John Grant, ANOHNI and Yoko Ono debut new music during Variations digital mini-festival

Variations is the first digital mini-festival by Sage Gateshead music centre, and during lockdown the team commissioned four artists to create new music films "reflecting their experience of the climate crisis and pandemic".

The mini-festival aired on BBC yesterday (31 October), and coincides with COP26, aka The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which is taking place in Glasgow until 12 November.

John Grant debuted new cut "Faint Positive Lateral Flow", while ANOHNI and Yoko Ono delivered a duet titled "I Love You Earth" with a video made in collaboration and support for The Rainforest Trust. Moor Mother played "Spring Again", and Tune-Yards debuted "Time No Time".

Grant said, "I think we’re all stressed the fuck out right now with all the different things that are going with the pandemic and climate change and don’t even have time to catch up and figure out how we feel. So I think it’s a good thing to give voice to those thoughts and feelings to maybe lighten the load. Maybe in some small way this can help other people figure out where they’re at by sparking that thought process in the midst of all the stress."

Yoko Ono said, "There are so many of us in the world who are now awakened, ready to act to save our world. So let’s work together to save this planet. Together. That’s how we will change the world. We change, and the world changes. Have trust in what you can do. Have trust in how fast we can change our world for the better. Why? Because we have to. Believe that we are one and together we will make it. Love is what connects all lives on Earth."