Category: Press

BAFTA Screening: Working Class White Men

I’m delighted that the first episode of Professor Green: Working Class White Men will be screening in the Princess Anne Theatre at BAFTA, Piccadilly on the 4th January 2018, as a preview to its broadcast on Channel 4. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Professor Green and Christian Collerton, the series director.

Presented by Professor Green the documentary series explores what life is really like for working class white men, why many of them feel abandoned, and what the consequences are for Britain if we continue to look away. Raised by his Nan on a council estate in Hackney, Professor Green is himself from a working class, low income background.

Over a period of six months he follows six working class white men in different parts of the country to understand what life in modern Britain is like for them. He examines the challenges and barriers these men face in education, work, family life and in the way the rest of society regards them.

Somerset House Residency: Summer 2017

On Sunday 23rd July, I had the privilege of spending a day in residency at Somerset House, exploring the relationship between music and scent alongside Edition Perfume founder Timothy Han and fellow composer Roman Rappak. On the day, we composed and performed musical reactions based on scents mixed by Timothy, in the Givodan-sponsored Perfume Lab, in front of a live audience. Read a full breakdown of the performance here.

 

 

The combination of music and scent forms part of our collective work with Miro Shot – a project which aims to fuse live VR together with live music and sensory feedback to create an immersive reality concert which is experienced as part interactive music video and part live concert.

The Perfume Exhibition runs at Somerset House until the 31st August 2017.

Miro Shot first public shows
Three day residency at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Amsterdam

From the 11-14th May, we will be playing our first Miro Shot public shows at CBK, Amsterdam. The three day residency will be the debut of our collective’s new show, CONTENT – a unique multi-sensory live VR and Mixed Reality concert.

 

The collective is a collaboration of artists from multiple fields, including musicians, filmmakers, photographers, illustrators and a scent artist.

 

NRG Magazine have released this article:

 

During the concert, a live band will play a unique piece of music to their audience through VR headsets. MIRO SHOT promises to embrace the participants in a multi-sensory experience, controlling parameters such as the wind, temperature, and even touch, offering people to switch between the real and the alternated virtual worlds. This way, for instance, when seeing a frozen forest, the viewer will feel the real cold and will be able to smell the real scent of the trees. Ute Kohlman, artistic director of CBK: “What’s really unique is that the audience will become a member of the collective. Visitors are allowed to participate and affect the artwork and music.

CBK Amsterdam works with artists, curators, and musicians from around the world to present unique exhibitions and events. After playing in Amsterdam on May 12-14, MIRO SHOT will take their performance to London, Paris, and Berlin, among other cities.

 

Entrance to CONTENT by MIRO SHOT is free with a reservation: http://www.miroshot.com

 

‘Music For Heroes’
Alexander Talks American High School in Broadcast Now

In this article for Broadcast Magazine, I write about ‘Music for Heroes’ and stories behind my latest score for the BBC3 documentary Series American High School.

Myself and Marcus Plowright (Producer/Director) were asked to write this double page spread featured in the 11th November, 2016 issue in print, also available online for subscribers.

Download a PDF here

 

It was as hugely collaborative process

 

American High School follows a charismatic principal and his students over the course of one school year and through their eyes we witness life-changing moments. In the US, life chances for students who graduate high school are often starkly different to those who don’t, a disparity even more marked for African-American pupils.

With the odds often stacked against them we follow the class of 2016 over this, their make-or-break year.

We experience their highs and their lows as they prepare for life after high school. We meet Ivy League hopefuls, male cheerleaders and young mothers on a tough journey into adulthood. This is school as you’ve never seen it before and a unique insight into how it really feels to be young and black in America today.

In the first episode, new principal Dr Peters arrives on a mission to improve grades and discipline, but a mass brawl and the threat of further violence gives him a swift reality check.

Meanwhile, high-achieving pupil Jalena begins college applications, but with college fees costing more than a house, will she even be able to afford to go? Male cheerleader Vernon, and star football player Kordel, each prepare for the big Friday night football game. Can a win for the school help to get Dr Peters’ ambitions back on track?

 

Producer/Director: Marcus Plowright
Executive Producers: Joe Evans and Neil Crombie
Production Company: Swan Films
Composer: Alexander Parsons

American High School – Guardian Review

Thank you to Julia Raeside for the fantastic reveiw of American High School: Straight Outta Orangeburg. Read the review in full here

 

Alexander Parsons’ impressive score, mixing tinges of the music the kids listen to with his own emotive arrangements. Six episodes of hope, just when it’s needed.

 

American High School follows a charismatic principal and his students over the course of one school year and through their eyes we witness life-changing moments. In the US, life chances for students who graduate high school are often starkly different to those who don’t, a disparity even more marked for African-American pupils.

With the odds often stacked against them we follow the class of 2016 over this, their make-or-break year.

We experience their highs and their lows as they prepare for life after high school. We meet Ivy League hopefuls, male cheerleaders and young mothers on a tough journey into adulthood. This is school as you’ve never seen it before and a unique insight into how it really feels to be young and black in America today.

In the first episode, new principal Dr Peters arrives on a mission to improve grades and discipline, but a mass brawl and the threat of further violence gives him a swift reality check.

Meanwhile, high-achieving pupil Jalena begins college applications, but with college fees costing more than a house, will she even be able to afford to go? Male cheerleader Vernon, and star football player Kordel, each prepare for the big Friday night football game. Can a win for the school help to get Dr Peters’ ambitions back on track?

Producer/Director: Marcus Plowright
Executive Producers: Joe Evans and Neil Crombie
Production Company: Swan Films
Composer: Alexander Parsons