Solar Associates

burntprogress have been busy over recent weeks. Their CDR project has been surfacing at several summer UK music festivals – Rise, The Big Chill and Lewisham People's Day - that we booked them into. A healthy mix of music makers and fans gathered at each, demonstrating their ongoing support for this unique platform for emerging and existing talent – and their appreciation for the airing of great new tracks-in-the-making.

Rise provided CDR with a chance to support some young MCs.  At Lewisham, burntprogress shared stage time with Red Snapper and Ty, and offered an 'OpenCDR' opportunity to local artists who could hear their work through a festival-scale sound system. At the Big Chill, Solar Associates heard from members of CDR's evolving East Midlands network - for which we fundraised awhile back. The 3-day OpenCDR special at the Big Chill finished  to applause, and with mix requests from the Festival and from marketing agency Beatwax. We bumped into Alan James (a.k.a. AJ), former ACE Head of Contemporary Music and current producer for The Imagined Village and the Bays + the Heritage Orchestra, who was pleased to hear the burntprogress/Solar collaboration is ongoing. Check out the CDR segment of the Guardian's Big Chill podcast here.

Respect to the burntprogress team for their fine work, and thanks to each of these Festivals for hosting the project. (Image of Tony Nwachukwu/CDR taken during a session at The Big Chill House, London.)