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Named for the white patches on his gray body, the long, slow slide of the whale’s back was a glim in the sun as he made leisurely dives, arcing across the water.

“Lyra, run forrard and dowse that glim,” said Brabandt, easing the throttle back and reaching out with his other hand for the stern light.

Billed simply as Massive Attack v Adam Curtis, in the manner of an old school reggae or hip-hop sound system clash, the multimedia performance, which Curtis calls a "glim" – a cross between a gig and a film – will elaborate on these arguments, both conceptually and in terms of the narrative arc of his latest film.

If all this sounds like a tall order even for a "glim", one senses that Curtis thrives on this sort of challenge and that he has infected Massive Attack's mainman, Robert "3D" Del Naja, with his boundless enthusiasm and the sheer audacity of his vision.

The film-maker Adam Curtis has provided a glimpse of the new work he is prepating with Robert del Naja of Massive Attack for the Manchester International Festival – a piece that he calls "a Glim – a new way of integrating a gig with a film".