Rest and Be Thankful gets starring role in music film project celebrating ‘space and freedom’

Glasgow-based electro-pop performer Elisabeth Elektra joined forces with arts company Cryptic to create a new short film at the Rest and Be Thankful in Argyll. Picture: Neil Jarvie

Now the Rest and Be Thankful beauty spot in Argyll and Glasgow's city centre skyline are to get starring roles in two short films aimed at combining scenery with music to showcase Scotland and its talent around the world.

The project was developed during the pandemic to create new films outdoors celebrating “a much-needed sense of space and freedom”.

The "Sonic Surroundings project" was created by Glasgow-based arts company Cryptic to bring people together through "beauty, freedom, happiness and hope".

Glasgow-based electro-pop performer Elisabeth Elektra joined forces with arts company Cryptic to create a new short film at the Rest and Be Thankful in Argyll. Picture: Brian Hartley

And it wants to forge partnerships with international arts organisations with the aim of inspiring other short films to be made by musicians on rooftops and against scenic landscapes around the world.

Drones and hand-held cameras were used to create the films, one of which features Glaswegian electro-pop performer Elisabeth Elektra, who climbed a hill in wellies to film in the wind and rain at the famous Argyll viewpoint.

In the other, the Ando Glaso Collective - a band drawn from Scotland’s diverse Romanian, Polish, Slovak, Czech and Hungarian Roma communities - performed on top of a tower block beside the M8 .

The two films will be launched online after a premiere in Glasgow in August at a fundraising event for charities in Ukraine, where Cryptic has developed long-standing cultural connections.

Musicians from the Ando Glaso Collective were filmed beside the M8 motorway in Glasgow for the arts project Sonic Surroundings. Picture: Louise Mather

Cathie Boyd, Cryptic’s artistic director, said: “The project wasn’t about shooting music videos.

"It was about artists being in an extraordinary location, with a feeling of them being completely isolated, but also being able to see the beauty around them.

"We somehow got five songs from Elisabeth in the can, which I didn’t think we’d get because of the weather. It was so dramatic – the clouds were coming in right behind her. The wind was so strong I thought we were going to lose a drone when we were filming.

“What drone footage has enabled us to do with this project is fantastic.

The Ando Glaso Collective were filmed performing on top of a tower block next to the M8 motorway. Picture: Louise Mather

“When you’re in a country as beautiful as Scotland you want to show it to the world. That’s what I’m really excited about.”

Elisabeth Elektra, who filmed at the Rest and Be Thankful last weekend, said: “The project has been quite a long time in the planning.

“I was really excited about it when I was initially approached and we were due to film last September, but unfortunately I had a really serious ankle injury which needed surgery.

"Everything had to be postponed until my ankle was strong enough to climb up the side of a really big hill.

Glasgow-based electro-pop performer Elisabeth Elektra joined forces with arts company Cryptic to create a new short film at the Rest and Be Thankful in Argyll.

"I didn’t want to climb up and down in my costume so I had to get changed behind an umbrella. It was also really boggy so I had to wear wellies to get there and the weather was really brutal.

"But it was all a bit of a dream for me - a mountain was the perfect setting to perform outdoors and it was actually kind of exhilarating. I’d certainly never done anything like it before.”

János Lang, Ando Glaso’s creative director, said: “We’ve been talking with Cryptic for a while and looking for something to work on together."The idea with this was to have a very Glasgow landscape along with an image of opening up again and being out in the free world.”