PRS for music approached Bridget Zaidee Nicholls to produce a musical residency at ZSL London Zoo. In collaboration with keepers, scientists and musicians, Bridget went on to create a stand alone performance for the opening of the Cultural Olympiad 2012 in The Natural History Museum as part of the Exhibition Road Festival. Bridget invited Man Booker Prize-winning author DBC Pierre to write and perform the libretto for this work, a tribute to his childhood pet and near-extinct axolotl. The score was written with folk musicians Andy Mellon from Bellowhead and Ben Nicholls, after a residency at ZSL London Zoo.
Opening the evening was the celebrated opera singer, Lore Lixenberg who created a mesmerising, shamanic bird performance to call upon our animal spirit. “Being able to witness the axolotl in the zoo’s bug house really inspired us to devise something which celebrated the slightly trippy surroundings, the predominantly sedentary nature of the axolotl and its Mexican roots.” Ben Nicholls
As creative Director, Bridget Zaidee Nicholls explained, “through this medium we can raise awareness about a little-known, really cool endangered species.”
Excerpt:
“The axolotl is a symbol of so much we’re about to hit upon – certainly worth setting music to. The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is a type of salamander that never metamorphoses. Although it grows to sexual maturity, reproduces, and lives a long life, it remains a water-dweller throughout, never leaving an essentially infant state. They are genetically this way – and science is currently studying those genes like mad, unlocking the secrets of regeneration, cancer signalling, cell migration. The holy grail of persistent youth. In just a few weeks, an axolotl can regrow its limbs, tail, jaw – even its spinal column.” DBC Pierre, The Guardian
You can listen to an audio clip from The Axolotl Odyssey here
