‘Lightning’ is a collaboration between musician and producer, Gareth John, and writer, Laura Tansley, created in direct response to 4M’s call for submissions on ‘sustainability, resilience, stability’. The piece speaks to ideas around balance in relation to these themes, and the see-sawing that occurs between anxiety and action, solipsism and collectivism. The process involved several responses to, and interventions on, each other’s work: Laura’s words were written in response to an initial piece created by Gareth, and then performed outside her flat in the back court – first in snow, and then in rain. Gareth then explored ways to combine the words, sounds and music, and created versions where these contributions merged. The final version includes ambient sound, trips over words, and other happy accidents.