Sea Spirals – Tendertwin

Title
Sea Spirals
I. Dissolved in Foam 
II. Scallop Aubade

Duration
Approx. 8 minutes each

Performers

Aldeburgh (The Scallop)
Bilge Nur Yılmaz — voice / guitar
Amalia Young — violin
Rob Burton — saxophone

Lowestoft (First Light Festival)
Kitty May — voice / guitar
Harvey — voice / guitar
First Light Festival Women’s Choir

Text
Text assembled by Bilge Nur Yılmaz, drawing on fragments from Benjamin Britten’s libretti, letters and essays, alongside lines by W. H. Auden and other contemporaries.

Programme Note

Sea Spirals
I. Dissolved in Foam
II. Scallop Aubade

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
— T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding

This dawn work unfolds simultaneously along two shores of the Suffolk coast. Sea Spirals appears in two companion forms: Dissolved in Foam, performed in Lowestoft at sunrise as part of First Light Festival, and Scallop Aubade, performed in Aldeburgh beside the sea.

Though separated geographically, the two pieces share the same musical seed. They trace a quiet spiral along the coastline between the two towns that framed Benjamin Britten’s life: Lowestoft, where he was born, and Aldeburgh, where he later settled. The music imagines these places speaking across the shoreline — the same musical idea appearing twice, altered by landscape, time, and gathering.

In Lowestoft, the music opens outward into the communal energy of the beach at dawn, joined by young musicians and the First Light women’s choir — a gesture of arrival at the edge of day. In Aldeburgh, the material returns in a more inward and intricate form within Maggi Hambling’s Scallop sculpture, the sea-facing monument engraved with Britten’s words: “I hear those voices that will not be drowned.” Here the music becomes an aubade — a greeting to the fragile arrival of morning — echoing and transforming what has already sounded further north along the shore.

Fragments of text woven through the piece draw loosely on Britten’s libretti, letters, and essays, alongside lines by W. H. Auden and other voices from his literary world. These references appear less as direct quotation than as impressions: traces of sea, tide, and human passage.

In the spirit of Eliot’s meditation that the end of exploration is to arrive where we began and know the place anew, the same musical current moves along the Suffolk coastline like a returning tide — dissolving into foam at sunrise, and reappearing at Aldeburgh’s Scallop as an aubade to the day.

About Tendertwin

Tendertwin’s debut EP “Ship Argo,” inspired by mythology and memory, received acclaim on BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 6, and Clash Magazine.

She aims to build concept-driven, emotionally resonant pieces through songwriting, movement exploration, and cross-cultural instrumentation. Formerly a resident artist at the Roundhouse— through In Motion, she is developing an immersive live performance that bridges voice, physicality, and Mediterranean musical traditions.

About Britten Pears Arts

Britten Pears Arts is a pioneering music, arts and heritage charity based on the Suffolk coast at two popular, historic visitor destinations: The Red House and Snape Maltings.

Britten Pears Arts emerged from the creative partnership of Benjamin Britten, one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and his professional and personal partner, singer Peter Pears. Britten and Pears shared a progressive vision for music and the arts to be useful, helping people enhance and bring joy into their lives.

Britten and Pears’ vision inspires all our activity, from work with the local communities to our national leadership roles in the fields of talent development and music, health and wellbeing. www.brittenpearsarts.org