Will Gregory: new music on Real World X – Lost In The Forest

Will Gregory is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer and one half of the electro-pop duo Goldfrapp. He is also the founding member of Will Gregory’s Moog Ensemble, who last year released their debut album Heat Ray: The Archimedes Project. Lost In The Forest: Music from the RSC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the music Gregory created for the RSC’s production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which originally premiered in Stratford and then transferred to London, in late 2024, for a sold-out, five-star run at the Barbican.

The RSC production, directed by Eleanor Rhode and starring Matthew Baynton, Katherine Pearce, Sirine Saba, Boadicea Ricketts, Andrew Richardson and Dawn Sievewright, garnered many plaudits as ‘a ravishing fusion of flamboyancy, surrealism and raucous fun’ (The Guardian), and ‘a glorious production of Shakespeare’s most spellbinding comedy…this truly is a night of fantasy’ (London Theatre).

Lost In The Forest is set for a digital-only release on 8 August 2025, via Real World X. Lead track ‘Threatening Bass’ is available now.

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I've always liked music in theatre or film where the music is strong enough to stand on its own two legs. Some of the time you're doing a mood that is very much in the background and, here, we've got dialogue... We’ve got Shakespeare! You don't want to trample all over that, obviously. Will Gregory

Director Eleanor Rhode showed Gregory early set designs, with plans to make the fairies exist as light sources or light beams; ethereal, neon and a bit disconnected… This visual approach gave Gregory “a kind-of carte blanche to think about using synths and electronic sounds. We were on a pathway to using synths and making some sounds that reflected this tingling, fleeting electricity.”

“I actually wrote a lot of the music completely independently with the thought that there’s going to be a certain forest-y mood, there’s going to be some songs, that’s about all I knew… plus the ethereal, neon, flickering effect for the fairies. I demo’d some of it and sent it on, I like to send the director music, and was then able to get feedback from Eleanor while I was writing, which was really helpful.”

“I’ve always liked music in theatre or film where the music is strong enough to stand on its own two legs. Some of the time you’re doing a mood that is very much in the background and, here, we’ve got dialogue… We’ve got Shakespeare! You don’t want to trample all over that, obviously.  It’s always great when you can get the music to run in parallel rather than completely underscoring what’s happening on stage. And sometimes Eleanor would put it somewhere I hadn’t imagined which was fantastic.”

“Also, as a composer, when you feel ‘I’m actually functional here’, I’m able to help the technical process of getting from one scene to another to happen, with a little interlude, that always makes me feel good…”

Will Gregory photographed by Paul Heartfield

Lead track, Threatening Bass, reflects “a moment of drama, risk and peril within the play and was deployed in a scene where Puck takes the four lovers and makes them jump through hoops, completely in Puck’s power and under his spell. It’s kind of magic, but also quite terrifying and aggressive.”

‘Threatening Bassis available now on all digital platforms with Lost In The Forest being released on 8 August, 2025.

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Credits

XRW52 Will Gregory – Lost In The Forest: Music from the RSC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Released 8 August, 2025

Threatening Bass
Globes and Bubbles
Titania’s Lullaby
Bubble Sky
Oberon’s Deceit
Robin’s Song
Lovelorn Aftermath
Falling Star
Mist Clearing
Bottom’s Song

Written, produced and mixed by Will Gregory
Engineered by Silas Chandler Blackburn, Alessandro Baldessari
Published by Decca Publishing
Martyn Barker (drums, guitar, additional vocals), Andy Davis (guitar, bass, additional vocals), Alex Lee (guitar, bass, additional vocals), Andy Taylor (guitar, additional vocals), Will Gregory (Synths, additional vocals), Katherine Pearce (vocals)
(p) 2025 Real World Records Ltd. Under exclusive licence from Will Gregory
(c) 2025 Real World Records Ltd.

By Online Editor

Published on Wed, 02 July 25

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