Liquid Room X: Robert Ashley and The Theatre Of Voices
Since 2009, Ictus has organised its Liquid Rooms at Kaaitheater and around Europe. At the interface between concert and installation, they invite the audience to circulate freely, discover music in diverse styles and experience unexpected ways of listening. In this new edition, the ensemble focuses on the eccentric oeuvre of Robert Ashley, an American composer who became known for what he called “Aethereal Music": multidisciplinary works in which the musicality of the spoken word is centred.
In the television opera Perfect Lives, for example, Ashley portrays iconic American places such as the Supermarket, the Church or the Bank, and the everyday (anti)heroes who populate them. Together with the Swiss ensemble Contrechamps and two remarkable performers, Ictus will present fragments from this cult work alongside music by the young composer Jessie Cox and a Laurie Anderson cover.
• Ictus is a Brussels-based contemporary music ensemble. A multifaceted collective of creative musicians, dedicated to experimental music in the broadest sense, Ictus has shared and amplified current questions about the future of contemporary music since 1994.
ensemble Ictus, Contrechamps | voice Nina Guo, Tarek Halaby | sound Alexandre Fostier | light Caspar Langhoff | production Kaaitheater, Klarafestival | support Pro Helvetia, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government
repertoire
Robert Ashley (1930-2014)
- Excerpt from Perfect Lives, Act 3: The Bank (1983)
- Tap Dancing in the Sand (1982)
- Excerpt from The Improvement: The Indifference Text (1990)
Jessie Cox (1995) new work (2024) commissioned by Contrechamps and Ictus
Laurie Anderson (1947) O Superman (1981)
Jennifer Walshe (1974) from Trí Amhrán (Three Songs) (2019): 1. Robot 3. Twelve Climate Songs
Sarah Nemtsov (1980) Implicated Amplification (2014)
Tom Johnson (1939) Rational Melodies X and XV (1982)
Bryn Harrison (1969) Five Miniatures in three parts (2008)
This performance features strobe lights and deep bass.
Exit and re-entry, as well as filming are permitted.