There was a blue harp, some bulldozers and a giant crocodile...

La Machine is a French organisation specialising in fabulous mechanised installations and shows. They work with harpist Rachel Gladwin and we have lent harps for their performances on more than one occasion.

 

La princesse, La Machine's fifty-foot mechanical spider commissioned by the City of Liverpool in 2008. Photo: Matthew Andrews

 

Rachel and her musician colleagues following La Princess through Liverpool in moving cherry-pickers

 

Recently, La Machine have been using the harp again, as part of a bulldozer ballet in La Roche-sur-Yon on September 1st. This is the first chapter in an "Animaux de la place" series commissioned by the town. 

 

 

In the video below, you can see the bulldozers dancing, bashing a hole in the Place Napoléon, and lowering the first animal, a giant crocodile, into the space. There is also another video on the town website, which I can't embed here, but where you can hear more of the accompanying music.

 

1ER COUP DE PELLETEUSE... von ville-larochesuryon 

The musicians rehearsing for the show

 

And here's something we should have done when lightening blew apart the roof of our factory last year - it is even possible to win a paving stone excavated from the Place Napoléon! Details on the town's excellent blog.