Atlas. Islands of Utopia

The internationally renowned composer José Sánchez-Verdú from Spain is the inventor of the “auraphone”, an extraordinary instrument in which the singer’s voice or instrumental music resonates behind steel plates, tam-tams or gongs with the aid of contact microphones, a computer and loud speakers. This instrument has been used in a room installation titled “ATLAS. Islands of Utopia” and augmented by a “visual auraphone” which converts the sounds into movement and the movement into light.
This project offered visitors absolutely new spatial experiences in the musical process. Images, projections and texts by well-known thinkers, writers and artists such as Plato, Thomas More, Giordano Bruno, Hölderlin and Juana Inés de la Cruz have been musically and spatially interwoven to create acoustic islands of sound-spatial polyphony. Visitors to the Galerie Herrenhausen were allowed to sit, lie down or move freely through these spaces made of sound and light. The musicians and singers also moved through the rooms and performed in such way to create new, ever-changing musical islands. Additional performances are planned in Porto and Salzburg.

Artistic director / staging: Sabrina Hölzer
Musical director / composition: José Maria Sánchez Verdú (ES)
Artists: Jeannot Bessière (FR), Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart