YORK poet Don Walls read his poetry live at the Sounds Lyrical gig at the City Screen Basement last Thursday night.

In a packed 8pm programme, Sounds Lyrical performed music by Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Brian Eno and Berlin-era David Bowie, as well as performing their own poetry.

Central to the September 4 gig was a new work by Sounds Lyrical composer David Lancaster entitled Passing, Fading, Forgetting, which set poems by all four Sounds Lyrical poets – Alan Gillott, Rose Drew, Lizzi Linklater and Andy Humphrey ¬– to his music.

These poems were also read out, so that it became an evening for music lovers and poetry lovers but also for those interested in insights into the creative process itself.

Sounds Lyrical is a group of four poets and four composers, all with strong connections to York.They have given performances at the Bridlington Poetry Festival, Ryedale Book Festival and York 800. Following on from this, Sounds Lyrical has secured more than £12,000 of Arts Council funding to create new work and deliver four new concerts and a radio programme.

David Power, Sounds Lyrical’s chairman, says: ‘We’re delighted with our Arts Council grant and greatly enjoyed delivering the first gig made possible by the grant. We have seen how well our novel approach of mixing music and poetry has gone down in Ryedale and Bridlington, and so we were particularly pleased to now be able to perform our work in York itself.’’