LEONARD Cohen’s lyrics have given a unique festival taking place at The Globe at Hay its title – How the Light Gets In - but, sadly he won’t be making an appearance himself, despite his well-documented interest in philosophy.

There are, though, plenty of the biggest names in contemporary thought, including AC Grayling and Will Hutton on the line-up.

And one of the highlights of the week-long festival is certain to be a live performance by Michael Nyman, the acclaimed, Oscar-winning composer, renowned for his film scores for movies including the likes of The Piano, The Draughtsman’s Contract and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.

Michael Nyman’s video paintings were shot over years on the road, documenting the scenes and events chanced upon in the course of his extraordinary musical career.

Travelling from Persepolis to Lisbon, Berlin to Chilpancingo, Mexico, Michael Nyman has visited some of the most evocative cities in the world and has captured in his art works the idiosyncrasies of these intricate cultures.

His videos are playful, hitting on quirks that happened to fall into the camera’s path, creating visual puns. They are also evasive, allowing events to unfold and then slip away out of view.

His appropriation of some of these then takes on a musical quality: split screens and visual repetition shape his footage into something new that transcends conventional narrative. The composer of music for films has become a film-maker.

Video painting is a genre that evolved precisely from the desire to escape the confines of narrative.

The Globe at Hay, like Nyman, pioneered this emerging medium, having hosted the open gallery’s collection On the Cusp, making it a natural venue for Nyman’s latest venture. How the Light Gets In will see him premiere an entirely new composition: a sequence of his video work soundtracked by a live piano recital.

This will interweave scores from his archive with location sounds to create a work of bold complexity situated somewhere on the edge of a new art form.

How the Light Gets In is the first event of its kind in the UK, bringing together top thinkers, leading musicians and pioneering artists at a time when the world is wondering where we go from here to explore the issues of the day through debate, music and live performance.

The festival programme is divided into four distinct sessions: Philosophy sessions, run during the day with the overall theme: “Crunch, values and belief in a new era”, live sessions every night that demonstrate how music and philosophy collide, night sessions featuring, among others, Berlin beats from world-renowned DJ/writer/intellectual Ewan Pearson, and AV sets from Big Chill founder Pete Lawrence and a variety of workshop sessions.

How the Light Gets In runs from Friday, May 22, to Sunday, May 31. For a full festival line-up, see howthelightgetsin.org