Liverpool Acoustic are pround to present Neil Campbell’s Ghost Stories for Halloween 2019.
Accompanied by soprano Anne Taft, Neil will be haunting three North West venues this October with shows at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on Sunday 27th, The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University on Monday 28th, and Liverpool Philharmonic Hall’s Music Room on Halloween night, Thursday 31st!
Ghost Stories started life in 2007 as a number of short sketches for classical guitar which Neil Campbell was interested in enhancing through the use of electronics in collaboration with electronic musician Michael Beiert. After working with wordless vocals on The Neil Campbell Collective’s Particle Theory album, Anne Taft was invited to sing on some of the Ghost Stories pieces. The various short movements were then developed into a coherent suite of music segued together by an electronic soundscape built by Michael Beiert using samples of Anne Taft’s voice.
In this performance Neil will play an exciting uptempo opening set of original music for solo guitar in which he uses loops and delays to expand the scope of the solo classical guitar. In the second half of the concert he will be joined by soprano Anne Taft for a complete performance of Ghost Stories.
Compositionally Ghost Stories draws on French impressionistic music such as Debussy and Satie, ambient music such as that of Harold Budd or Brian Eno, as well as some jazz (especially Pat Metheny) and progressive rock (particularly Steve Hackett). The music is delicate, shadowy, slow, atmospheric and elegiac. Performed along with the visuals, produced by Shaun Taft, the piece becomes a meditation on memories of people, spaces, emotions and objects.
This show has been specially resurrected after 12 years just for this Halloween. Tickets are limited so don’t miss out.
Ghost Stories
Neil Campbell – classical guitar
Anne Taft – soprano (Ghost Stories)
Shaun Taft – visuals (Ghost Stories)
Performances
Sunday 27th October, 7.30pm
The Bridgewater Hall, Barbirolli Room
Lower Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3WS
Tickets £17.50 (inc booking fee)
bridgewater-hall.co.uk
0161 907 9000
Monday 28th October, 7.30pm
The Arts Centre, Edge Hill University
St Helens Road, Ormskirk L39 4QP
Tickets £10 / £8 concessions / £5 EHU students
edgehill.ac.uk/artscentre
01695 584480
Thursday 31st October, 8.00pm
The Music Room, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Hope Street, Liverpool L1 9BP
(entrance on corner of Sugnall St and Myrtle St)
Tickets £15 / £18 premium
liverpoolphil.com
0151 709 3789
“As I listen to this, I imagine grey clouds whirring by in stop-motion frenzy, or a vampire crying as the October sun rises. This is simply so romantic and resonant. A perfect album for quiet nights alone with the soul. “Ghost Stories” manages to be ambient, instrumental, and goth all rolled in one. Highly recommended.” – Gary Flanagan, Nightwaves
“… a shimmering, atmospheric cluster of works with a ghostly theme … Anne’s soaring voice floats over the shards of arpeggios and layered electronics, on occasion warm and appealing, yet sometimes more ominous and foreboding in keeping with the spirit of the album. Eerie shapes and shadows are evoked until the presence of a spirit seems nigh. Superbly constructed.” – Musician