The Woodleigh Research Facility

Andrew Weatherall’s Woodleigh Research Facility

The mysterious Woodleigh Research Facility can be found tucked away in a bunker in Tooting named Facility 4.  There are no white coats to be seen but instead, a fully equipped recording studio, a plethora of musical instruments and a Podenco dog called Binky.  Manned by producer, DJ and artist Andrew Weatherall and musician & producer Nina Walsh, together they collaborate and create soundtracks to film & poetry (amongst other things).  It is also the headquarters of their modern folk label Moine Dubh.

Their first foray into literary soundscapes was with the novelist and broadcaster Michael Smith who joined forces with the filmmaker Maxy Bianco to make three short films; a cycle of video-poems exploring the weirdness of the English coast.  Smith and Bianco visited three locations to make the films – Hastings, the Essex Estuary and Whitby – and the resulting films were scored by Andrew & Nina with saxophone from the French composer Etmo.  The Woodleigh Research Facility also performed the score live at the BFI as part of their Sonic Cinema series in 2017.

Michael Smith – Stranger On The Shore

As the inaugural artist in residence at Faber & Faber, Andrew has forged strong connections within the literary world and was invited to be a judge for this year’s Gordon Burn Prize awards at the Durham Literary Festival.  As part of that event, the Woodleigh Research Facility performed their piece “Alma Cogan” – both the music and film being inspired by the book by Gordon Burn of the same name.

They also performed live at the very last Festival no.6 in 2018, as part of Andrew’s curated “Psychedelic Faber Social”, featuring talks from artists and authors and even a Welsh Glam wrestler.  That performance will be repeated at the Moine Dubh Christmas special at The Social in central London.  For more info on that event & future gigs and appearances by Andrew Weatherall and the Woodleigh Research Facility, please like & follow Black Door’s social accounts.

Gordon Burn – Alma Cogan