Aidan O'Rourke & Kit Downes
'There was once a Man so Old...'
Featured by Aeon in March 2022.
Music video for Aidan O'Rourke and Kit Downes' song 'There was once a man so old that most of his family, and all of his friends, had left the world long before him.' The piece is a musical response to author and poet James Robertson's short story 'Imagination'.
The tale that inspired O'Rourke was taken from Robertson's book 365: Stories. In 2013, Robertson wrote a story every day, each exactly 365 words long, and published them all in this collection. Everything from myths and legends to Scottish history, and from songs and ballads to dreams and memories feature in the anthology.
Using Robertson's text and ambition as inspiration O'Rourke wrote a tune a day for a year and has assembled a collection of these on 365: Volume One, released by Reveal Records.
For more details:
aeon.co/videos/a-musician-and-a-storyteller-collaborate-in-a-daily-duet-of-words-and-music
www.folkradio.co.uk/2018/04/video-premiere-aidan-orourke-there-once-was-a-man/