Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Not a Still Life

S. and I went to a MusicNow concert at the Harris Theater last night. Overall, it was fantastic; Esa-Pekka Salonen was conducting, and the final piece was his own composition - "Catch and Release." Hands down the best part of the program.

The first piece, on the other hand, pretty much scared the bejeesus out of me. Titled LautLeben (loud life), it was composed by Rolf Wallin, in collaboration with Sidsel Endresen, who is apparently a well-known Norwegian vocalist. The piece is orchestrated entirely with Endresen's voice. Computer manipulations of her voice are piped into the theater, and she improvises along with them. Oh, and there's also a video - mostly geometric, patterned things coming and going on a big screen.

But oh my god, what that woman does with her voice. It's like everything I ever imagined about demonic possession. Bones ratcheting; reptilian things hatching and dragging their viscous bodies along the floor. The twitching, the sudden guffaws and wails. It was terrifying.

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