“Humanity’s big threat is our disconnect from nature”: Craig Richards and Chris Levine in conversation

It’s 9:30pm on Friday night at Houghton Festival, and a crowd has gathered on the far edge of the lake at Houghton Hall, one of England’s most palatial manors in Norfolk. A single purple laser beam shines across the night sky from beyond the trees in the diestance, while in the background, the Senegal-to-Berlin percussive polyrhythms of Ndagga Rhythm Force’s live set are met with cheers and chants, as vocalist Mbene Diatta Seck leads a call and response with the crowd at the nearby Pinters stage.

Soon, a hush descends as a chrome Volkswagen campervan floating in the middle of the water illuminates into a barely visible orb of light, spreading a fan of lasers across it. As they move from one side to the other, they shimmer and refract through haze, while being reflected by the lake’s surface. It’s the debut presentation of FULL BEAM – a new piece from leading light artist Chris Levine that seems a perfect fit for the festival, incorporating an electronic music staple (lasers) into Houghton Hall’s idyllic site, itself a renowned host of contemporary art.

I’ve been to each edition of Houghton Festival since its 2017 debut, and with its journey-building programming, classy production and nature embracing setting, it’s been a formative space for me. The same goes for the UK’s music scene at large – being the country’s first and only 24-hour music festival, with its extended evenings that morph into mornings, and afterhours that melt back into the nighttime – it offers an experience that genuinely stands out within a crowded summer schedule.

Art has always been a feature, highlighted by daily tours to the Hall’s famed sculpture gardens, while in 2023, Aphex Twin collaborator Weirdcore hosted an installation in the Warehouse Stage. While personally, the music has always been front of mind at the festival, this year’s edition saw a shift in the balance. On top of existing works, Houghton has continued to populate its site with sculptures and installations in a growingly impressive slate, while developing a unique visual identity. From live performances including the aforementioned Ndagga Rhythm Force and punky synth-duo C.A.R., to highlight DJ sets from Vlada, Jane Fitz and Ricardo Villalobos’s mind-melting closer, the weekend’s soundtrack was inspiring as always, but Houghton’s vision shone sharper than ever, as music, visual arts and nature all felt like interlocking, important parts of the weekend.

On top of FULL BEAM, Chris Levine also exhibited HIGHER POWER, which configures lasers to ley lines, and an LED ​‘blipvert’ piece LIGHT IS LOVE at the festival. There was also a new structure by London architecture and design studio EBBA, while the festival’s founder, creative director and longtime fabric resident Craig Richards’s sculpture dedicated to the late, legendary Andrew Weatherall was relocated to the Pavilion Stage, in a new installation named Tree Comees Down, Andrew Goes Up. With another Houghton in the books, I caught up with Richards and Levine to chat about their work at this year’s festival, as well as the importance of reconnecting with people, culture and nature in tumultuous times.

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Craig, how did you become aware of Chris’s work, and what drew you to commission him for Houghton Festival?

Craig Richards: I actually first became aware of Chris’s work when he did the piece for Houghton Hall [in 2021], which was near to us at the time and very dramatic. I love anything to do with lights really, and Chris is very much at the forefront of that. Since we got to spend time together I’ve got to know more of what he’s doing, and he’s created many more works in that time across the globe. So it’s a great honour to have Chris involved. We spoke about doing something last year, but it just couldn’t quite happen, but we didn’t want to force anything and now I think that both of us realised that it’s a better moment to do it now that it would have been last year. So, to use that overused word, it’s been organic.

Can we talk about that original Houghton Hall piece, what was it?

Chris Levine: I had a show called ​‘528 Hz Love Frequency’, and that 528 Hz relates to an ancient musical scale called Solfeggio, which is like the sacred geometry applied to music. Everything comes down to numbers, and there’s a musical scale that relates to the golden ration and the Fibonacci sequence. [Scientists] found that the middle note on this ancient scale – which a lot of Gregorian chant music is based on that monks used to chant – at 528 Hz, that DNA resonates. When you listen to Gregorian chant music, which incorporates the Solfeggio, it has this expansive, celestial dimension to it because the scale correlates to the energy system in the body.

So the centrepiece of ​‘528 Hz Love Frequency’ was this 25m tall structure. If you stood directly underneath it, a sound beam would go through you – if you stood either side, you wouldn’t hear it, but if you lined yourself up with this ultraviolet dot, this beam went through you at 528 Hz and you’re immersed in these lasers. What I wanted to do was create an experience where you stood on this grid and were aligned with the geometry of the architecture, the landscaping, the ley lines and even the earth energies. A lot of it was getting into a meditative state – you’re not thinking about what that person said to you, or how you’re going to pay the rent, you’re in the space between thought and you feel present and you feel good.

That’s interesting, and I guess that state is what you’re trying to get people into as a DJ Craig?

CR: Absolutely, if that situation and state can be achieved. It doesn’t always work that way, but one certainly aims to achieve a sense of focus within the people in front of you. It’s a harder thing, especially nowadays, the human mind is much more preoccupied and flooded, so it’s hard to imagine a fully focused dancefloor. But the main aim is to lure and attract, and then to be able to take people into a different place.

I think a lot of that is down to the audience – I have a great sense of belief in what I’m doing, as I’ve bought and acquired the records, and selected them, and I have experience. Whatever country, or whatever dancefloor you’re playing in, a lot of it is based on hope, and in a way that’s the same with Chris’s work – you hope and trust that what you imagine is going to be received and understood.

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Light and music festivals are intrinsically linked, of course, and even more so at a festival which runs 24 hours – you have sunrise and sunset, the peak of the day, peak of the night – different types of light are part of the rhythms of the festival. What made you want to explore the limits of lasers?

CR: I think there are many aspects of this festival aesthetically. Starting with the obvious, you have the trees, the lake, the sky, and if you can make image and music align at any moment across 24 hours or four days, then it is very powerful. Even if it’s for half an hour, that sense of what you see coming together with what you hear is the aim.

CL: There’s a lot of cycles within that, with the day to night and all the different phases in between. There are moments that are different with what we’re doing with the lasers, say at 9:30pm compared to 3:30am, or when the moon comes up, or when the sun’s setting. There are all of these different variables and it’s kind of experimental – the temperature on the lake and how that affects the haze, for example. I’ve actually tended to veer away from doing my work at festivals, because there’s so much going on. Like when I did Houghton Hall, I had the whole estate to myself, but now there’s lots going on, so I’ve had to crank it and tune it in a different way. But it’s very exciting, FULL BEAM is in the middle of the lake, where there’s some space I can create some stillness, but it is experimental – I’ve never floated a chrome plated van into the middle of a lake and shone lasers onto its surface and reflected them onto trees.

What’s the story behind FULL BEAM?

CL: So originally, I got this chrome plated caravan because I wanted to develop it and do installations. I was actually first going to do it at Glastonbury’s 50^th anniversary and had been commissioned by the Eavises. It was this big thing, where the laser beam was coming out of this van like a spaceship had just landed, then of course Covid happened, and the installation never happened. What we’re doing now started off as a bit of fun, I said: ​“Why don’t we float it in the middle of the lake?” only being half serious, and Craig said: ​“Actually, that’s a good idea, let’s do it.” When you’ve got a great production team, you can do these things. We floated it out today, and it’s glistening in the sun, and it looks totally ridiculous.

Craig, I saw you play at Glastonbury this year, with this edition feeling like a particularly powerful expression of unity, and where music, art and radical thinking all coming together. How much of that are you trying to channel with Houghton?

CR: I’ve been going to Glastonbury on and off since 1987, and it’s morphed into the thing that it is now. It’s always a pleasure to go, and it’s a walking holiday as much as a festival. This year I was lucky enough to play at Genosys [in Block9], which was an incredible experience, but the thing with Glastonbury is I’ve always thought it’s about the land rather than the audience in a way. It’s special – the fact that it’s in a strange bowl, with Avebury next door to it.

CL: It’s sacred land.

CR: Yeah, there’s ley lines, and it’s a very special part of England. On the one hand Glastonbury is a great human achievement, but also an achievement for the land itself. I always come away wishing I’d seen more, that presents an itch you can’t scratch, and I think what any festival – and certainly what this festival is about – is discovery. I’ve always said that going home with discovery is better than going home with reassurance. Discovery is important, whether it’s installation, sculpture, painting, live music or DJs – an experience that enhances your understanding of what you think you’ve seen.

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Chris, your HIGHER POWER installation configures lasers with ley lines. It’s an interesting juxtaposition – something as spiritual as ley lines being illuminated by something as technological as lasers – what’s the thinking?

CL: Well, you can amplify them and plug into ley lines. In ancient times they built stone circles, using certain types of stones that are conductive, which would alter the states of these ley lines, and at certain times of the year these things would be intense – like Stonehenge. I think these are faculties that we’ve lost, and I think these are senses that for a modern man in a materialistic world, they are completely dialled down. I’ve done some work at Giza in front of the Great Pyramid, and I think at these sites, I’m really drawn to whatever these forces are. I think with HIGHER POWER and using lasers connecting with these geometries, we’re plugging into a kind of circuity, and we can get audiences to align their attention with this. The mother beam for HIGHER POWER is a 600 watt laser – as lasers go, it’s pretty powerful, so it gives them the access to put the attention on these geometries.

People have been getting together and making and listening to music for thousands of years, and I think at the right festival setting, in nature, you can feel that…

CL: I think we need it more than ever. I think the big threat to humanity now is our disconnect from nature – the disconnect from who we are and what we are. Festivals are quite ritualistic in a way. We come and gather together, and we celebrate, and use technology to bring us back to who and what we are.

CR: On a very basic level, it’s very common knowledge that there isn’t phone signal at Houghton, which arguably remains the greatest blessing in terms of openness and freedom with the experience, and disengaging from the very thing that keeps us addicted to communication. So that really couldn’t be a better thing in terms of your relationship to a simplistic human journey, even if it’s just for four days, it creates time and space to notice things. I’ve certainly noticed from the younger people who come that they’ve been allowed a little more time to see and hear.

What other arts are you looking forwards to at this year’s Houghton? I saw that the sculpture dedicated to Andrew Weatherall was being moved to The Pavilion stage.

CR: Yeah, that’s something I’m very pleased and excited about. I made that piece for Andrew after he died, and last year we weren’t quite sure where to put it, but it felt fine to put it anywhere in a way, because the work itself was quite powerful. But then this winter, during an assessment of the trees, one of the trees on the main dancefloor at The Pavilion had to come down. It was quite a big tree, so it left an incredible stump and I felt it would be the place to put the Andrew Weatherall sculpture, if we could drill down and support it there permanently, which we’ve managed to do. The title is Tree Comes Down, Andrew Goes Up, and it felt right – he was very much an inspiration, and someone that I went from fan to friend with. It’s not just a celebration of him, but a celebration of the way he operated and what he stood for, so it’s an important piece for me.

There’s a few other bits and pieces. When we started as an arts and music festival, it felt very grand, and it was perhaps more of a music festival with arts tapped on to it. Our aim is to make it equal as an arts and music festival, and to represent visual arts in the same way we represent music – so there’s so much growth and it’s fantastic to have Chris here, and the start of commissioning and showing work in this wonderful place and setting.

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What do you hope people feel when they walk away from the arts at Houghton?

CL: Well, these are crazy times, and I think the more that we can connect with ourselves and each other, the better. With the lasers, you can get really profound with it, or it can be the best fucking laser show you’ve ever seen. But it’s about raising your vibrations, having a good time, having some time out and then we can get back to our lives.

CR: While it’s a 24 hour festival, we don’t really run 24 hours in all areas. But it means the audience dwindles at times and ultimately decides what they want from it, but the 24 hours is pretty special if it means you can introduce an ambient set in the morning, and a techno set at night, or a reggae set or jazz performance during the day. As Chris mentioned, it’s arguably the strongest moment in our history – if you were to watch the news, you soon realise what’s going on. I think when a festival, concert or gallery exhibition can help enhance understanding of what’s going on, and how we respond to it, [it’s a good thing].

It’s also impossible not to mention the kindness and interaction of Houghton Hall itself and the Cholmondeleys, and how they allow us to do what we want to do, and build stages with their great support and understanding. They of course already have their sculpture garden, and we’re indebted to them as a gallery space.

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Light artist Chris Levine debuted ​‘Full Beam’ at Houghton Festival in Norfolk, August 7 – 10, 2025.

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