NDR Bigband / Percy Pursglove by Pursglove, Minn (2024/2024), Immexxi minn Geir Lysne,, Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany

UNIVERSAL AND NON-VERBAL One day in November 2021, 27 refugees from African and Asian countries drowned during a desperate attempt to cross the English Channel. With his new project for the NDR Bigband, British trumpeter and composer Percy Pursglove sets out in search of the shades of the dead, who according to Greek mythology are now wandering restlessly between worlds. It is an attempt to come to terms with a humanitarian disaster. Difficult as it may be to broadcast a message of humanity and compassion using solely musical resources – sound and rhythm, melody and harmony –, the universality of music offers precisely the expressive range needed for the task. With »27: The Ferryman and His Unwanted Shades of the Dead« Percy Pursglove faces the paradoxical challenge of saying the unspeakable and giving people’s sense of shock an expression that is timeless. »Music is a powerful tool for increasing people’s awareness of current topics,« Pursglove writes, »especially in wartime, when far more people are forced to flee from their homes.« But at the same time, he doesn’t only want to put his finger in the wound with his music, he doesn’t only want to denounce the governments that are not prepared to combat the reasons for the waves of refugees, or at least save the lives of people drowning. Pursglove is also concerned to remember all those who had to lose their lives on the way to finding a better life for themselves and their families.