'Chelsea' was shortlisted for the 2015 Seán Ó Faoláin international prize for short fiction, and duly appeared on the website of the Irish journal, Southword. It was subsequently also recorded with music in a project—described in Axon issue 9—initiated by the musician Jan Pulsford and myself. Southword very kindly waived its usual rights regarding further publication. Thus 'Chelsea' can be read at Southword and listened to with music at Axon.
In our work together Jan has usually composed and played to accompany an existing text. With 'Chelsea' I was delighted to be able to take an existing piece of music, which I knew from her album The truth of the river, and then to work the (also existing) text around it. This music—as I remarked in a reference to 'Chelsea' in issue 9—had the necessary grandeur. A version of an original waltz, 'Ripples of the red moon' was inspired by the sight of a moon over a lake which Jan had seen in Tennessee. That notwithstanding, just as a familiar piece of music may successfully become an integral part of a film, this already-existent music seemed a perfect fit in the entirely new context of 'Chelsea'.
Incidentally, the audio text is not the full text as can be read at Southword, but a shorter version, better suited for being listened to.
In a further important part of this collaboration, we asked the sound recordist and producer Paul Nicholas at Soundabout Audio in Suffolk to make the voice recording and mix this with Jan's splendid music.
John Saul