Our work on the life of the experimental composer Basil Kirchin was a great springboard into our next creative documentary feature which explores the life and work of the musician and artist Paul Burwell.

Paul shares certain parallels with Basil – he started out as drummer, moved deeply into the world of experimental music and sound art, and – like Basil – took his life off-the-beaten track creatively, spiritually and geographically by moving to Hull where he eventually settled in the old Kingston Rowing Club, next to the River Hull at the far end of Oak Road, sadly collapsing in 2007 and dying of hypothermia soon after.

If you don’t recognise Paul Burwell’s name and you’re not familiar with his work, that’s not entirely surprising… achieving fame was never his intention, but Burwell was part of creative movement that has had a wide and enduring influence on British art and music.

Our film, funded by the radical arts organisation Future’s Venture, features interviews with more than 30 of Burwell’s closest associates – many of them internationally acclaimed artists and musicians such as David Toop, Anne Bean, Richard Wilson, Evan Parker, Max Eastley, Steve Beresford, Steve Noble, Sylvia Hallett, Peter Cusack, Ansuman Biswas and many others, together with Paul’s sons Piers and Titus and their mum Sheila Cobbing, as well as a host of Hull-based artists including Brian Gilson, Glynis Neslen, Yol, Dave Ellis, Lee Merrel and Jez Riley-French.

Provisionally titled Over The Edge, we’re currently in the later stages of post-production – so watch out for a premiere in early 2024.

The above taster was produced to secure the funding from Future’s Venture for the production of the documentary.

The remarkable story of the great ‘lost’ British composer and musician Basil Kirchin who died penniless in 2005. Kirchin scored many classic films in the 1960s including Primitive London, The Shuttered Room, I Start Counting, Negatives and The Abominable Dr Phibes. His subsequent two albums, Worlds Within Worlds are now highly sought-after cult classics; his work was cited by Brian Eno as having discovered “a whole new area of sound”.

Mind On The Run features interviews with those who knew and loved him, including Jonny Trunk, label boss Warren De Wolfe, music writers Richard Williams and Bob Stanley, pioneering improviser Evan Parker, saxophonist Alan Barnes, Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas and many more as well as previously unheard commentary and music by Basil himself, together with newly discovered photos from Basil’s personal archive.

Produced in 2017 and now available online, this 40 minute documentary which tells the moving story of a musical genius was named as one of Sight and sound magazine’s top 100 films of 2017.