4 Tales to Save the World: a Sound World Experience

Moving, exciting and affecting, making space to talk about the climate crisis. Four imaginative journeys into the future

Audiences immersed themselves in four sensory sound worlds, with Gwilym Morus-Baird’s 4 Tales to Save the World: a Sound World Experience.

In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, our original plans for a live tour were transformed into something personal, immersive and really rather special!

4 Tales to Save the World is a storytelling sound world experience, created and recorded by Welsh singer-songwriter and storyteller, Gwilym Morus-Baird and directed by Bethan Dear, which you can still enjoy by visiting Gwilym Morus-Baird’s website.

This original work drew on specially commissioned tales from four of Wales’ leading short story writers – Kate Hamer (shortlisted for The Costa First Novel Prize for The Girl in the Red Coat), Joao Morais (described as “a great slice of comic Cardiff urban realism written by a Welsh Irvine Welsh’ – Independent on Sunday), Mary-Ann Constantine (whose piece is recorded partly in Welsh) and Bethan Dear – with original music, creating four distinctive worlds, imagining a future Wales following climate crisis.

For the experience, audiences received 4 x 20 minute studio recordings of the 4 tales with original music. Once downloaded the recordings were theirs to keep.

Audiences were also invited to a live online Q&A event hosted by Gwilym and the short story writers, that also featured live music and their chance to find out more about all of the artists and themes.

These four tales explored four different futures, where climate crisis, inequality, mass extinction, identity politics, genetics and artificial intelligence have all left their mark on humanity.

Gwilym Morus-Baird created unique soundscapes for each tale, with music spanning the traditional to the digital and by turns soulful, moving, powerful, playful and life-affirming.

4 Tales to Save the World: a sound world experience is a moving, immersive and personal experience with the opportunity for everyone to think about climate change and how we might be able to make a different ending.

Accessibility

Transcriptions for the four recordings are available.

The recordings were made in consultation with charities working with visually impaired audiences and audio described material is available.

Listen to one of the songs from Kate Hamer’s tale, The Last Word:

March 2021

Online