WOMAD

1 Giant Leap

From United Kingdom

1 Giant leap - film & dj set at the eden session 2003

film: to be shown in link building 9pm on 22 august 2003

dj session with duncan bridgeman: in link building at 10pm on 22 august 2003

this beautiful and thought provoking film is the outcome of 2 year's work by musician, film director, editor, and creative catalyst jamie catto and artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist duncan bridgeman. 1 Giant leap has become a unique dvd/cd project for the 21st century which fuses spoken word, sounds, rhythms and images from across the globe to celebrate the creative diversity of a number of musicians, storytellers, authors, film-makers, artists and thinkers from different cultures. The results illustrate breathtaking artistic and cultural diversity with a clear message of unity running through it all. It includes contributions from michael stipe, baaba maal, the mahotella queens, speech (from arrested development, tom robbins, kurt vonnegut, dennis hopper and robbie williams. After a year of collecting footage and recordings, this film encapsulates some of their extraordinary experiences and was nominated for 2 grammy awards this year. After the film duncan bridgeman will be taking us on a musical journey of his own when he takes to the decks for a special dj set playing the tunes from around the world that are inspiring him and jamie as they prepare for their next "giant leap".

Biography by andy morgan, july 2003:

1 giant leap (uk))

alongside becoming a fireman, a spaceman, a footballer or a rock ?N? Roll star, the dream of travelling round the world with a knapsack and a recording machine, interacting with people and musicians, recording sessions, hanging out and discovering, has probably been high up the dream list of many a young lad at one time or another. Well jamie catto and duncan bridgeman have turned that dream into a reality. Both were already established faces on london?S music scene before they took the high-road; catto as founding member of dance supergroup faithless, in-demand video director, soundtrack composer and all-round inspirational nutter and bridgeman as producer for the likes of duran duran, eurythmics, paul mccartney and, believe it or not, take that. After discovering a mutual love for byrne and eno's 'my life in a bush of ghosts' and peter gabriel's 'passion' albums the pair got together and decided to take one giant leap in a very lateral direction by going out into the world and recording musicians, poets, writers and actors of every hue with a view to making a cd which would knit it all together and find 'unity in diversity'. After early encouragement from palm pictures label boss chris blackwell, who suggesting they upgrade their ambitions from cd to cd and film, catto and bridgeman became the self-confessed 'world champion cold-callers' and by sheer chutzpah and rabid enthusiasm they manage to enrol a veritably mind blasting cast of characters into their adventure including michael stipe, baba maal, kurt vonnegut, anita roddick, dennis hopper, asha boshle, brian eno, neneh cherry, linton kwesi johnson?And the list goes on. The result; a cd which pushes back the boundaries of music, technology, spirituality and philosophy together with a film to match, feted by critics and punters alike. Prepare to live your dream!

Biography supplied by management, march 2003:

1 giant leap it is increasingly rare to come across a project that genuinely defies description, where no pigeon-hole will do.

1 Giant leap, whilst pushing the cutting-edge technology of the 21st century to its limit and utilising their own fierce intelligence and consummate musicality plus a list of collaborators ranging from michael stipe to kurt vonnegut, asha bhosle to dennis hopper, have done just that.

Others taking part include brian eno, baaba maal, tom robbins, maxi jazz from faithless, neneh cherry, the mahotella queens, speech from arrested development, eddi reader and linton kwezi johnson.

1 Giant leap are jamie catto and duncan bridgeman who first met at a mutual friend's flat in brighton and found that they shared a deep love for 2 universally influential albums: david byrne and brian eno's 'my life in the bush of ghosts' and peter gabriel's 'passion'- music for martin scorsese's film 'the last temptation of christ'. They talked music, technology, travel, the universe and everything and about their mutual dream of travelling the world, recording and filming as many of their heroes from the areas of music, art, science, literature and philosophy as they could find, seeking out the unity in the diversity. Luckily palm pictures? Boss, chris blackwell, shared their vision and a offered them a contract.

The impressive list of collaborators included on the dvd/cd was not drawn from jamie and duncan?S personal address books. They became the self-styled 'world champion cold-callers'. Dennis hopper was so enthused by the project that he immediately got on the phone to harvey keitel and meryl streep to get them involved.

1 Giant leap has become a unique dvd/cd project for the 21st century which fuses spoken word, sounds, rhythms and images from across the globe to celebrate the creative diversity of a number of musicians, storytellers, authors, film-makers, artists and thinkers from different cultures. The results illustrate breathtaking artistic and cultural diversity with a clear message of unity running through it all.

This project is the first of its kind both in its immense terms of reference and its revolutionary use of cutting edge technology. Having taken their backing tracks with them, the musicians were able to not only collaborate on ogl?S music but also to hear what previous collaborators had been inspired to lay down. So, for example, the sarangi player in india could play to the grooves laid down a week earlier by the ugandan drummers and each track could grow and develop as they circled the globe.

Catto and bridgeman travelled the globe recording all the artists on digital equipment as the basis for a 12 chapter film and album. Each film chapter corresponds to a track on the album and explores a theme such as 'masks', 'death' and 'blasphemy'. Having shot an abundance of unique footage from the streets of new york to the jungles of ghana, the mountains of nepal to the deserts of rajesthan, the end result is a completely new genre of film-making somewhere between documentary and pop- video, a music-based time capsule of the planet earth at the turn of the 21st century.

Jamie catto

musician, film director, editor, photographer and creative catalyst

as founder member and art director of the hugely successful faithless he has enjoyed no less than 5 top ten hit singles in the uk alone, seen two albums go gold and enjoyed enormous success around the world playing to crowds of up to 80, 000 fans. In the role of art director for faithless? Cheeky label jamie has directed videos for all their artists- each of them to huge critical acclaim - including faithless' stunning sign language film for 'god is a dj'. Furthermore his photos and designs have also adorned the covers of skinny's 'failure' and faithless' 'sunday 8pm' album.

Duncan bridgeman

artist, producer, multi-instrumentalist

duncan's musical career started in the early 80's with ground breaking soul band 'i-level', who had a no. 1 Dance hit with 'give me'. After leaving the band he spent the next 10 years as a successful producer and re-mixer, working alongside artists such as duran duran, eurythmics, shakespeare's sister and paul mccartney. He also enjoyed huge commercial success in producing transvision vamp and later take that's first album 'take that and party'. After tiring of making other people's music, he packed his bags, grew his hair long and joined a band called 'tribal drift'. He spent the next few years making music and playing festivals throughout europe and the uk, before meeting jamie catto and starting 1 giant leap.