The forgotten past of the Lea Valley, the Olympic ruins of the future, and the modernist mysteries of the Barbican Estate, will be woven together with lost histories from the English folk tradition for a dramatic concert at the Barbican tonight.

English Journey: Re-imagined combines readings, performance, music and film from Hackney author Iain Sinclair, folk music historian and legendary singer Shirley Collins and graphic novelist Alan Moore.

“The idea of the English Journey was to take a kind of travelling circus of people from different disciplines on a British tour,” explains Sinclair.

“You can get a kind of communal identity from bringing together a disparate group of people who would never normally work together, and pushing them into this cauldron where they have to fuse and they have to find some central metaphors that work,”

“It is the idea of the road, the journey, the walking, the madness, and with the musicians that builds into apocalyptic noise.”

Together they lead the audience on a journey into our land’s dark corners and half forgotten pathways, telling us tales that others might rather we didn’t hear.

Expect flutes and strings, border pipes and hurdy-gurdy heavy metal.

The performance takes place at 7.30pm on Saturday October 22, tickets are priced from �15 to �25, call the box office on 0845 120 7550 or go to www.barbican.org.uk/music

Important notice: Because of a back injury, Shirley Collins is unable to take part in English Journey: Re-Imagined. The running order and content of the concert will be unchanged - her readings will be replaced by recordings.

Iain Sinclair will now give the pre-concert talk which will take place at 6pm in the Fountain Room.