The Cumnock Tryst launches new community film 'The Moss and the Cosmos'

The Cumnock Tryst is working with community groups from across Cumnock and the Doon Valley to create musical theatre that captures their response to the landscape, the social history of the area, its communities and the musical heritage of its people and places.

To kick off the project, Sir James MacMillan, Artistic Director of The Cumnock Tryst, led a series of online workshops that explored four themes, Coal, Environment, People and Place, all of which have particular significance within the Coalfield Community Landscape Partnership area in East Ayrshire. Participants were joined by photographer Colin Prior, author Alexander McCall Smith, poet Michael Symmons Roberts, composer Pete Stollery, visual artist Kim Beveridge and naturalist Chris Packham, learning how to capture their own moment in time.

We received over one-hundred photographs, films, texts and sound recordings from across the area. Film-maker Kim Beveridge and composer Alistair MacDonald then worked together to incorporate those submissions into this film, “The Moss and the Cosmos,” a beautiful exploration of East Ayrshire, the people and the place.

To find our more about our project, A Musical Celebration of the Coalfields, click here.

Our project, is part of the Coalfield Communities Landscape Partnership and is generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.