Michael Hanna: Music (click titles)

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)

This piece was inspired by a black-and-white film of a family at the beach. Although the date is uncertain, the white clothing and long white car suggest sometime in the 1920's. The women shade themselves with their parasols, the men adjust their moustaches, and the children play in the sand. The framerate isn't very good, so playing back at speed results in a slightly jerky, "too-fast" quality, giving the film an early Chaplin-like feel. "Although I didn't know who these people were, or where they were, or even when they were, I had this overwhelming feeling of nostalgia about the whole thing," Michael says. "I felt this piece really captured some of that 'black-and-white' nostalgia; in fact, I almost named the piece 'Black and White.' Instead I chose to name it after one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, the sort of beach those people in the movie might have visited." Cavendish beach is located on scenic Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada.