Remembrance and reverberation

In the last days of October 2012 we went to see Efterklang play their album Piramida at the Bridgewater Hall. I believe 'Efterklang' means remembrance and reverberation in Danish. It was a hauntingly beautiful performance with all sorts of resonances. Their drummer for that part of their tour was Budgie from the Banshees. The music for Piramida was created with sounds and inspiration from an abandoned Russian coal mining community near Spitzbergen. The town had to be abandoned in the late 90s, partly in response to the lack of funds and the opening up of the USSR and its economy. They made a film with Andreas Koefoed at Piramida, called The Ghost of Piramida. You can apply to show the film, for free, and Sheffield group Death by Shoes arranged to present it at the Showroom bar last week. The film shows just how inspirational the place was for the musicians, but it is beautifully intertwined with with a film made by someone who lived and worked there as a young man.He was a photographer and cine film recorder of the community. He was married and brought up his young family there. The poignancy of family footage and the echoes of the past are very powerful. It's a beautiful use of archive film. The use of archives is very much to the forefront of my mind at the moment, as I look forward to becoming an archive trainee with the National Archives. If you get a chance to see the film, look out for the polar bear, and the way the gulls have made their nests on window ledges. It's magical. Back in October last year Casper Clausen, the vocalist, referred to the winter months looming up - ' see you on the other side'. We are nearly there as I write this, with snow flurries at my window.