Float Sound Objects

17 & 18 June 2005 

Looking at questions about ritual and ritualised aspects of living, Float Sound Objects was created as a performance vessel exploring diverse and political ideas arising from the aftermath of the Indonesian tsunami in 2004. 

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In a multitude of scenes, days and nights seem to pass.  The Spiral of Life is enacted in the moonlight, a ritualized dance unfolds. Music is intermittent.  People and puppets come and go without undue attention.  A solo instrument plays, then silence, then the whole ensemble, then silence.  Links to Indonesia are felt from micro-sounds of insects, frogs, birds, rain. Occasional far off thunder comes and goes. Unfamiliar sounds, quiet and ominous recede into the distance.  There is always tension in the air.  Performers and dancers unfold a series of non-linear scenes and narratives. Bystanders and witnesses observe with detachment.  A vast transformation ensues. A tragedy unfolds.

Uncertainty has become ritual. Someone is clinging in agony. Another one endlessly running. Lights float through space. Tourist Barbie culture floats in the aftermath of torrid waters.  Ladyboy and Buddha meet in a conflict of desire.  Game show contestants drift in a sea of nonsense, while survivors float by on household objects.  Demons of the sea claim their victims.  Forces of nature, beyond our control.   We run and run from the shore.   Now we sit and wait. Unwilling witnesses. How can we speak about this??The spiral of light returns as individuals perform a candlelight ritual of remembrance.

ABOUT THE PROJECT 

During the last several years, Gamelan Naga Mas have created new performances based on traditional shadow puppet theatre and Indonesian dance, featuring artists such as Joko Susilo, Sunarno Purwolelono, I Nyoman Wenten and Ekadamayanti. In 2005, we are looking towards creating stronger relationships with dance and choreography, and developing a larger repertoire of new music for gamelan instruments. These two have come together in Float Sound Objects, an in-house collaborative work, with new music by Katherine Waumsley, Anna Himsworth, J Simon van der Walt, Doug Haire and Jon Keliehor. The performance features a new music collection, partly based on gamelan forms, and partly exploring electro-acoustic possibilities with the use of electronic processing. The music is unusual, experimental, sometimes other-worldly.

Performances on 17 & 18 June, at Gilmorehill G12 Theatre, Glasgow, offer a set of nonlinear observations on the recent tsunami disaster of December 2004. Even though the tsunami was far away, in a different part of the world, we too were shaken by it. Some of us were there at the time. Some had friends who were there. For many, it directly affected aspects of our lives. Gamelan Naga Mas has asked choreographers Rosina Bonsu, Derek McLuckie and Aviva Kartiningsih Cohen to respond to themes arising from the tsunami disaster. Matthew Cohen, Hannah Cohen, Mark Gowers, and Cheryl Chadha join as performers to look at diverse and political ideas around our respective cultures, exploring questions about ritual or ritualised aspects of living in the wake of the tsunami.

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