High rent? Crowded trains? Annoying neighbors? Suck it up, New Yorkers. Those of us who constantly bemoan the plight of Gotham living need only look across the pond at the British town of Margate. The depressed seaside enclave endured plagues of locusts and hail, the death of their firstborn children and seven other mass afflictions—and this is just in September. The more pious reader might recognize these events as the same 10 plagues wrought on the Israelites in the Bible’s book of Exodus, and for good reason. Through the vision of documentary filmmaker Penny Woolcock and the help of London-based production company ArtAngel, Margate residents were treated to a contemporary take on the biblical tale, complete with a catchy soundtrack.
The large-scale, multi-pronged public art event exclusively incorporated the actual citizens of Margate. The month-long performance featured a modern adaptation of the Exodus in which Pharaoh is a politician campaigning to eradicate undesirable citizens. The epic proceedings were filmed and will run on British television in the spring, followed by a wider cinematic release in theaters—but the project doesn’t stop there. As if to quell the reeling city with the redemptive power of music, Michael Morris, co-director of ArtAngel, helped commission 10 songs to accompany the film, one for each respective plague. The resulting compilation was dubbed Plague Songs and features tracks from British and American musicians, such as Brian Eno, Stephin Merritt (of Magnetic Fields) and Rufus Wainwright. In culling the songs, Morris’ objective was clear.
“I [started with] a list of a lot of people. We wanted to end up with as broad a range as possible in the interests of having quite an unusual record.” His directive drove a diverse group of artists to craft an equally disparate collection. Songs runs the gamut from the grimy hip-hop of Klashnekoff’s “Blood” to Laurie Anderson’s ominous, orchestral rendering of the The Fifth Plague [Death of Livestock].
Imogen Heap recorded rave-ready Glittering Cloud [Plague of Locusts], which required some research. “I didn’t know anything about locusts apart from people really didn’t like them, and they cause mass starvation,” she says. “I went to the British sound library and bought a load of samples of locusts, and all the drum sounds are either my voice or locusts.”
Morris was equally clear on the limits of the project. “The kind of brief I gave to each of the songwriters was simple. It was always on the basis that they would only be asked to write and record a song; they would never be asked to sing it.” For the actual performance of the songs, Woolcock and collaborators again looked to Margate locals. “[The plan was] to reinvent those 10 songs through forming different bands with local musicians and singers. We made choirs; we made different instrumentation. Those local people were briefed to make the songs their own.”
The wide-ranging Exodus Day performances were also filmed and are to be used in the narrative of the resulting film, which marks the last stop on the cycle of the songs. The Plague Songs CD was released last month on 4AD records, and it stands not only as a great compilation featuring some of the most interesting artists on the planet, but also as a cautionary reminder of a desperate situation not far removed from our own.
“I think there’s some things that still haven’t been resolved,” says Morris. “As we speak, there are huge numbers of people all over the world who have been displaced as a result of famine, as a result of war, as a result of many different kinds of economic and social hardship. In that sense, nothing has changed [since the Exodus]. There are lots of links, and we’re still searching for the Promised Land.”
A sobering reminder to us all, especially those whose Promised Land is nothing more than a rent-stabilized penthouse.
