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Between Music’s Robert Karlsson performs AquaSonic
Credit: Jens Peter Engedal/Courtesy of Between Music
Dedicated followers of fashion will no doubt remember Iris van Herpen’s Fall 2017 haute couture presentation, not only for the astonishing ways the Dutch designer created filament-thin finery that seemingly flouted the laws of fashion itself, but for the other astonishing performance that took place on the runway.
Van Herpen enlisted Between Music, an avant-garde five-piece ensemble from Denmark, to sing and perform music created on their bespoke instruments whilst submerged underwater in glass aquariums. The resulting work, AquaSonic, is an astonishing performance, ethereal and groundbreaking in equal measure, and one that today has been announced amongst the first acts headlining Sydney Festival 2018.
Between Music will perform AquaSonic four times over as many days at Carriageworks as part of the annual festival. The piece itself has been in a state of research and development for over a decade, beginning with Laila Skovmand’s first attempts at singing underwater in 2006 and culminating with its debut performance in 2016. Over the intervening years, the group has consulted with various experts including deep sea divers, scientists and instrument makers with whom they’ve developed singular underwater instruments like the hydraulophone, an electromagnetic harp, violins, chimes and percussion, as well as a unique vocal technique that makes underwater singing possible.
The Festival has also announced a further two shows in advance of unveiling its full program, including The Town Hall Affair, a theatrical restaging of the 1971 film Town Bloody Hall, which documented a debate between the author Norman Mailer and leading feminists Jill Johnston and Germaine Greer; and Riot, a critically-acclaimed Irish variety show that brings together dance, drag, circus, comedy and spoken word performances to dissect the status of the modern world.
Tickets for all shows are available now. More information about Sydney Festival 2018 can be found here.
Fans of van Herpen’s work will also be interested to note that The National Gallery of Victoria will stage a presentation of recent works by the designeras part of their inaugural Triennial, opening December.
You can revisit her presentation co-starring the five members of Between Music performing AquaSonic below.
Tile image: Jens Peter Engedal/Courtesy of Between Music
Cover image: Morten Thun/Courtesy of Between Music
