie Sives, Giles Terera, Joseph Timms, Indira Varma, Jessica Walker, Sophie Ward, Finty Williams and Nicholas Woodeson. 

The album is directed by James Dacre, creatively produced by Jim Barne, produced by Rupert Hollier (Filmtrax), James Vella (Phantom Limb) and Rosie Townshend (Royal & Derngate). Sound Design is by David Gregory, Adrienne Quartly and Claire Windsor. The mastering engineer is Dietrich Schoenemann. 

Leading contemporary artist Rhona Bitner has created artwork for the album cover with graphic design by Rebecca Pitt, animation design by Phil Bearman and website design by Jono Renton. 

Incidental: Music For The Stage will be available to stream on Spotify, iTunes, Deezer, Amazon from Friday 24th September, pre-save here. To pre-order a physical copy please go to here.

SINGLE AVAILABLE HERE

#IncidentalAlbum

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES 

Rachel Portman - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, adapted by Mike Poulton   

Instagram: rachelportmancomposer Twitter: @RPComposer

Rachel Portman has written over 100 scores for film, television and theatre. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award for her original score for Emma and has received two further Academy nominations for The Cider House Rules and Chocolat, and a Primetime Emmy award for her work on Bessie.

These New Puritans - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, adapted by Dawn King   

Instagram: thesenewpuritans Twitter: @tnps Facebook: thesenewpuritans

These New Puritans are widely lauded as amongst the most original and progressive bands in the world. Beat  Pyramid was hailed by The Observer as “utterly engrossing and totally essential” and Hidden was hailed as "the  first masterpiece of the twenty-first century" (Daily Telegraph) winning NME's “Album of the Year.”  

Anne Dudley - The Pope by Anthony McCarten  

Twitter: @annedudleymusic 

Anne Dudley was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001 and has won Academy, Grammy and Ivor Novello Awards. She has worked in the classical and pop genres, as a film composer,  and was one of the core members of the synthpop band Art of Noise.  

White Lies (Charles Cave) - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams  

Instagram: whiteliesofficial and charlescavephoto Twitter: @whiteliesmusic and @c_w_p_c 

2019 marks the tenth anniversary since London trio White Lies burst onto the scene with their chart-topping  debut To Lose My Life. Four albums and a decade later, the MOBO and Q Award winning band returned to the  Top 20 with their fifth album, Five. Charles Cave is their songwriter and bassist and has contributed to various other projects over the years including scoring for film and theatre, solo records, and collaborations / co-writing with other artists. White Lies are currently working on a followup to the acclaimed fifth record ‘Five’. 

Valgeir Sigurðsson – The Tempest by William Shakespeare  

Instagram: valgeirs 

Valgeir Sigurðsson is an Icelandic composer and founder of the Bedroom Community label, ‘the best record  label in the whole of Iceland and maybe even the entire world’ (Drowned in Sound) and ‘a lightning rod at the  juncture where the ambition of classical music meets the aesthetics of indie music’ (Pitchfork).  

Orlando Gough - Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada and Our Lady of Kibeho by Katori Hall  

Orlando Gough is a composer (and sometimes lyricist, librettist, music director, MC, recording engineer, cookery writer), who writes operas, choral music, music-theatre, music for dance and theatre, and creates large-scale site-specific work. 

Guy Chambers – The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde  

Guy Chambers has written some of the world’s most popular modern pop songs, including Angels, Let Me  Entertain You, Strong, No Regrets, Millennium, Rock DJ and Feel. He’s written six albums that have topped  the UK charts and dozens of hit singles including four UK Number 1s, winning BRIT, Q and Emmy Awards.  

Isobel Waller-Bridge – The Hook by Arthur Miller  

Instagram: isobelwb Twitter: @IsobelWB

Isobel Waller-Bridge is an award-winning composer at the forefront of a new wave of emerging artists in film,  television and theatre. Her soundtracks include Vanity Fair (Amazon), Emma (Working Title), The Split (BBC  One), Fleabag (BBC) and productions at the Donmar Warehouse, Young Vic and Royal Court. 

Renell Shaw – Othello by William Shakespeare 

Instagram: renellshaw

Songwriter, composer and music producer Renell Shaw has a wealth of experience in a range of musical genres with some of the music industry's most unique and sought-after artists such as: Anne-Marie, Nile Rogers, Skepta and Orphy Robinson. 2020 was the year that Renell gained widespread recognition and won an Ivor Novello Award for his composition ‘The Windrush Suite’. 

James Johnston, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Orpheus and Eurydice after Ovid  

Instagram: jamesfjohnston 

Founder of Mercury-Music prize nominees Gallon Drunk, former member of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and frequent collaborator with PJ Harvey, Faust and Lydia Lunch, James Johnston is one of the British Indy scene’s leading composers and multi-instrumentalists.

Kuljit Bhamra – A Passage to India by E.M. Forster  

Instagram: kuljit.bhamra Twitter: @KulitBhamra 

A leading British Indian composer, producer and internationally renowned tabla player. He was one of the key influences in the development of British bhangra and continues to be at the forefront of promoting awareness and understanding of Indian music in the UK.

James Dacre - Director 

Instagram: James_Dacre Twitter: @James_Dacre 

James is in his ninth year as Artistic Director at Royal & Derngate, Northampton during which time the theatre’s productions have received UK Theatre, Evening Standard, The Stage and Olivier awards and the venue has regularly engaged over 20,000 people annually in its award winning creative learning activities across the region. Before Royal & Derngate, he held Associate Director roles at The New Vic Theatre, Theatre503 and The National Youth Theatre and directed work for venues including Shakespeare’s Globe, Manchester Royal Exchange, The National Theatre, Bath Theatre Royal, Hackney Empire and in the West End and off Broadway.

ROYAL & DERNGATE, NORTHAMPTON
Royal & Derngate Northampton is the main venue for arts and entertainment in Northamptonshire and one of the major producing theatres in the country, with its acclaimed Made in Northampton work touring nationally and internationally.

Four of its productions transferred to London and the West End in 2019, with The Worst Witch winning the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Family Show, whilst Our Lady of Kibeho was nominated for a 2020 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. Meanwhile The Season earned its composers the Stage Debut award, and the adapted screenplay from Royal & Derngate’s original play commission of The Pope was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards as Netflix’s The Two Popes.

 Royal & Derngate presents a diverse range of visiting productions on both the Derngate and Royal stages, featuring musicals, dance, comedy and music, and its two-screen cinema shows the best in world, independent, British and mainstream film. Royal & Derngate’s award-winning Get Involved programme engages with schools, families and communities in Northamptonshire and beyond, and its Generate artistic development programme supports hundreds of local artists each year.

PHANTOM LIMB
@PhantomLimbls
Phantom Limb is a music company based in Brighton, covering a range of enterprises from publishing, distribution and touring alongside its main interest of releasing original music. It was founded by longstanding industry pro James Vella (formerly of FatCat Records and Injazero Records) in 2017 and quickly grew to include ex-staff members of Thrill Jockey, Mute and MJR Touring among others.

ATLANTIC SCREEN
@AtlanticScreen
Atlantic Screen Music is a full service music production company which specialises in producing and publishing scores for film and television. Filmtrax is the In-house record label for Atlantic Screen Music. It releases over 20 film soundtracks a year from some of the world’s most talented composers such as Atticus Ross, Tyler Bates and Stephen Price as well as many upcoming score composers.