Text by CLOT Magazine
Last month Barbican brought us the UK premiere of two immersive audiovisual performances – an evening curated by Estela Oliva, who was presenting her new project Clon. Taking place at Barbican’s Milton Court Concert Hall, we could see the techno producer Dasha Rush performing Antarctic Takt – a glimpse into the uninhabited lands of Antarctica made in collaboration with visual artist Stanislav Glazov (also known as Lichtpfad).
In this piece, her ambient and low-tempo techno soundscapes morph with Glazov’s 3D scenes, providing an immersive experience of art, nature and technology. Rush is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of contemporary dance music and regularly experiments with various musical (and non-musical) forms.
Rush is known for her electronic experimentations, harnessing synthesised sounds and techno production to create performances that can incorporate dance or visual elements. Glazov, also from Russia, worked in the VFX film industry before focusing on 3D graphics and VJ production. Antarctic Takt has been showcased at Montreal’s Mutek 2015 and Ars Electronica 2016, among others.
The duo has also collaborated in the most recent Dark Hearts of Space, exploring the extreme nature of Black Holes and delving into the depths of science and technology. The performance began with a 3D image of Dasha’s face in which she explained why she chose to explore this desolate land: a personal getaway from the disastrous effects of humankind. Images flowed from molecular crystalline snowflakes to the otherworldly sub-zero landscape of Antarctica hand in hand with clanging frequencies and sinuous rhythms.
Before Rush, the female Electronic duo LCC (Ana Quiroga and Uge Paneda) also made their London debut performing Bastet, an audio-visual work undertaken with filmmaker Pedro Maia premiered (and acclaimed) at Sónar Festival in 2017. The show takes the audience on a journey of ancient rituals, symbols and natural landscapes.
As a project, Bastet – the name of an Egyptian goddess closely linked to music and female power – arrived first in the form of the second album released by LCC on Editions Mego. In taking the project to the stage, Pedro Maia adds elements of his practice, exploring and expanding the aesthetic and technological possibilities of an analogue film such as 16mm and 8mm material.
An elegantly curated night that brought insightful reflections on natural landscapes and our technological impact on them.
