Dark was the Night

Scene for twelve musicians, two blind guides and audience

This project investigates our perception of music in darkness. Enclosed in a dark room, visitors lie on resonant structures and listen to the musicians play their instruments while moving vertically or horizontally around the room. The audience can neither localize the source of the sounds visually, nor identify which instrument produces which sound. Unable to anticipate the sounds by sight, the audience has to completely rely on its sense of hearing and the physical experience of sound. Because the fixed position of sounds provides structure to space, the performing ensemble will be kept constantly in motion, thereby dissolving the material space and creating a purely acoustic environment. Blind guides will be on hand to assist the visitors – this reversal of roles will hopefully encourage visitors to re-evaluate the dominance of visual perception. For this project the director Sabrina Hölzer will collaborate with twelve string players from the instrumental ensemble Kaleidoskop. They will perform works by international contemporary composers – such as Sánchez-Verdú, Sciarrino, Hosokawa and Xenakis – as well as some classical compositions. The project has also commissioned several new works which involve movements, changes in movement, vocal and tonal jumps and the transferral of motifs and sounds. In addition to performances in Berlin and Salzburg, additional concerts are planned around the world, for which a mobile room installation will be specially made.

Artistic director: Sabrina Hölzer
Artists: Ladislav Zajac (SK), Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop. With works by Sánchez-Verdú (ES), Salvatore Sciarrino (IT), Peteris Vasks (LV), Lachenmann, Xenakis (GR), Hosokawa (J), Blind Willie Johnson (USA), Qu Xiao-song (CH), Marcelo Toledo (RA)

Venues and schedule:
Sophiensaele Berlin or Funkhaus Nalepastrasse, Berlin, 12 – 16 Dec. 2012